The Pedagogical Seminary

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A HEALTH EXAMINATION AT SCHOOL ENTRANCE By William H. Burnham, Clark University In 1876 Dr. Clarence J. Blake of Boston presented a paper before the International Medical Congress at Philadelphia stating clearly and emphatically the needs of medical inspection of school children; but for nearly twenty...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A HEALTH EXAMINATION AT SCHOOL ENTRANCE By William H. Burnham, Clark University In 1876 Dr. Clarence J. Blake of Boston presented a paper before the International Medical Congress at Philadelphia stating clearly and emphatically the needs of medical inspection of school children; but for nearly twenty years this wise recommendation was ignored, the health of school children was neglected, school diseases were uncontrolled, epidemics played havoc with school attendance, many children died from preventable causes, many more suffered from physical defects and unsanitary conditions. It was not until a series of epidemics had occurred in Boston that, finally, that city in 1894 established a regular system of medical inspection for the public schools. Slowly other cities followed until now nearly all of the large cities and many of the states require health inspection to a greater or less degree. During the last five or six years the need for health inspection has been specially recognized, school nurses have been employed with excellent results in many cities, the need of caring for the teeth has been recognized, and dental clinics established, and the importance of mental hygiene and the hygiene of instruction is now being emphasized. In some places remarkable success has resulted from the methods of health inspection adopted. The excellent results of this movement have been clearly shown in the valuable resume recently published by Drs. Gulick and Ayres (8), and the widespread interest was demonstrated at the International Congress on School Hygiene held in Buffalo last year. The work, however, is still far from being adequate even in the cities where the best plans are in operation, and the inefficiency of the medical inspection in many places has given critics an oppor..