"There are about 3,000,000 people seriously ill in the
United States, of whom 500,000 are consumptives. _More than
half of this illness is preventable._ If we count the value
of each life lost at only $1700 and reckon the average
earning lost by illness at $700 a year for grown men, we
find that the economic gain from mitigation of preventable
disease in the United States would exceed $1,500,000,000 a
year. This gain can be had through medical investigation and
practice, school and factory hygiene, restriction of labor
by women and children, the education of the people in both
public and private hygiene, and through improving the
efficiency of our health service, municipal, state, and
national."
Work of the Division of School and Infant Hygiene.--Besides the work of the
division of infectious disease, the division of sanitation, which regulates
the general sanitary conditions of houses and their surroundings and the
division of inspection, which looks after the purity and conditions of sale
and delivery of milk and foods, there is another department which most
vitally concerns school children. This is the division of school and infant
hygiene. The work of this department is that of the care of the children of
the city. During the year 1912, 279,776 visits were made to the homes of
school children of the city of New York by inspectors and nurses. Besides
this, thousands of children in school were cared for and aided by the city.
Adenoids.--Many children suffer needlessly from adenoids,--growths in the
back of the nose or mouth which prevent sufficient oxygen being admitted to
the lungs. A child suffering from these growths is known as a "mouth
breather" because the mouth is opened in order to get more air. The result
to the child may be a handicap of deafness, chronic running of the nose,
nervousness, and lack of power to think. His body cells are starving for
oxygen. A very simple operation removes this growth. Cooperation on the
part of the children and parents with the doctors or nurses of the board of
health will do much in removing this handicap from many young lives.
Eyestrain.--Another handicap to a boy or girl is eyestrain. Twenty-two per
cent of the school children of Massachusetts were recently found to have
defects in vision. Tests for defective eyesight may be made at school
easily by competent doctors, and if the child or parent takes the advice
given to correct this by procuring proper glasses, a handicap on future
success will be removed.
Decayed Teeth.--Decayed teeth are another handicap, cared for by this
division. Free dental clinics have been established in many cities, and if
children will do their share, the chances of their success in later life
will be greatly aided. Boys and girls, if handicapped with poor eyes or
teeth, do not have a fair chance in life's competition. In a certain school
in New York City there were 236 pupils marked "C" in their school work.
These children were examined, and 126 were found to have bad teeth, 54
defective vision, and 56 other defects, as poor hearing, adenoids, enlarged
tonsils, etc. Of these children 185 were treated for these various
difficulties, and 51 did not take treatment. During the following year's
work 176 of these pupils _improved_ from "C" to "B" or "A", while 60 did
not improve. If defects _are_ such a handicap in school, then what would be
the chances of success in life outside.
In conclusion: this department of school hygiene deserves the earnest aid
of every young citizen, girl or boy. If each of us would honestly help by
maintaining quarantine in the case of contagious disease, by observing the
rules of the health department in fumigation, by acting upon advice given
in case of eyestrain, bad teeth, or adenoids, and most of all by observing
the rules of personal hygiene as laid down in this book, the city in which
we live would, a generation hence, contain stronger, more prosperous, and
more efficient citizens than it does to-day.