. Wisconsin and Ohio have recently enacted laws compelling
every county to employ at least one public health nurse, and a dozen or
more states have passed legislation making the employment of county or
local nurses optional. Under whatever auspices they are employed, rural
public health nurses have found that their most effective work may be
done at first in connection with the schools. Medical examination of
school children is now required in many states, but unless it is
followed up by some one who will see the parents and encourage them to
secure the necessary medical or dental treatment, the results of these
examinations are often disappointing.

A most interesting and instructive account of the work done by a county
school nurse during the first year of her work in typical Minnesota
county has been given by Miss Amalia M. Bengtson, superintendent of
schools of Renville County:

"Renville County is prosperous; there are few poor people,
no child is underfed and no one wilfully neglected, yet our
tabulated report shows an appalling amount of physical
defectiveness. Out of our school population of six thousand
we examined five thousand children, and found four thousand
and ninety-five defective, testifying that 81 percent of the
children were defective. This seems almost unbelievable, and
yet it does not tell the whole story, for I could take you
to school after school where there was 100 percent
defectiveness, where we sent a notice to every parent in
that school. Yet, as I said before, Renville County is a
prosperous county, and we have every reason to believe that
conditions in Renville County to-day are the same as in
other counties where a health survey has been taken. The
percentages of the defectiveness found were: teeth, 55
percent; nose, 40 percent; throat, 66 percent; eyes, 22
percent; ears, 17 percent; malnutrition, 16 percent;
nervous disorder, 16 percent; neck glands, 14 percent; skin,
13 percent; and general appearance, 12 per cent."[57]

In reply to the question, "What of it? What good came of the
health survey?" Miss Bengtson says: "Our records show that
about one thousand of the children examined were taken to
see either a doctor or a dentist, or both, the first year.
Parents who at first opposed the work are fully convinced
that a county nurse shoul