Table II
Indicating Place of Treatment, of Defects Other than Teeth, as Reported on School Cards.
| School | Total Number of Cases Treated |
Treated by Physicians |
Treated in Dispensaries |
| School A: lower East Side | 104 | 47 | 56 |
| School B: neighborhood of 30th St. and 2d Ave. | 88 | 41 | 45 |
| School C: uptown well-to-do district | 94 | 54 | 31 |
| School D: upper East Side | 196 | 93 | 96 |
| Totals | 482 | 235 | 228 |
Table III
Indicating Place of Treatment of Defective Teeth, as Reported on School Cards.
| School | Total Number of Cases Treated |
Treated by Physicians |
Treated in Dispensaries |
| School A: lower East Side | 90 | 75 | 8 |
| School B: neighborhood of 30th St. and 2d Ave. | 24 | 11 | 13 |
| School C: uptown well-to-do district | 75 | 48 | 3 |
| School D: upper East Side | 39 | 22 | 16 |
| Totals | 228 | 156 | 40 |
The same to a much greater degree is true of dental work. 156 private dentists were consulted as against 40 in the clinics. It is a remarkable showing, considering that three of the four schools are in the poor sections of the city. The conditions can be ascribed to the following three causes: (1) parents do not want to pauperize their children in taking them to free dispensaries; (2) people have not strong faith in the effectiveness of dispensary treatment; and (3) the hours of the dispensaries are in many instances not suited to the convenience of the children and, furthermore, going to a dispensary, under the present conditions of overcrowding, entails long hours of waiting.
All of the figures quoted in this inquiry must, of course, be taken with many grains of salt. The element of negligence and error on the part of the physicians and nurses making out the records must be taken into consideration. Then, the four schools selected out of a total of 513 public schools of the city of New York may not reflect prevailing conditions adequately. These considerations lead one to insist on the importance of a similar study on a large and comprehensive scale where the element of error would be minimized and the conditions in a majority of schools in all parts of the greater city analyzed. Meanwhile, the present fragmentary study tends to indicate: (first) that although the difference in the economic and educational status of the various classes of the population is a factor to be reckoned with in adopting measures leading to efficiency of medical inspection of school children, yet the average
