ABSTRACT
The school medical service is an outgrowth of the system of elementary education which became national in 1870, with the making of school attendance compulsory in 1880 for all children aged 5-14. Centrally the new medical work was in the vigorous hands of the Board of Education, a separate department of the Government from the Local Government Board, which subsequently became the main element in the Ministry of Health. The efficiency of school medical work can be partially measured by the extent to which treatment is secured for the children found on inspection to need it. In most areas, it has been found necessary to establish official school clinics, to the most efficient of which have been attached beds for special cases needing post-operative stay in hospital. The limitation of school medical work to scholars implies that certain classes of illness and minor ailments come preponderantly within the range of work of school authorities.
