Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/664

 640 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

and any acute catarrhal affections of the eyes, nose, or throat. In a case of suspected smallpox a very remote possibility the patient is kept at the school, isolated in a suitable room, and the Department of Health notified at once. Each pupil excluded from school is furnished with a card on which are noted the name, address, and age of the pupil, the number and situation of the school, and the reason (in plain English) for exclusion. These cards are made out by the inspector and submitted to the principal of the school, or a person whom the principal may designate. The latter will then have a record made, for his or her own convenience, of the name and address of the pupil excluded, and have each card sealed in an envelope and taken home by the pupil, the child being excluded at the next recur- ring recess. Children afflicted with pediculosis, contagious eye or skin disease, or pulmonary tuberculosis may be allowed to return to their classes, temporarily, if the inspector deems their cases too mild for continued exclusion until cured. In such cases the child is given a card to the school nurse 1 and is treated by her daily at the school.

2. Weekly examination of all children. Once each week the inspector must make a routine inspection of all the class-rooms, examining the eyelids, throat, hair, and skin of each child, indi- vidually ; and any pupil suspected of suffering from any con- tagious disease, or affection of the eye, nose, or throat, is sent from the class-room at once for more thorough examination. Cases of pediculosis or contagious eye or skin disease are excluded at once, but told to return at a proper interval for re-examination by the inspector, and may be readmitted when in his judgment the discharge, etc., has ceased under treatment. Whenever any difference of opinion arises between an inspector and a physician not connected with the department concerning the propriety of excluding a case of eye disease, the patient is sent at once to the central office for examination by the oculist of the department. Cases of measles or scarlet fever are reported to the department by telephone. They are then visited by the diagnosticians for the purpose of confirming the diagnosis.

1 See later as to further duties of the school nurse, p. 642.