The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-22
| HIL ] RE N ARE BACK TO NORMAL
 WE E|GHT IN SCHOOL
Figures Show Effectiveness Of Nurse Work In County
 Institutions

More than one-fourth of the under nourished children In Jefferson coun- ty public schools were brought to normal weight and health by the work of the public nurses of the health department under the guid- ance of Dr. J. D. Bowling. during the past school year, 1922-1923, compila- tion of records in the health depart ment showed. Saturday morning.
 The exact number of cases re- stored to normal was 203 children, who were all ten or more pounds underweight when the schools opened last fall. During the first vision of Miss Zoe LaForge, who has charge of the county nurses, an eX- tensiVe examination was made and the undernourished children were weighed. They were weighed again in midwinter and again just before the schools closed for the holidays.
 The report made Saturday was of the cases in which records had been made for the entire school yea. There were many cases of under nouri shed children on which com plete records could not be kept owing to their leaving school and getting out of touch with the work B. helped many of these, s well.
 Germs Almost Everywherc.
 The health department has no de- sire to alarm anyone and merely quotes report of the United States health service which recently an nounccd that tubercular germs were present in over 90 per cent of the population nearly everywhere, and in Jefferson county the percentage is 95. This does not mean that these people the authorities say, have tu- berculosis. for other malady germs are also present. But it does mean that when the person with the tu- bcrcular germs in the lungs or other part of the anatomy gets in an un- dernourished condition they are more subject to the development of the disease.
 It was for this reason, common medical knowledge for many years, that tho campaign of public nursing iE the Jefferson county schools was so pointedly directed last season against undernourishment, indicated by underWeight.
 There were IF county schools to be worked with. 94 of them for white children, and but six nurses and one supervising nurse to do the work. There were between 5000 and 5000
  But for the interested cooperation of the teachers, Miss LaForge satu Saturday, the six nurses doing the field work would have been nearly helpless but the teachers caught the meaning of the campaign instantly and most Of them joined whole tcartcdly in the work. It was sig nifi2aut that in those schools where ,he teachers showed the most inter est the hest results were obtained.
 Nurses and teachers were astouud- ed when the first report was made; 40 per cent of the white children were found underweight It was then that the active programs of exercise, games, food instruction and other features of the campaign got under way in real earnest.
 Compared with reports of similar work in other states, the Jefferson county improvement is found with the best, and in the entire country no other county has shown better than a 27 per cent improvement the mark held by Jefferson.
 The health department is now al work on the preparation of mal- ual for this work and every teacher in the county will have copy lp her possession before the next term of school. Miss LaForge said small start had been made in the work in 1921, but the real dew op- ment began last fall and full mo- mentum of interest was in eVdel 'e by midyear Several of the schools made arrangements to furnish milk to children needing 1t, and Il IS the