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 CHAPTER X

THE SCHOOL DOCTOR IN OTHER LANDS

T is clear that, in a sense, the school doctor has always existed. Wherever the inspired teacher was, there was he. For a long time, however, for more than a century, the voices of certain medical men have been crying in the wilderness that the condition of children should be observed and considered. There were such voices crying in England, and also in Germany; but little notice was taken of them in either country. At last in 1867 a German, Hermann Cohn, published notes on the vision of children, which went to show that the German nation was rapidly becoming short-sighted. Many doctors have since noted the sad effect of poverty and evil conditions on the eyesight. Cohn saw that the vision of children was threatened by one set of causes at home, and by others (such as bad lighting, small print, and so on) at school, and he put the result of all this before the public in such a way that he gained the ear of the authorities at last. He, with Erisman, 149