this inspection
is limited "to the examination of the children and to the discovering of
defects of eyesight, hearing, or physical development." When the
existence of the defect is discovered, the parent is notified, but as a
general rule the public authority does not include within its duties the
treatment of the ailments and defects or the provision of remedial
instruments when required.

Further, in no case has there been carried out a thorough anthropometric
record, such as that in vogue in the schools of Brussels, of the
condition of the physical nature of the child upon admission to school
and his subsequent physical development.

In Scotland we find no general or adequate system of medical inspection
carried out by the local school authorities. The Report of the Royal
Commission on Physical Training (Scotland), issued in March 1903,
declares, however, that such a system is urgently needed, mainly for
remedial purposes. By this means defects in the organs of sight or
hearing, in mental development, in physical weakness, or in state of
nutrition, such as demand special treatment in connection with school
work, might be detected, and by simple means removed or mitigated. But
although in the Education (Scotland) Bill of 1905 provision was made for
the institution of medical inspection at the public expense, yet through
the failure of the Bill to pass nothing of a systematic nature has been
done to organise the medical inspection of Elementary School children in
any district in Scotland.

From this brief account of what either has been already done or is
proposed to be done, it is apparent that there is a gradual awakening of
the nation to the fact that the care of the physical nature of the child
during the school period is of fundamental importance from the point of
view of the future welfare and efficiency of the nation. In the
endeavour to reach this aim it is necessary that the examination of the
child should be undertaken in a systematic manner, and that means should
be adopted for the remedy of any defects. In particular every child on
admission to school should be examined in order to discover whether
there is any defect present in the special organs of sense,[18] and
periodical examinations should be made in order to discover whether the
school work is tending to produce any injury to the various senses. For
it is a well-known fact that often cases of seeming stupidity and
seeming carelessness are not due