The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-21

certain districts of the south must bt | borne in mind. E4f
 The statement of famous American
 physician that the problem of defective 1 teeth IS greater one to the American public than that of tuberculosis is a | significant one. and at least indicates
 the care which should be taken to pre- serve the teeth of the school child.
 "The poorly nourished pupil, the one with enlarged eervical glands, and per | haps with pulmonary disease, should re- ceive consideration. A great blessing to | such children would be an out-of-doors | school, one where there would be no ven tilation problem, where the child would | have only a shelter overhead, and a | floor of some kind to rest his feet upon, and where he could live constantly, win ter and summer. in the open air. Such | schools in other cities have done an enor- nous amount of good.
 "It is a great truth which must be borne in mind that great many chill dren are backward, incorrigble, or per haps chronic truants because of cer- | tain physical defects.
 Tn initiating medical inspection in
 the Birmingham public schools it has seemed advisable to develop system | of our own, fitted to our own condi- l tions and needs, rather than adopt bod fly that now in use In some other city. During the first week of each school | year thorough inspection of all chools is made by about 10 physicians under the joint direction of the city health officer and the medical in spector. The object of this is to de- tect immediately every case of con- tagious disease and thus to avoid pos sible epidemics. It is undertaken in the interest both of the community at large 1I
 children suffering from contagious dis
 ease are excluded from school until they have recovered and danger to others is past. While this is the only inspection made by the health depart
 ment the city health officer and the medical inspector are in constant com munication and cooperation. The former notifies the principal of each school of all contagious diseases re- ported within his district and the lat ter reports to the health office all
 exclusions for such diseases.
 Tn our system, as in that of many
 other cities, the teacher is an import ant assistant to the medical inspector We have found that physical defects in the child are more quickly recog-
 nized in the school room than at home,
 and that the teacher with her trained IdcQltl6S TOT ODStTNdtiOn anu iiCt DA- perience with hundreds of children de- tects more readily an abnormality than
 does the mother with her more linn tied opportunities for comparison. Also the "work test" to which the child Is subjected in the school room, rem
 ders more apparent any shortcomings
 he may have.
 At the teachers monthly grade
 meetings the medical inspector ex-
 plains in the objects of his work and
 instructs how these defects are to be
 recognized
 "Each teacher is supplied with cer-
 tain cards upon which she Is asked to
 record her observations regarding all
 children in her class room she finds
 abnormal In any respect. An tndf-
 yidual card is used for each child and
 in addition to the name, parent, ad-
 dress and family physician, the teach
 CT records the result of her own ob-
 servation. She does not make diag7
 nosis, but merely notes anything un-
 usual in the appearance, conduct or
 work of her pupil. To illustrate, in
 stead of defective yision," or "ade-
 holds" the teacher, whatever she may
 suspect, records merely "holds book in
 unnatural position, !" cannot read from
 blackboard" frequent headaches.'
 backward" mouth breather," facial
 expression of adenoids," etc.
 "Such records are made in the sch ool room just as the impression comes to the teacher and the. cards are spreseryed | by the principal until the next visit | of the medical inspector
 "This officer in addition to a gen. | eral inspection of the entire school, noting the appearance of~the pupils. the adequacy of ventilation and sanitary conditions more particularly examines in a room especially set aside Tor the purpose, the pupils whose record cards are given him. He notes the result
 of his examination upon this card and preserves these records, properly 1n- dexed, for future reference.
 "Whenever a pupil is found to be suffering with defect, the parent is notified and is advised to take the
 child to a specialist or to the family physician and except in an occasional emergency treatment of no kind Is ever attempted Where the parent cannot afford to pay for medical attention free | treatment may be had at certain hours at the dispensary of the Hillman hos pital, the Board of Revenue of Jeffer- son county having generously consent ed to add materially to the equipment | and space for the free dispensary In order to provide relief for the large number of children who apply for treat ment. ...., While our preesnt system provides | for only one medical inspector for all the | schools, he has in reality about 600 assist ants, and very valuable and increasingly experts assistants the teachers have shown themselves to be. Through them his work is greatly facilitated, and he is enabled to make routine visit to each school at intervals of about three weeks throughout the year.
 Regarding the number of defective children in the public schools of Bir-
 mingham, about 15 per cent were found to suffer with defective vision, about 12 per cent had enlarged tonsils, adenoids, or both; to per cent were partially deaf. a large proportion of them also suf- | fering from enlarged tonsils. Palor and | bad nutrition, sufficiently marked to re- ouire attention, were noted in per cent of the pupils. Enlarged cervical glands, | defective mentality. cardiac lesions and | skin disease. were noted in a number of | instances. Defective teeth is. am sure, | more frequent than our records show, since our efforts during the past year were directed more toward the detection