LABOUR AND CHILDHOOD
CHAPTER I
DISEASES AND THEIR CAUSES
THE first, the most obvious reason why the doctor is wanted to-day in schools is because a great many children are ill. Let us briefly run over a few facts and figures collected very recently.
A few years ago a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the condition of school children. The evidence then gathered was very disquieting. In Edinburgh one school doctor found 700 cases of neglected, and even unrecognized phthisis. (Dr. Leslie Mackenzie found in one slum school two children with acute phthisis, doing the ordinary school drill with the others!) In Edinburgh, 1300 of the children attending school had heart disease, and there were 15,000 cases of throat disease! The school-doctors of London have given evidence of the same kind. Dr. Thomas reports that 8 per cent of the non-wage-earning children are deformed, and that 8
