Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1899-02-18
PUBLIC SCHOOL DOCTORS.
Boston Employs FIFTY, who visit All
schools Every Day.


Whenever q stranger from another
city visits the public schools Of Boston,
he never fails to comment on the par
ticularly lively and animated appear
ance of the scholars and to hazard the
opinion that the children Of Boston
must be IA he Nlthy and "A happy lot. The
reason why there are SO few listless,
wan faced weary children in Boston's
schools is not so clear to the stranger as
it is to the well informed resident, who
knows that the board of health of the
city spends $40, GOO year III the daily
medical examination of all pupils of
the Boston public schools who display
any symptoms of illness or indispositiOn.
In Boston was first established any
official system of the medical inspection
Of schools. Before this system was
adopted by Boston at an annual expense
of $40 900 for medical services there
was no system of the kind i'll the world
Now, although the system is only four
years old it has found limitations in
several large cities in this country, and
the board of health has received letters
from school authorities in foreign coun-
tries, like Germany, asking for informa-
ton concerning the practical operation
and results of the system.
The physicians who do this work are
80 in number. For his services each
doctor receives 5000 year. The physi-
clans who are employed are men who
are building up practice, and they are
therefore always young, active, ener-
getiC and alert, and with fresh and
complete knowledge of prevailing forms
of disease.
Each doctor has three or four schools,
sometimes more, sometimes less, i'll his
district Each of these schools he visits
every morning. Every case of illness
that he discovers he sends home. He
does not prescribe or give any medical
advice. He leaves all that to the doctor
to be called by the child's parents.
There is no vaccination by the med
ical inspectors, since each child must be
vaccinated before being admitted to
school, and certificate of vaccination
is requirement for certificate of
school admission.
No medicines CT instruments are used
by the medical inspectors, except what
ever may be employed to discover dis
ease. The duty of the school doctor is
exclusively that of inspection. If there
is disease, he discovers it, and the sick
child is sent home. Whatever medical
attendance follows must be the choice
of the parents
When medical inspector discovers
infectious disease, his duty is, after
sending the child home, to see that the
case is properly isolated and to report
to the board of health
But the duty of the medical inspector
does not end with examination Of chill
dren for actual dangerous disease. 1t eX-
tends to watchfulness over the general
health of the pupils, and even to the
matter of personal cleanliness in young
children.
Particular attention is paid to the
condition of the hair and the scalp and
the teeth, and children are sometimes
sent home for a general cleaning up.
Last year nearly ID, 600 examinations
were made by the medical inspectors i'll
the public schools. These developed al
most 500 cases of specific infectious dis
cases. and nearly 3, 600 pupils were rec
commended to be sent home.
There were over 200 cases of mumps
100 cases of measles and nearly 115
cases of di .eases like diphtheria, scarlet
fever, whooping cough chicken poX and
influenza Most of all the diseases noted
were of the eye, ear, skin and throat.