Abstracts of the Milroy lectures on an inquiry as to the physical and mental condition of school children / by Francis Warner.

  • Warner, Francis, 1847-1926.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Abstracts of the Milroy lectures on an inquiry as to the physical and mental condition of school children / by Francis Warner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    11/18 (page 9)
    nutrition was for boys 3.8, for girls 4.2; and among the development cases it was for boys 20.2, for girls, 32.0. Group x. Children Presenting Dejects in Development.—Boys, 3,616; girls, 2,235. Conditions of mal-development form the largest class of visible defects observed, and as signs easily recognised and capable of description and classification, they stand prominently forward as pathological conditions charac- terising portions of the child population. Analysis and com- parison of cases shows the developmental signs to be of different value and importance; to demonstrate this the co- relations of each sign has been determined (see Interim Re- port published). From the point of view of estimating poten- tial mental capacity, these signs are of value only in as far as experience gained in observation shows their average corre- lation with cerebral or mental defects. The defectiveness in the make of a child is more strongly indicated when two mal- developments are present. This was noted in 1,240 boys, 683 girls. Their correlation was higher than for a single defects— with nerve signs, 45 ; low nutrition, 31; dulness 60 per cent. Group xi. Cases presenting Nerve Signs.—Boys, 3,413; girls, 2,074. Abnormal nerve signs are largely correlated with defects in development, that is to say, some malproportion in the parts of the body is largely associated with a tendency to ill-balance among the nerve centres. The significance of these signs varies in two directions ; some indicate an over- mobile nerve system, the centres tending to separate and spontaneous action, not well under control through the senses, of which finger twitching is the type ; and a second set which indicate low-class brain development, these are mostly repetitive uniform movements, athetoid in type, and represented by chronic overaction of the frontal muscles and repeated grinning. Group xii. Cases oj Rickets.—Boys, 157; girls, 39; total, 196. Boys. Girls. Total. With nerve signs 54 .. .. 15 ., .. 69 With low nutrition 32 ., ,. 13 .. .. 45 With mental dulness 64 .. ,. 10 .. .. 74 Probably more children were or had been rachitic than those registered; when the conditions seen in the bones left no doubt the case was registered accordingly, but the body could not be examined in detail under the conditions of this inquiry. To my mind it seems that a great character about the conditions termed rickets is the malproportions of growth in the skeleton, especially about the cranium. It is shown that the palate is frequently ill formed, and also that defects in development other than cranium and palate were found in boys, 58; girls, 11; total, 69 cases. The pathological question might be raised whether a large proportion of the cases regis- tered as “ cranial bones ”—a subgroup of the cranial abnor- malities amounting to boys, 495 ; girls, 127 ; total, 622—were not really cases of rickets. These rachitic children are badly proportioned: Boys. Girls. Total Cranial abnormalities ... 14.3 . .. 20 . .. 108 Palate defective ... 23 . .. 8 . .. 31 Cranium and palate defective Small in growth 21 . ... 6 . ... 27 10 . ... 6 . ... 15