Abstracts of the Milroy lectures on an inquiry as to the physical and mental condition of school children : delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London / by Francis Warner.

  • Francis Warner
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Abstracts of the Milroy lectures on an inquiry as to the physical and mental condition of school children : delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London / by Francis Warner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    whicli the sign was observed was large enough, or where the intrinsic value or interest of the sign seemed to call for it, the correlation has been added showing the number of cases presenting the sign who were also registered as presenting low nutrition, abnormal nerve signs, mal-developments, or mental dulness respectively. These correlations have been put into the form of percentages in a table. It is not wished to represent the percentages as having an absolute value of correlation to the sign which may be applied to an individual cliild. The correlation for some signs is probably of small value on account of the small number of cases observed, but it is given as illustrating that each physical or nerve sign has a correlation average with mental dulness, nutrition, etc. When the correlation is on a small number of cases the need of further observations in this direction is indicated. The percentage form is useful as in- dicating that some generalisation, drawn from large groups of cases apply equally to the individual signs characterising the group. Thus defects in development have a higher corre- lation with abnormal nerve signs in boys than in girls, but as to nutrition and mental dulness the girls suffer most. As a contribution towards the etiology of defective develop- ment, Dr. Warner has arranged the 3,704 development cases seen among 34,991 children according to their distribution in twenty districts ; is this shown in Table VI of the Report. The percentage of these development cases taken upon the number of children seen in each district respectively is given in Table VII. It is shown that the distribution is very un- equal, being high in the western district of Kensington and Chelsea at 12.6 per cent., and lower in the poorer schools of Islington at 7.4 per cent. This table also gives the percent- age distribution of the principal defects registered taken in two ways: (1) Upon the number of children seen; (2) upon the number of development cases. If such observations are confirmed by further experience, this method of arranging the facts may afford evidence upon the causes in the district tending to produce defects in development and possibly for determining the particular kind of defect most prevalent. Observations of the 1,363 development cases in Poor-law schools, which are drawn from certain areas, are similarly given in Table VIII, and a table has been prepared for com- parison, showing conditions of the children in day schools for areas corresponding to the unions. In certain districts the ratio of boys and girls presenting same conditions is not the average. As a preliminary to trying to determine the means that may be used to try and lessen the physical causes of mental dulness. Dr. Warner has given a table of the conditions and group of conditions accompanying it, and has determined, as far as the present work goes, the correlative value of each sign in development and nerve action observed, as well as the distribution of these signs in certain areas or districts, and in certain classes of schools and in the Nationalities. The percentage of mental dulness rises from 38 for develop- ment cases without nerve signs to 43 when both are present, reaching 44 when the maldevelopment is accompanied by low nutrition and abnormal nerve signs. Development Cases Considered in Eelation to Se.v and Residence. —If we take 100 boys and 100 girls with defects in develop- ment from among the 50,000 children seen, we shall find many
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