of
the schools we find "colds" given in former times, which may have been
in part really catarrh.

Combining now the results of our two groups of tables, we may be able to
reach some conclusions with respect to the increase or decrease of
deafness from certain diseases, though on the whole far less definite
than we could wish. In the first place, it seems safe to affirm that
deafness from scarlet fever is becoming relatively less with the years;
and it is possible that if it continues its present rate of decline, it
will in time cease to be one of the main causes of deafness. On the
other hand, meningitis, its great companion in evil, shows a striking
increase in comparison with past years, as a cause of adventitious
deafness; while its accretion may be traced as well in a series of
recent years in certain schools, though not in others. But how far there
is an absolute increase in meningitis over the past, and whether it is
tending at present actually to increase, may be a matter for question.
In view of the possibility that the disease was not sufficiently
accounted for in the past, and in the absence of any knowledge to
indicate a reason for its less prevalence in earlier years, at least not
to the extent indicated by the statistics, it may be that its increase
is, after all, more apparent than real. The fact, moreover, that in the
series of recent years a marked increase is found in some schools, but
a marked decline in others, may perhaps be taken to mean that at present
meningitis may be on the increase only in certain sections, depending
possibly on local conditions. With the greater medical skill of to-day,
and with a larger proportion of children in the schools, it may be open
to considerable doubt if the movement of this disease is really one of
increase, though it seems that we are on the whole making no great
headway against it.

As to the minor diseases causing deafness, our statistics do not
indicate just to what extent and in what direction deafness from them is
being affected, and no precise conclusions can at present be set down.
It is probable, however, that with the increased attention to children's
diseases, as we have noted, there is really less deafness from most of
them than formerly.[40]

THE CONGENITALLY DEAF

When we come to consider the question of congenital deafness, which
comprises a little over a third of the total amount of deafness, we have
an even more difficult problem on our han