Norwich bulletin., 1913-10-14

parents show them how to treat the case or influence them to put the child under the care of a physician. Great good comes from this work in the house. The other members Of the family receive benefit as well as the child in question. In nearly all places where medical inspection has been in stituted the nurse has been found to be the most efficient link between the home and the school. It is the opin- ion of educators that the division nurse is the most indispensable factor in a system of medical inspection.
 To have physicians visit daily each school would entail an enormous ex- penSe An efficient nurse could be ob- tained for approximately $15 a week. She would visit the schools regularly, refer suspicious cases to the medical inspector for that particular district, and give particular attention to those schools where contagious diseases break out. A case broke out among Broadway school pupils week ago It would be advisable and wise to have some one inspect the pupils of Broad way. school for the next two weeks to discoI~r and exclude any suspicious cases or diphtheria which may occur.
 pr. Cassidy Discusses Criticisms.
 pr. P. J. Cassidy of the town school committed who has been one of the advocates in bringing forward the plan of medical supervision, discussed in an interview on Monday some of the criticisms that have been made against it.
 In medical supervision, he said, there is no thought of compulsory vaccina- !. tion nor invasion of the personal rights of anyone. It would be invid- ious to attempt such a procedure. In other words there is to be no appoint ing of a physician to examine children because parents would have their own physicians. There would be no com pulsory adenOid operations. The mat ter of compulsory vaccination is mat ter that is far from germane to this question of medical supervision, and the same applies also to tonsiI and adenoid operations.
 The idea in the plan proposed is to preserve the private rights of the ma iority of individuals having children in the public schools in the endeaVor to give the children the benefit of such protection from infectious diseases and Vermin in school as they might have at their homes.
 From the financial point of view continued Dr. Cassidy, although the past year might be a peculiarly diff1- cult one to call an average year in infectious diseases, the fact remains that. according to the SeJectmenS re- port the town was compelled to eX- pend the sum of $1,661.31 on account of scarlet fever which might have been materially lessened if early reCOgni- ton of the presence of scarlet fever in a section of the town had been pOssi- ble In the local cases this possibility would have become certainty with any sort of medical supervision.
 This scarlet fever epidemic resulted not only in the expenditure of the sum named but in the deaths of six chil- dren and the physical disability of 20. Add to that the mental state of the bod oh clt hn susceptible ages of 6-7-8-9 attending the school in which a boy peeling after scarlet fever was also attending.
 It is a fact that the infectious dis eases such as measles and scarlet fever have a peculiar prediction for the eases are almost entirely in children under 10 years of age.
 On the financial side also there was an attendant loss of 4S,000 half days during the year from various causes l out of a total half days of 1,176, 395 Therefore the loss in the year amount ed to a little over 4 per cent. of the school year for the entire enrolment l The cost per pupil on our enrolment is $3612, so that the cost of lost time per pupil was $1.44 or a total of $4 64112 for lost time. Of course, one cannot say that this total loss was due ] to infectious diseases or to absences from school on that account, but from data one can state that over Onevhalf | that lost time was due to infectious diseases or avoidable illness contract | ed in school
 Taking these facts into considera- l ton, concluded Dr. Cassidy. it would 1 seem that medical supervision which 1 would cost an amount not equaling 1 one-half the total sum of actual tax i loss is good business, without any con- stderation of the physical welfare of 1 the children who are exposed to the 1 various diseases and without making 1 any attempt to estimate or mention | the lives lost.
 On the statute books of the state l there is a compulsory vaccination | statute but 1t has never been enforced | and I hope it never will be.