IHE second section of the Annual Rep-rt of tie Public Health, Department covers the work of the School Medical Service and the Veterinary Division.
At the Municipal Primary Schools for Chinese, 1,159 pupils received individual medical inspection by the Chinese assistant school medical officers, a decrease of 182 as compared with the previous year.
This important branch of school medical service activities has continued to be seriously hampered by shortage of staff and diversion of the examining medical officers to other duties.
'A summary of the defects detected fs due to the industry for maintain-at school medial inspection follows: ing prices at what, under the cie~ "infectious eye diseases, 817 cases; cumstances, must be regarded as a infectious skin diseases," 160 cases; reasonable level. Iligher prices of cardiac defects, 430 cases; lung de-commodities resulted in certain daitfects, 250 eases; tonsil defects, 1,084 defects of vision, 65 eases; and miscellaneous, 25 cases. was not always suflleient for sterilizaion purposes and the detergent at There were 8,168 attendances at the [times too weak to be efficient, ally school elmies in each school, an The unusually high floods experi-Increase of 2,099 on the previous yea Jenced during the year hindered clean This gratifying Improvement Is large mil production, In. several. dairies, due to definitely closer co-opera cowsheds and "milk rooms were: tion with the school authorities dur-'Mooded for many days and machinery ing the year and, to a lesser degree, [was put out of action. eva a slightly increased health-mindedness jcuated dairies, in temporary quarters on the part of the parents concerned. since the outbreak of hostilities, con Trachoma. Clinics-—Regular—trastructed permanent buildings, and one: chama elmies were held in all Muni-Jother "evacuated dairy" was. recipal Primary Schools for Chinese Joceupied. The licences of. three: uring 1099, but owing to continued JGrade "B" dairies were suspended for shortage of staff, these clinics were periods of from 1 10 4 months for re-unavoidably restricted both in numbers and frequency. 47 pupils were temporarily discharged. "Of the 94 temporarily "discharged cases re~ inspected during, the year, 70. were found to be making satistuetory pro ress whilst 24. showed symptoms of relapse or re-infection, and were re~ admitted for treatment, 11. pupils, having completed. 12 months' Super vision without signs of recurrence, were discharged as cured.
Visiting Service The home visiting service continues to be a very important factor in the altempled control of infectious dise eases in schools. By the discovery of infected children in the homes, it possible to debar such eases from veluming to school within the quar~ antine period, and thus prevent. the indiscriminate' spread of infection throughout the various classes, Unfortunately, owing to territorial alm-culties, only partial. supervision can bbe maintained at present, During 1039 there were oMclally 147 Chinese private schools on the Grant-in-Aid ist_as compared with 149 In the previous year, but some separate ly 163, school-units on the list for inspection. 21 schools Uneluding schoo! sections) were for Grant. 2.647 inspections various reasons removed from the
aided schools were peated and deliberate breaches of reulations.
On the whole despite the many difieulties " encountered, a "high standard of hygiene was' maintained ud an all-round improvement in the quality of the milk supply' over Jast year is noticeable. "Unsatistacory bacteriological samples. showed Tess degree of contamination, liiist chemically, the improvement was "much more' pronounced. The number of samples adulterated with waler wax 2 as against 11 in 1938, The phosphatase test, introduced last year, was of great assistance and "was responsible for the discovery of milor foulls in some pasteurization plants. Tt again proved of value in Court proceedings. After lapse of nearly two years, routine testing. of milk for the presence of T. B. was recommenced towards the end of the year, eleven raw samples being examined, of which three. of unlicensed mille were! as active as ever throughout—the year, The major portion of the milk was sold in that part of the Settle ment which at present is under Japanese military control, where the situation was aggravated by the Indlux of some 18,000 foreign refugees, circumstances foreing them to obtain cheap a milk supply as possible.
In the interests of public health, necessary, after several carried out by the inspectorial staff as compared with 2.180 for the previous year, As a result of these In sections, Public Health Department olioes were sent 10 837 schools, and 180. Intimations dealing "with over~ ferowding and. 23 with "deficient up cop, were served.
An appreciable iwivance has been made in the School Inspeetion Branch, both in the systems of inspections and records, resulting in a gratifying, in crease of ficiency throughout. A survey of the work in the kraut-aided schools during the year shows a slow but definite progress towards "health. mindedness" on the pavt of the shoot authorities, with some. slight improvement' in the General. standards Of upkeep, cleanliness and minimal alr and floor space per capita, Veterinary Division The fresh mille and cream produced ju Licensed dairies is obtained from proximately 2235 milch animals: Tocated five of which Gneluding 34 buffaloes). " These are operate 'A" (2.1), dairies, The average daily mille pro-and eight Grade duction was 32,202 Ibs, an_inerease 0f 30 per cent. over last year's ligures this amount 80 per cent, was produced at Grade "A dairies, The average daily cream and butter production was 277 Ibs. and 6 Ibs, respectively, as compared with 270 bs. and 9 Ibs, in 1998. "Due to the tightening of restrictions around Shanghai, the past year was avery trying period for the dairy. industry. Conditions were almost as bad as at the height of the 1837 hostilities and considerable difeully was experi enced by all dairy owners in oblain= sug fodder particularly straw, the east of which increased 400 per cent. over pre-war. prices. Other commodities Increased approximately 200 per cent, lund the price of dairy cows almost trebled.
The average increase in the retail price of mille since the outbreak of estilitics was 63 per cent. Credit arrivals opened an unlicensed milk business. Due to the shortage of tain. licensed dairies - were active in this respect. Prosceuted for _either ing milk from unlicensed sources or making direct "deliveries from the unlicensed premises to the Public. In two casts where the offence was repeated, the licences of the dairies concerned were sus ied for 3 and 4 months respec tively Of 67 samples analysed, 44 oF 65,67 per cent. were unsatisfactory. Of this" number 37 were found to be adulterated with 32 percent to 58 per cent. water, Phosphatase {ests made on 88 of" the samples showed that 0 oF 86 per cout. were not been proper~ Of the 37 bacterio-
Supply:—The unfavourable conditions "brought about by the hostilities continued until the middle latter half of the year, when establishment of the slew Shanghat livestock market, and the comtering for tivities 10. pre~ level, total of 58,480 animals were slaughtered and. in" spected, comprising 15,295 oxen, BiG Calves, 292887 pigs, 12215 buffaloes, 1 goat and 136 horses, of which 5,001 oxen and 800 pies were' for the Japanese military. "With the exception of horses and a few me capacitated oxen and buffaloes which Wwere shot, all animals were stunned by electricity as a routine prior to Two. buffaloes died of the lairage.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.