The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1928-02-17
HEALTH BUILDING

Speaking on the Health OF the
School Child" in recent radio talk,
DR.. r. H. Riley, Chief of the Bureau
Of Communicable Diseases of the
State Department Of Health, said
that the best preparation for healthy
boyhood and girlhood is to be found
in the regular medical supervision
of the child from birth throughout
the period OF getting-ready-for
school
"If a child is to get the utmost
out of his school life," DR.. Riley
said, ''he or she should start in to
school unhampered by physical con-
ditions that need correction and pro-
tected as far as possible against di-
seases that are everywhere prevalent.
The best time to discover condi
lions that should be corrected is dur
ing the period from babyhood to
school age.
1.-THE object Of the summer-round-
up of the children of preschool age.
and as a matter of fact, of the all
the year round conferences for the
children of that age, is the detection
of such conditions. II this plan is
carried out to its fullest possibilities,
children entering school for the first
time should have been vaccinated
against smallpox, should have re-
ceived toxin-antitoxin as protection
against diphtheria and should have
had remedial care for all unfavor-
able conditions pointed out by the
examining physician-among them
such things as underweight, teeth
needing treatment, tonsils or ade-
noids requiring attention, eyes in
need of special care, threatened
deafness or speech defects.
Last year, over 500 children,
over half of whom were getting
ready for admission to school, had
the benefit of such examinations in
the health conferences held through
cut the counties under the directicr
of. the State Bureau of Child Hy-
giene And we can look forward to
the time when it will be as much a
matter of course for child to be
gotten ready, physically. for school,
as it is for his parents to supply him
with the necessary clothing.
Some notion of the conditions
that are discovered after child
enters school. and that could have.
been detected just as readily before
his enrolment can be gathered from
report of one of the Deputy State
Health Officers of his examination OF
school children in one of the coun-
ties. In each 100 children examin-
ed, he found AZ with one or more
conditions needing attention. Six
had defective vision, Ii diseased
tonsils, 26 decayed teeth, II were
undernourished, had defective
hearing, i nasal obstruction causing
mouth breathing, 2 were threatened
with heart disease, 2 were suffering
from contagious diseases and some
had chest or lung conditions mark
ing the beginning of tuberculosis.
early detection of such condi-
lions or of incipient disease, such as
tuberculosis or heart disease, makes
the possibility OF their control az
the greater. That is the encourag-
ing side of this rather gloomy pic
ture. It was my good fortune to
visit one of the schools just one
year after the first medical inspec-
ton had been made and the need for
corrective treatment had been point
ed out to the parents. The physical
Improvement and corresponding
mental aiertness of the children who
had had the necessary care was truly
remarkable. Some Of the children
who had been classed as backward
by pupils and teachers were forging
to the front.
Nearly 10000 children in the
schools throughout the counties had
physical supervision of this sort last
year And year by year the num-
Der increases. What that means in
he way of health building for the
men and women of the future, OF
Maryland, is beyond calculation"