New Britain herald., 1917-03-31
COMMUNICATED
SCHOOL MEDIoAn INSPECTION.
Investigation D1scloses Medical In- spectOr Works Best Where School Boards and Health Author
 tiles CO-0perate.


 Boards and Health Author. tiles Cooperate.
 To the Editor of the Herald:
 Sir:-I understand that New Brit aims board of health, at its meeting, March ls, decided to look into the matter of bringing the school medical inspectors under its control and that after the board has investigated, to bring the subject before the city coun- ell. At the present time. believe, the school medical inspectors are un- der the control of the school board. The question as to whether medical inspection of the schools Is a proper function of the board of education or the board of health has been dis cussed for long time and 1t is likely to arise wherever cities contemplate instituting medical inspection of the schools In a book called Medical Inspection of Schools by Luther Halsey Gulick. M. D., and Leonard P. Ayres, Ph. D., published by the Rus- sel Sage Foundation in 1908 and re- vised in 1918. the authors point out: The detection of contagious diseases in the schools, involving daily visits by physicians and the power of the law, 1 is in the nature of an extension of the ! POWSIS ASASCOAOI0 cACICAScO Oy DO&lTQS of health; and where medical inspec- tion Is to include nothing more than ] this work, systems may we'll be ad- ministered by boards of health if care be taken to establish and maintain sufficiently close and friendly relations 1 with the school officials.
 Those activities which have to do l with the child's physical condition and the hygiene of school work-seat- ing, exercise, hours of home study that is to say, all functions of the medical inspection of schools except those pertaining to contagious dis eases, are in the nature of the case an integral part of school interests and must not be divorced from them. Moreover, the records of the examina- ton of school children for physical defects likely to interfere with proper growth and education must, if they are to serve their end. follow the child from grade to grade and from school to school, and each case must be followed up constantly; that is, they are an important part of the school records and must be so made and administered.
 The authors further point out that the exclusion of cases of contacious disease is after all a comparatively small part of the work of medical in- spection and they write that in cer- tain cities '.the data showing that the proportion of cases requiring the ex- c1usion on account of contagious dis ease does not exceed four per cent of the school membership and this : data indicate that the portion of the Iswork falling within the purview o1 the department of health Is specific and limited. On the other hand, the fact that the children need medical ! and sanitary supervision with respec, to exercises, suitable seats and desks type, paper, suitable hours of study and recreation, drinking water. phy- sical and mental defects and the like indicates that the portion of the work which legimately forms func- tioh of the educational authorities is general in nature and almost unlimit. ed in scope
 It is drought out in Medical Inr spection of Schools that in the. early days of medical inspection nearly all systems were carriedl on by local boards of health but as experience has accumulated the tide has turned | + v ass4