Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Schools, Medical inspection of
SCHOOLS, MEDICAL INSPECTION
OF, a function which has been taken up
by municipal and state governments only
within recent years. As has been shown
by statistics, many pupils are backward
in their studies only because of lack of
physical vitality. In 1920 it was shown
that so many pupils in the schools of
Brooklyn, N. Y., were compelled to pass
through the same grades twice that, at
the average cost of forty dollars a term
for each pupil, the borough lost $2,000,000.
On this basis various social organizations
demanded an appropriation from
the city of $100,000 for more effective
medical aid to the school-children,
contending that more than half of the extra
expense could thus be saved. Medical
school inspection was first instituted in
France in 1886; then, in succession, this
example was followed by Belgium,
Hungary, Chile, Germany and Great Britain,
the latter in 1908. In this country it was
first instituted in New York City, in
1892; then in Boston, in 1894; in Chicago,
in 1895, and in Philadelphia, in 1898.
Practically every American city now has
adopted medical inspection and several
states have made it obligatory in all
schools. In the larger communities this
includes the services of visiting nurses,

who instruct the children in personal
hygiene. Out of 252,000 school-children
inspected in New York City, in 1919, 74
per cent were found defective physically,
defective teeth and vision being the chief
faults.

Schools