[Report 1909] / Medical Officer of Health, Burnley County Borough.

  • Burnley (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1909] / Medical Officer of Health, Burnley County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Education Report. difficulty with many of these is that tlie ])arents may be both working or ])ossibly there may be no mother to look after the child. Clothing.—The same method as for judging of cleanliness was followed regarding clothing and footgear, that is, a re})ort was received from the teacher after the child had been attending school lor some months. The result of the enquiry is that 196 of the 2645 admissions came to school with the clothing as a rule in an unsatis- lactory state, this means ragged and dirty. Footgear.—The usual gear is clogs, and as a result of enquiries 162 had as a rule defecti\T clogs or boots, this may lie taken to mean that the footgear was not ca])able of keeping out the wet. Enlarged Glands.—This affection, which is common in children, was found to affect 194 children. It is however, as a rule, of a temporary nature. Eyes.—The 51 children who had some defect of the eyes on admission were practically all suffering from Conjunctivitis, wdrich in every case was either referred to the medical men, if not already being attended by one, or the cases jiroved to be of a temjiorary nature. Vision.—The facts revealed by the inspection of vision show the marked jirevalence of defects. Notices have been sent to jiarents from this office during tlie year. Many of these notices refer to the defective vision of one eye, this may or may not be shown by a squint. It is generally difficult to get a parent to seek medical advice because the child has defective sight in one eye only. Such a child appearing to the parent to be able to sec quite well. It is im})ortant for everybody to realise that deficienc}^ of vision in one eye (perhaps obscured by normal vision in the other eye) can only be remeeiied in childhood. The extreme importance of binocular vision in a textile community like ours must be evident to everyone. How far the parents of the children leaving school avail themselves of the advic'e of the notice sent them it is impossible to say, for these children (jwing to leaving school were not followed u]).