THE HEALTH OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.
A VERY important investigation has just been completed by the health authorities of this city. The information obtained a short time ago, when an inquiry was made regarding the number of children who came breakfastless to school, was so surprising that a more extensive investigation of the general health of children than has hitherto been made, was planned. Four schools of the primary grade were selected from the poorer quarters, but not from the worst sections, in order that fairly representative results might be obtained. One hundred inspectors were detailed to examine the children of these schools, and the results announced show a startling state of affairs. The exact number of school children examined was 13,941, and of this number 6,294 are described as requiring medical attention. Defects of vision and swollen cervical glands were the most prevalent defects, the number affected in this way being in each case over 3,000. Bad as this showing is, it is more than paralleled by recent studies of a similar nature made in Great Britain. Two years ago a medical census of the school children of Edinburg revealed the fact that 70 per cent. of them were actually diseased, and in London the conditions were found equally deplorable. The question is being taken up in earnest by the New York health department, and far-reaching plans are being made for the extension of the system of examination, and for attempts at improvement of the health of the city's vast child population. The records of the examinations are entered in a card index, and the parents of each child are to be notified of the abnormality noted, and advised to obtain medical advice. At the end of a month the child is to be re-examined, and if it is found that the parents have not consulted a doctor, a health inspector or a nurse will visit the family and find out why not. This work is one of exceeding importance for the welfare of the coming generation of New Yorkers, and the health department should be seconded in its efforts to ameliorate the existing evils by the financial aid necessary to prosecute so extensive an undertaking. —The (New York) Medical Record.