responsibility in the school--that of the
board of education and that of the department of health"--and to "lack
of power or inclination to compel parents to remedy defects," or to
_deficient administration_ of power and inclination by health
officials. Cooeperating with school physicians and nurses in three
schools, 1442 children were examined, of whom 1345, or 93.2 per cent,
had 3458 defects that needed treatment. The postal-card notice was
followed by an interview with the parent either at school or at home.
Only 4.2 per cent of the total number of parents refused to act, 81 per
cent secured or permitted treatment for one or more defects, while 15
per cent promised to take the proper steps at the earliest possible
date. Three fourths of the parents acted after one personal interview.
"The net average result of a day's work by a nurse was the actual
treatment of over five children, three of them completely, and two of
them for one or more defects,"--sixty cents per child!

[Illustration: A PHOTOGRAPH OF MOUTH BREATHING MAY MAKE
COMPULSION UNNECESSARY]

Having established the willingness--even eagerness--of parents to do
all in their power to remove defects that handicapped their children,
it was obviously the duty of the health department so to organize its
work that it could insure the education of parents. The new Bureau of
Child Hygiene gives foremost place to instruction of parents in care of
babies, in needs of school children, and in the importance of physical
examination when enlisting in the industrial army. Whether this work is
well done is learned by result tests applied at headquarters, where
work done and results are reported daily and summarized weekly. No
longer will it be possible, without detection, for one physician to
find only eye trouble and to neglect all other defects; for two
inspectors examining different children in the same school to report
results differing by 100 per cent; for physicians in different schools
to find one 18 per cent, another 100 per cent with defects; for two
inspectors examining identical children to agree on 51 out of 101 cases
of vision, on 49 out of 96 cases of adenoids, or 3 out of 10 cases of
skin disease.

So conclusive were the results of follow-up work efficiently supervised
by the department of health, that school officials are, for the
present, inclined to waive the demand for the transfer of physicians
and nurses to the board of education, and to subs