[Report 1938] / School Medical Officer of Health, Birmingham.

  • Birmingham (England). Council.
Date:
1938
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1938] / School Medical Officer of Health, Birmingham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/76 (page 16)
    In rcv'Icwiiig’ this uddition of new eases of nasal cataiih, one wonders whether there is a true increase in such cases or whethei parents were not so observ'ant at one time and failed to report them. 1 am of the opinion that nasal catarrh in children is on the increase in this city, despite the clearance of slums and improved housing: conditions' Help in combating catarrh is given by Open-air Schools, classes for breathing exercises and exposure to Ultra-\’iolet light and also Diastolization. Diastolization has been used in a large number of cases of nasal catarrh and has helped to improve a proportion of these. Certain of tliose cases who suffered from deafness as well showed an improve- ment in their hearing, a result which is in keeping with statistics found in cliildren under the London County Council. They report that many children who had failed in their gramophone audiometer tests were able to pass them at a later date after a course of Diastolization. On the ear side of the Clinic there is an improvement in the type of case dealt with compared with ten years ago. At that time many cases of very chronic offensive car discharge were being treated, but such cases have lessened. The majority of the patients with otorrhoea give a history of onset in the first five years of life, so that the School Medical Service has no chance to help in the prevention of this complaint, which is always accompanied or followed by varying degrees of deafness. Ionization has been used considerably in the treatment of such patients and in suitable cases is the quickest method of establishing a dry ear. No. of Examinations by Aural Surgeon ... ... 1,415 No. of Ionisation Treatments ... ... ... 279 No. of Diastolizations ... ... ... ... ... 496 No. of Mastoid Dressings ... ... ... ... 365 No. of other Aural Treatments ... .. ... ... 3,910 AUDIOMETER UNITS The purpose of this organisation is to test the hearing of children in order to detect not only serious degrees of deafness but also the more moderate defects which are )ct of a severit) sufficient to prove a bar to a child’s full participation in the advantages of education. Hearing may be tested i.n several ways. The answering of commands given in a foiced whisper or the detection of the ticking of a watch at measured (hstcinccs arc common methods. Apart from their uncertainty these methods are slow, since each child must be tested separately. A suggested group test which has some advocates is the reading of a special piece of dictation so chosen that it contains all those sounds which aic most difficult to hear. This method has the drawbacks that only small groups can be taken because all must be equidistant from the reader^ and, further, it is impossible to standardise the tone of the reader s voice. The gramophone audiometer is a gramophone with forty earphones so that forty children can have the hearing tested in one ear S^Pnldn ^ employed reproduces the human voice speak ng a series of numbers in tones steadily diminishing in intensity. Ihe chddren under test write the figures, as they hear theng on a specrii W istiument is standardised for use in a room which is^iiet but not soundproof. One decibel is the smallest difference in the intensity