The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-02-03
ATTENDANCE RECORDS VERSUS
 HEALTH RECORDS


 1 town school boards require it, undertake the | diagnosis of the ailments of the school children l who under their observation. A good nurse | learns nothing about diagnosis in her course of training, but the school board cares nothing about that. She is hired to attend at the school
 and the board feels that the parents pretty
 dumb anyway and will tolerate the tin doctoring
 of their kids a cheap way out. It would cost
 more than the nurses salary to provide medical
 attendance or supervision in the school School l boards much like large industrial corpora | tons and the proprietors of large shops or com- | merclal institutions in this tin doctorng racket. | The industrial companies assume that employees will be glad to get the imitation doctoring which the nurse or near-nurse gives and as q rule the | hands are not unwilling to take chance with l the tin doctorinS because they fail to compre- hend that they are paying for it themselves and paying dearly. Many of them dumb they actually imagine the boss is giving them the | nurses Service for nothing.
 James is returning to school this morning after another severe cold and touch of the flu, | one mother wrote to schools tin doctor, early | in November. This makes the third time he | has had to be out because of colds and flu since | school opened We know of children going to school in spite of severe coughs and colds | encouraged to remain in school in order to main | tain the attendance record
 The little tin doctor of the school sent the | mother characteristic answer. She explained how the system had been established by the
 school authorities. and while it did sometimes work hardships on the whole it worked well and "stimuates many children to come regularly who otherwise might be inclined to stay home l for trivial reasons As far as We know we do | exclude all contagious colds with acute symp- toms'
 There you have the nub of it. It is left to the judgment of the little tin doctor whether to ex- | clude the kid with the cough or running nose or maybe the early symptoms of measles whoop- | ing cough or diphtheria, or to permit him to re- i main in school.
 Even a competent doctor cannot be at all sure 1 about the diagnosis of any such illness in the early stage It is absurd to entrust the health and lives of q group of school children, even children of the poorest least influential people 10 the tender mercies of little tin doctor whose | training has not even purported to fit her for such duty.
 I appeal to the parents of children in such badly administered schools to assert their natural rights and to blast the attendance records to hell and gone Who cares whether the school has a | high low attendance record? What par ents are concerned about is the health and wei fare of our childen Are we to be treated as hum | ble peasants by these politicians who have con- | tro of the schools? Is this America or Eurasia A nurse should be constantly in attendance in | every schoo-as nurse. Parents who give their
 kids square deal will simply not tolerate any l little tin doctor monkeyshnes if they have a | modicum of self-respect.
 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Milk Not Binding
 much of 1t without suffering from the constip pat | ing effect. (F. K. D)
 Answer-Milk is not constipating. It is merely that your diet does not include sufficient natural roughage or indgesibe residue. Make it q rule | to eat fresh fruit daily and some fresh
 leafy vegetable or root vegetable both fruit and l vegetable preferably raw.
 | Hystera Americana t' Some let loose sack of snakes the | floor of moving picture thcatcr in Germany | during a showing of n war film, and the audience 1 was in panic. but the excitement fol- | lowed by laughter when some one discovered the
 snakes were the harmless garden variety Would you (R. W.
 | Answer-Not in America-here it would be | days, weeks years before such discovery could | be made. And if or when any one ventured to | announce his discovery he would be branded a
 nut if the folks in their terrible plight listened | to him at all.
 Jake Paralysis | The papers told of discovery of the poison that | causes jake paralysis. by government chemists
 Have they found anything that will antidOte the | poison cure the paralysis? CD. N. S.) | Answer-Experts of the public health service | bureau of the treasury department have deter | mined that so-called ginger jake" paralysis | is due to trcresyl phosphate. They assume this | substance is used by interruptions producers of
 commercial ginger" extracts because 1t Is difii- cult to distinguish it from genuine ginger. No an | tidote or cure has been found The substance
 seems to have special affinity for spinal nerves controlling hands and feet; just as food alcohol
 has special affinity for the optic nerves. single | drink of the ginger may be sufficient to pro- duce the paralysis, which develops after week
 or ten days.