A contribution to school hygiene : a paper read at a meeting of the National Health Society, on June 12th, 1873 / by R. Liebreich.

  • Liebreich, Richard, 1830-1917.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A contribution to school hygiene : a paper read at a meeting of the National Health Society, on June 12th, 1873 / by R. Liebreich. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

    5/12 (page 5)
    showu, at the same time, that the percentage of short- sighted children is greater -in schools where unfavour- able optical conditions prevail. It is true that short-sightedness is often hereditaiy, but this must not be thought to mean that the children of short-sighted parents are born short-sighted. They have only the predisposition to become so, and this predisposition is developed during school-life, more or less, according to certain external conditions ; and the more so, of course under conditions which tend to pro- duce short-sightedness even in children who have no hereditary predisposition. If the predisposition is thus hereditary, and new cases are continually added, we can easily understand that short-sightedness in general must be continually on the increase. This, with regard to civilized countries, is an established fact. The influence of school-life on the lateral curvature of the spine is as evident as its influence on short- sightedness. I am, of course, not referring to any of the cm-vatures which are the consequence of diseases of the bones and constitutional affections. I only mean to speak of those slight curvatures which during school- life develope themselves in quite healthy children, and which are so frequent that they have a strong title to the notice of all those who are interested in the national health. Parents generally become aware of the fact by a difference in the shoulders of a child. Careftil exami- nation shows, however, that some of the ribs of the right side are more projecting than those of the other side, in the part close to the spine. The spine shows a slight deviation where those ribs are attached to it. But though this curvature is the very reason of the deformity of figure just mentioned, yet it is m itself but little conspicuous. The reason is that we can only see the hindcrmoKt ends of the spinal pro- cesses : and that thoFC endf. may still be lying nearly