In looking at the teeth and throat a little wooden stick is used to push down the tongue. There should be a stick for every child, so that infection cannot possibly be carried from one to the other. If this is impossible, the stick should be dipped in an antiseptic such as boric acid or listerine. If, because of swollen tonsils, there is but a little slit open in the throat, or if teeth are decayed, the mark is Y or B. The whole examination takes only a couple of minutes, but the physician often finds out in this short time facts that will save a boy and his parents a great deal of trouble. Very often this examination tells a story that overworked mothers have studiously concealed by bright ribbons and clean clothes. I remember one little girl of fourteen who looked very prosperous, but the physician found her so thin that he was sure that for some time she had eaten too little, and called her anæmic. He later found that the mother had seven children whom she was trying to clothe and shelter and feed with only ten dollars a week. A way was found to increase her earnings and to give all the children better living conditions,—all because of the short story told by the examination card. In another instance the card's story led to the discovery of recent immigrant parents earning enough, but, because unacquainted with American ways and with their new home, unable to give their children proper care.

Looking For Enlarged Tonsils And Bad Teethnote The Mouth Breather Waiting

The most extensive inquiry yet made in the United States as to the physical condition of school children is that conducted by the board of health in New York City since 1905. From March, 1905, to January 1, 1908, 275,641 children have been examined, and 198,139 or 71.9 per cent have been found to have defects, as shown in Table VI.

Table VI

Physical Examination of School Children—performed by the Department of Health in the Borough of Manhattan, 1905-1907

  Total Percentage
Number of children examined 275,641 100
Number of children needing treatment 198,139 71.9
Defects found:    
Malnutrition 16,021 5.8
Diseased anterior or posterior cervical glands 125,555 45.5
Chorea 3,776 1.3
Cardiac disease 3,385 1.2
Pulmonary disease 2,841 1.0
Skin disease 4,557 1.6
Deformity of spine, chest, or extremities 4,892 1.7
Defective vision 58,494 21.2
Defective hearing 3,540 1.2
Obstructed nasal breathing 43,613 15.8
Defective teeth 136,146 49.0
Deformed palate 3,625 1.3
Hypertrophied tonsils 75,431 27.4
Posterior nasal growths 46,631 16.9
Defective mentality 7,090 2.5

It is generally believed that New York children must have more defects than children elsewhere. If this assumption is wrong, if children in other parts of the United States are as apt to have eye defects, enlarged tonsils, and bad teeth as the children of the great metropolis, then the army of children needing attention would be seven out of ten, or over 14,000,000.

Whether these figures overstate or understate the truth, the school authorities of the country should find out. The chances are that the school in which you are particularly interested is no exception. To learn what the probable number needing attention is, divide your total by ten and multiply the result by seven.

The seriousness of every trouble and its particular relation to school progress and to the general public health will be explained in succeeding chapters. The point to be made here is that the examination of the school child discloses in advance of epidemics and breakdowns the children whose physical condition makes them most likely to "come down" with "catching diseases," least able to withstand an attack, less fitted to profit fully from educational and industrial opportunity.