For over 30 years the school medical service has been actively employed in promoting the health and welfare of school children, To place the school child in a healthy environment, to build him up on sound lines, to protect him against disease, and to see that he is so adequately nourished that he can take full advantage of the education, both mental and physical, provided for him—these have been the aims of the service, and, states Sir Arthur MacNalty, "While we are yet far from perfection, school children of today in general health, in physique, and in stature, are infinitely better than when the school medical service began its task."
The general impression produced by the reports of school medical officers is, it is stated, cheering, though there are areas where no improvement can be reported. During the year 1,674,023 children were assessed at routine medical inspections in respect of their nutritive state. Of these 14.5 per cent. were found {o be excellent, 74.2 per cent. normal, 10.8 per cent. slightly subnormal, and 0.5 per cent, bad. Of the children examined at the last routine inspection of their school life 16.6 per cent. were excellent. The results of these returns are virtually the same as for the past three years, and the report points out that the increased attention given to nutrition and the general rise of standards lead to the reporting of minor degrees of defect which in earlier years would have seemed normal or unworthy of notice. Variations in the standard of assess: ments make it difficult to give accurate comparisons, but there is no doubt that improvement has been made.
The steady and gratifying increases in the tables of average heights and weights which are shown in nearly all the many reports from school medical officers in which such tables are given are striking evidence of the improvement in the nutrition of the school child in the country as a whole. Thus in Sheffield, compared with 1920, five-year-old boys are on an average nearly 2 in, taller and 3lb. heavier, and five-year-old girls 14 inches taller and lib. heavier; 12-year-old boys more than 2 in. taller and 9%10, heavier, and the 12-year-old girls of 1938 are three inches taller and no less than 12.416. heavier than those of 1920.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.