Development in relation to brain and nutrition.

Date:
[1890]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Development in relation to brain and nutrition. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    Beprinted from the British Medical Jourkxl, August 23, 1890. DEVELOPMENT IN RELATION TO BRAIN AND NUTRITION. Dr. Fbancis Wabnbb presented an elaborate report on this subject, which was taken as read. The examination of 5,344 pupils in schools, of which an analysis was published by a Committee of the British Medical Association last year, appeared to have established the usefulness of such work as a section of clinical and pathological inquiry, and had also demonstrated that it was possible by the methods thus employed, and by careful examination and analysis of results, to prepare a body of statistics demonstrating the rela- tive frequency, and the distribution of certain physical conditions among school children. Such work appeared to be necessary as a preliminary to ascertaining their causation. Evidence had been obtained showing certain connections between conditions of de- velopment, nutrition, and nerve balance. The condition of children seen in public elementary schools had been contrasted with those in the pauper schools, and other exceptional groups of pupils. The analysis in the annexed tables was prepared from the report pub- lishedlast year.1 The following conclusions were drawn from them : 1. Defects in development are most common in boys. Taking the whole group of pupils seen, defects of development were found in 399 cases—of the boys in 9.8 per cent., in girls 5 per cent. This law held good as one glanced down the percentages of Table I, column A. In the ten public elementary schools there were 2.2 per cent, of cranial abnormalities; in the pauper school 4.2 per cent. Evidently the pauper school received less well made chil- dren than the public elementary schools. The following facts, embodied in the table here appended, concerning the distribution of certain conditions between the series, were obtained from various hospitals. (See Table II.) 2. Defects in development have a causal connection with nerve signs. The group of 399 pupils with visible defects of develop- ment showed nerve signs in 36 per cent, and the 31 cases with triple defects showed 55 per cent, with nerve signs. In examining the details of Table I, Column C, as to the relation of nerve signs to lBeport on Condition of School Children published by Cambridge University Press.