The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-10-07
INSPECTION IN
THE SCHOOLS
A Special Committee of School
Board Considers the System of
Medical Inspection in Schools
and is FavorabIy Impressed
ABOUT $4,000 NEEDED
FOR ITS ADOPTION HERE

Boston the First City to EStab-
IiSh the System and its Work
ingS Fully Explained at a Re-
cent Meeting at Providence by
DR.. Edward M. Greene
The matter of medical inspection in
the schools is coming in for lot of
consideration at present. At the last
meeting of the school committee Dr.
John T. Duggan chairman of the spec
ial committee appointed to consider the
matter, reported that after several con-
ferences with the Board of Health it
had been decided to ask the mayor and
committee on finance for an appropria-
ton Of $4,000.
DR.. Duggan and his associates have
collected a lot of data bearing on the
subject and the following taken from
an address of Edward NJ. Greene, M
D., before the Providence Medical So
ciety is quoted as excellent authority
on the matter. In the course of the
address DR.. Greene said:
The first city in this country or
abroad to establish a system of daily
medical inspection in all the public
schools was Boston. Since then SINH
lar methods of inspection have been
adopted in New York city, Chicago
and in most of the large cities, as well
as in many of the smaller towns. With
in a few years we may expect to see
some method of medical inspection in
general use throughout the country.
The important questions are how COM
prehensive and searching an inspection
is desirable or practical, and how to
organize and conduct the work in the
most efficient manner. l can probably
serve you best by giving you the de-
tails of the system in use in Boston,
and the results of my own observation
and experience as a medical inspector
for the past seven years.
Medical inspection of schools, both
public and parochial, was begun in
Boston in the fall of 1894, and was Sc
cured only as the result of four years
of persistent effort on the part of the
efficient and progressive chairman of
the Boston Board of Health, DR.. Sam
uel H. Durgin. The immediate occa-
sion which made his appeals success
full was the unusual prevalence of diph-
iberia in Boston during the year 1894.
The system of inspection is under
the control of the Board of Health.
The school Committee cooperates cor
daily in the work by giving permission
for inspectors to enter the school build
ings and examine pupils, and by di-
recting teachers to watch for cases of
illness and to bring them to the notice
of the inspectors. The masters and
teachers appreciate the fact that this
work is beneficial to themselves, as well
as to the pupils, and are anxious to
cooperate in carrying it out. The par
/ ents see with approval, that their chill
dren are safeguarded from danger, and
! from the general public nothing has
been heard but commentator.
inspectors are generally selected
from the younger men in general prac-
| tice, as they have most time to devote
to the work Many of them have been
hospital internes. They must be in
/ terested in the work, discreet and tact
! full, and it is desirable that they should
| live in the locality of the schools as
| signed to them. Women physicians
have not yet been appointed in Boston,
but I am told they have been in New
York If otherwise qualified they
would make good inspectors, especial
| ly in the higher schools for girls.
THE pay of inspectors in Boston is
only 5000 a year. Though the salary
is small, the position is an honorable
one, and likely to increase a young
mans reputation, though not his prac-
| tice directly. Children are not allow
ed to go to his house in connection with
school work. and any that he finds i'll
are carefully directed to call in their
| own family physician, or, if poor, di-
rected to proper hospital.
ITO maintain faithful and efficient
work on the part of the inspectors
| some central supervision is necessary.
| A monthly report, filled out on print
| ed FORM is required from each inspec-
| tor The report contains list of the
| different diseases observed, and the
J number of cases of each disease found
! in each school. 1t also records the
! number of pupils sent home; the num-
| Der of vaccinations performed; the
| number of consultations with teachers
| in regard to such matters as sending
| children out of school for contagious
| disease at home, the determining when
they may return to school, and giving
! advice to the teacher on any other sub
| ject On the back of the blank forms
there is printed a classified list of the
important or common diseases. These
| reports are mailed at the end of each
| month to the secretary of the Board
of Health, who can then form some
| opinion Of the amount and quality OF
the work done by each inspector. Al
the end of the year all the reports are
tabulated and published in the annual
report of the Boston Board of Health
IAN association of the medical in
spectors has been formed, which holds
| meetings from time to time, and is pre-
| sided over by the chairman of the
Board of Health. The association has
been addressed occasionally by special
lists in diseases of the eye, ear, nose
and throat, etc, who have discussed
the diseases of those organs which
have especial Importance in relation
to our school work.
Let us now follow the inspector as
/ he makes his daily rounds. He has tC
deal with teachers as well as pupils
The former receive such instructions
in regard to the early symptoms OF
contag ious diseases as help them tC
promptly detect suspicious cases, and
send them to the inspector for exami-
nation.
THE inspector sees only those chill
dren to whom his attention is called by
| a printed slip on which the teacher has
filed out the date, name of the child
the number of the schoolroom and the
complaint which the child makes, OF
the symptoms which the teacher has
noticed. These slips are filled out soor
after the opening of school. and de-
posted in a convenient place, where
the inspector finds them. On his ar
rival at school each child is sent out
to him for examination. On each
child's slip he records his own diagno-
sis, and his advice in Ngard to exclud-
( ing the child from school or NOT and