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Medical Examination op Applicants po:r Entrance into Teaching Profession. The medical examination of applicants for entrance into the teaching profession was carried out this year, some 707 being examined. Generally speaking, reports were favourable with regard to the type of applicant presenting himself. Examination op Secondary Schools. A few secondary schools were examined by School Medical Officers as time and opportunity permitted. Special Classes. School Medical Officers continue to co-operate with officers of the Education and Mental Hospitals Departments in measures for the welfare of children requiring special methods of education—as the mentally backward, or those suffering from deafness or speech defect. Infectious Diseases. The year 1934 was noted for widespread outbreaks of infectious diseases, measles and influenza of considerable virulence, in particular, sweeping the country and limiting school attendance. Diphtheria in epidemic form occurred in one or two centres; whooping-cough, mumps, chicken-pox, and scarlet fever also asserted themselves in some areas. Dr. Cook, Medical Officer of Health for North Auckland, carried out a very successful campaign of immunization against diphtheria—some 900 children being treated. (An account of this work appears in another section of the departmental report). Ringworm in various parts of the Dominion has continued to be a source of trouble, being slow to yield to various curative measures. Treatment Returns. Actual figures are not yet to hand, but all School Medical Officers remark on the difficulty during the last few years of obtaining medical treatment for defects noted. This is so all the more where specialist treatment is necessary, especially for country children. In regard to dental treatment, Dr. Baker McLaglan remarks : " I have again to stress the importance of hospital dental out-patient departments. Surely in these days we know enough of the importance of aseptic mouths to realize that treatment of dental defects is.as important as treatment of any other bodily defect. In some districts, for instance, where there are many poor, there are no means whereby any one unable to pay a private dentist can get any dental treatment except extraction by his lodge doctor when his toothache is unbearable." Open-air Schools. In Auckland under the auspices of the Community Sunshine Association, the open-air day school for delicate and undernourished children continues its admirable work, and in Dunedin similar good work is carried on with success by the open-air school at Kew. Schools and School Buildings. School Medical Officers continue to report on school sanitation and to draw attention to environmental conditions requiring remedy. Dr. Stevenson in particular forwarding an interesting resume of observations in a large number of Otago schools. Dr. Champtaloup has supplied interesting information as to the incidence of defect in relation to type of class-room in the Taranaki District, and pays a tribute to the fresh-air rooms built by the Taranaki Education Board, which are popular with both teaching staff and pupils. Goitre. Special attention continues to be given to the question of goitre by various School Medical Officers. It is evident that the iodine-content of soil, though an important influence in the incidence of goitre, is not the only factor to be considered, the problem being rather concerned with the amount of iodine in the body-system available for use by the thyroid. Faults in the body metabolism and dietetic deficiencies may thus be responsible for the occurrence- of goitre even though the iodine-intake is such as would be sufficient if other conditions for health were satisfactory. The amount of goitre of all degrees found in routine examination last year was 16-55 per cent. European and 5-75 per cent Maori. Dr. Phillipps, recently transferred from Canterbury to Auckland, remarks upon the very apparent lessened incidence of goitre in the northern city. In Southland, Dr. Abbott states : " In spite of the fairly general use of iodized salt, there appears from the year's figures to be a decided increase in the amount of goitre in all ages in both incipient and small classes. No reason for this is apparent." In Taranaki with a high iodine-content of soil and where until recent years a low goitre incidence was recorded, a rapid rise has been noted. The situation has been under close supervision. Dr. Champtaloup, Medical Officer of Health for Taranaki, reports this year as follows :— " A careful check has again been kept on the incidence of goitre, and findings are recorded for 3,755 primary-school children and 310 high-school girls. The same classification is used as formerly : — " (1) Normal. " (2) X Incipient. Palpable but not visible. " (3) XX Incipient. Palpable and also visible. Slight and confirmed on deglutition. " (4) XXX Larger. Including small, medium, and larger.

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