THE FUTURE HEALTH OF OUR CHILDREN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20484, 11 August 1928, Page 20

THE FUTURE HEALTH OF OUR CHILDREN.

PRESENT DAY DEFICIENCES. AN APPEAL FOR CO-OPERATION On Wednesday evening there assembled in Burns Hall several hundred persons belonging to and representing the various groups and associations of our community who are interested in the health building and body training of our children of the school and pre-school ages. These comprised a representative gathering of headmasters and teachers of our primary schools, kindergarten teachers and members, members of the various school committees, members of the Kindrgarten Association, members of the Plunket Society, and of the various branches of the Home Economics Association, as well as representatives of the Peace Time Council of the Red Cross Society and St. John Ambulance Association. The object of the meeting was to hear a statement from Mr J. Renfrew White concerning the physical state of our school children, particularly in its relation to future health or ill-health, and an appeal for the members of these various bodies and associations to co-operate in the remedying and prevention of these defects found in too large numbers of our children living under the conditions of an industralised civilisation and an ill-balanced and over-intellectual-ised education.

The chair was taken by Professor Hewitson, who, in introducing the speaker, said that the subject of the address was to be an account of the physical needs of the rising generation and an appeal to the members of the audience to widen their, view and their sympathy beyond the confines of their own immediate task or interest and see and work at the problem as a whole. A WORLD-WIDE AWAKENING. Mr White said that we found ourselves to-day in the midst of a world-wide awakening on the part of all educated and civilised peoples as to the fundamental importance in life of lifelong health, a great movement of realisation of the importance in education of the guiding the growth and development of the body with its training to meet the adverse conditions so abundantly present to assail it in its passage through life. This was the commencement of a great era of preventive medicine in which the role of the doctor would gradually change from a curative one to one of research with an uncovering of the secrets of health and disease, and to one of education, a teaching of people to change their modes of life, to regulate their lives in accordance with the gradually accumulating store of scientific truth. Even in our own midst we saw abundant manifestations of this spirit and of this activity. Probably no generation of parents in the past was so anxious as this present one to assure to the children as a whole the best and most efficient body for the work and race of life. Teachers and educationists were never so sympathetic as to-day to the claims of the body for training and education, as well as the mind. Alomst daily in the newspapers columns of advice to parents on the physical bringing up of their children were published, supplied by the Health Department and other authorities. Dental clinics were spreading from school to school of which the staffs had already in five years performed nearly 400,000 dental operations, each one of which we could be sure was a definite contribution to the future health of this generation of children. The city authorities were multiplying open spaces and furnishing them with inducements for children to be out in the open. The Red Cross Society and St. John’s Ambulance Association hud converted their War-time Council into a peace-time one, which was sending a trained nurse-teacher into the schools to teach and preach health lessons. Kindergarten teachers and members were interesting themselves in the bodily condition of their pupils, and had already achieved some measure of co-operation with the Plunket Society, whose work was so well and widely and favourably known throughout the British Empire and America and further. Not many years ago the Otago University had added a third to its previously existing schools concerned with the health of the peopie, a Home Science to the Medical and Dental Schools, whilst within but a short period of its establishment its staff inaugurated a movement in the shape of the Home Economics Association with its branches spreading throughout the land with the object of educating the present generation of mothers and home-makers. With all this, the audience would see that night clear evidence that much remained to be done in the way of extension of present organisations and methods, and even of modification of present methods in the light of growing knowledge, and above all of the co-opcration of all concerned in the future health welfare of the nation. Such an era of prevention was on the way before the outbreak of the war, but the war it was timt had carried' us on with irresistible force over the threshold and projected us forward into this era with an impetus chat would be long in exhausting itself. A NATIONAL STOCK-TAKING. In the first place the war meant great national stock-takings ofphysieal eflieiancy and inefficiency of men living under the conditions of modern civilisation, and this led to a realisation of the deforming and debilitating effects on the human frame of such conditions of life. The extent of this deformity and ill-healtu existing in the last generation had naturally led all thinking people to attempt a forecast of the prospects of the oncoming generation, and to ask what could be done for them to save them something, at least, of this'result of the disharmony between the nature of man’s body and the complex and highly artificial environment in which it finds itself to-d.ay.

Even in this supposedly relatively healthy country of our own the results of this stock-taking were found to be depressing, if not alarming. Of men called up for examination between the ages of 18 and 42, two out of every three were found not fit for active service; even of those chosen, how many were rejected later in England and in the war zones as with bodies unfit for the hard physical conditions they had to face? How many returned with tuberculosis, with rheumati.-im and other chronic disorders, for which, no doubt, in many cases they were candidates before their enlistment, in the second place the war carried out experiments in the production of disease on a vast scale and gave opportunities for the intensive study of these diseases that had never before existed. Let them take as an example a condition that again was closely related to the subject of their interest that night. Towards the end of the war the children of the Central Empires, and particularly the children in Vienna, were growing up afflicted with a severe form of rickets, deprived as they were of certain elements in their food essentia! for the production of strong muscle and hard and rigid bones. What should have been devoted to the building of strong and healthy bodies was being used in the form of nitro-glycerine to blow to pieces the bodies of the enemy or else expended in thin air. What followed from that great war experiment was one of the fairy tales of modern science, the last chapter of which was only completed last year,—a fair} story that, properly interpreted and applied, promised to rid us for ever of that disease of civilisation affecting the bodies of children in some measure or other, —rickets. Tlfus what one generation suffered had already brought forth relief and promise of improvement of the next.

What they were concerned to do that night was to make an examination of the degree to which these conditions and deficiences of civilised life were affecting the bodies of our growing children, to attempt to diagnose the most important factors among these and to see how far the situation called for persistence in the present remedies or an extension or mollification of them, or for the use of new remedies. It was really a census of the physical condition of children in all pertaining to their future health that they were interested in. HEALTH AND EDUCATION. The speaker held in his hand a pamphlet published 10 years ago by the Christchurch branch of the Blunket Society under the name: “What Happens to all Onr Beautiful Babies? ” and said they might well ask this question. It was one in which members and workers within the Plunket Society should be specially interested. The babies, as such, seemed to give fair promise of beautiful form, of perfect performance of normal f..-„Uop of health lasting long through

life. When we commenced, however, with the children on the first rungs of the I educational ladder, we found at once that | in many cases something seemed to have i gone seriously wrong already. He had \ recently examined 50 children of one of the kindergarten schools of this city. In I many cases the physique was already ! showing signs of distortion from the ful- | tllment of Nature’s intentions; already i under the age of five years many of these | children had had diseased and overgrown tonsils removed; only one in four of them had still perfect sets of milk teeth as I yet untouched by decay, whilst in two out of every five of the children, six or more of their 20 teeth had been more or less seriously touched by decay, two out ; of every seven had 10 or more in this i state In many cases 12 or 14 of the i teeth were black, broken, decayed holo--1 causts. Practically all had some degree or other of knock-knee, sure evidence ot some degree of rickets. Advancing to the next educational stage the speaker then threw on the screen a number of slides taken at random to show a sort of average cross section in regard to the physical condition and defects present in the trunk and feet of children of the ages from five to ten. The defects in each part of the body had been divided into four classes according to their severity, and the incidence of these classes was shown in children of different standards by means of tables thrown on the screen. It was shown that whereas--66 per cent, of 150 children examined in Standards I, 11, and 111 presented grades of deformity, falling into the two worst classes, this figure rose to 75 per cent, in the case of children of Standards IV, V, and VI. As regards deformity of the feet, the children showing the highest grades of deformity in the lower standards were 18 per cent, of the whole, in the upper standards 40 per cent. It was estimated that 50 per cent, of girls leaving the sixth standards possessed already high grades of foot deformity. Figures were screened showing the physique of 24 girls in the sixth standard of one of our schools; half of these presented high-grade deformities of spinal column of chest shape and capacity, and of general postural development. DIET AND OCCUPATION. What, then, were the factors at work that converted so many promising babies into these children with physical defects, so numerous and in many cases so wellmarked? The most important of these could be summed up in two words—diet and occupation. By diet, he meant, in the widest sense of the word, what the child's environment gave it in the way of quantity', quality, balance, and the presence of essential growth and health-giving elements in the form of food, air, and sunshine. By occupation, all the abnormal mechanical elements and influences in the child’s environment that tended to interfere with Nature’s intentions as regards the proper use and function of the various parts of the human frame. As a part of the body was used, so it grew and developed. Use it in accordance with Nature’s intentions in constructing it in accordance with the laws of its construction, and it would fulfil Nature’s intention as regards its growth, and form Misuse it and physical deformity and in time disabality, inability to use it aright, would result. From the moment the child stood up for the first time the mechanical conditions of modern life tended to exert a deforming influence on its frame, and this influence was the more readily and the more intensively' deforming if through the relative absence of certain elements in the child’s early diet, the tissue of the frame, particularly the muscles and bones were lacking in tone and resisting power. The dietetic deficiency and the abnormal mechanical stress worked together into each other’s hands, so to speak, in the production of deformity. The most fundamental necessity then was an adequate supply of those elements in the diet from before birth up to the school ago at any rate, that were concerned in assuring strong muscles, full tone, and bones of normal resisting power to the body weight and the force of the pull of muscles, No elements were so important for this as lime salts, ami the latest discovered. the first isolated vitamin D.

Something of the story of the discovery of the relation between this vitamin and the cause and prevention of rickets was told, and Park’s statement quoted:-—“1 believe that if pregnant women receive ample weil-balanced diets, in which green vegetables and cows’ milk were abundantly supplied and kept a surticient part of their time in the open air and sun. and if their infants were placed in the direct rays of the sun for a part of each day and were fed with cold liver oil for the first two dr three years of life, more could be accomplished in regard to the eradication of caries of the teeth than in all other ways put together, and that rickets would bo abolished from the earth.” Already since this statement was made, the prevention of rickets, even in its mildest manifestations, was rendered simpler and easier by the actual isolation of the vitamin which could be added as needed to the diet of the mother and child. Cod liver oil was no longer necessary whore its essential principle could be obtained in itself. In whatever form it was given, vitamin D ultimately came from the action of the ultra-violet radiation of the sun.

Surely it should he possible in this young country by organisation to see to it that there was no child in the community but received its full share of body-build-elements during the first three or four years —years that determined to so great an extent the presence or absence of lifelong deformities. Could not the I’lunket Society and the Home Economics Association combine in action and extend then scope so as to assure that no child reached the school age, but with a healthy body free so far from the defects and deformities the prevalence of which even in these young children constituted a reproach and menace to the nation. BODY TRAINING. The second necessity was the giving of body training a more fundamental place in school life and in education generally. Was the body of so little importance in life as compared with the mind that the proportion of attention and time it received should be so small as compared with that given to mind training? More time was urgently required, especially if a serious attempt was to be made not only to prevent the development and intensification of already existing deformities but the correction of those already existing Let there be no mistake about it; under present conditions there was but little chance of the severe bodily deformities, examples of which they had seen that night, being corrected during or after school life except in the most exceptional cases where the parents took special measures outside of school time and life. Attempts at body correction were far more time-consuming than any process of mere body training with the object of proven tion of deformity and of assisting the natural development of the body on right linos as it was engaged in growing. Cor rection required more time, more patience, and was, on the whole, a much more difficult and hopeless affair than guidance Lot there be children entering the schools with bodies free from even the slightest defects and the whole aspect of physical training was changed and became simpler and far more hopeful in its results.

It "'ns not enough to get bodies free from deformity with an increase in the amount of time and attention given within the school to body training if the system was not applied in accordance with an accurate knowledge, not only of the body structure and normal functions, but also of the effects that occurred when the various parts of the body were misused over a period of time or habitually. A good system of physical training must be founded on this basis, and a knowledge of this in a living form should be part of the equipment of each teacher. Physical training could never produce the results it should where exorcises were taught in the absence of such knowledge. This took them back to the training of teachers in all appertaining to the bodies of their pupils, and knowledge and enthusiasm should come to them in a living manner through practice in their own bodies and experience in their own lives. This led then to the demand for more body knowledge in a living form and more body training for teachers in training than was at present given. Such knowledge and enthusiasm would never come through any system of hygiene teaching which was mainly or largely given in the form of lectures and made a subject for cramming for an examination to he passed. The examination to be passed should he that of their own bodies and of the bodies of those they had been engaged in helping to train. In this respect the speaker paid a tribute to the prompt action of the Minister and Director of Education who had instituted this year for the first time a whole year’s special course in physical education for 12 young teachers from all over Xcw Zealand who were spending

this year in Dunedin devoting themselves to the principles, and above all to the practice of health and body training. These were the students who were going to demonstrate some of these principles that evening. SCHOOL EQUIPMENT.

The training within the school should, he said, be to the proper accompaniments, and with the proper equipment. It was impossible to train and develop bodies, much less to correct defects in bodies fully clothed and swathed tightly in jackets and muflilers and with feet enclosed in thick-soled boots, by the performance of a few simple exercises in the open playground for a few minutes a day. This was hardly doing more than scratching the surface of the problem. Gymnasia, or room and floor space, were necessary, and there Was not the slightest doubt in the speaker’s mind but that if much of the incidence of foot deformities with the suffering that ensued in later life therefrom was to be avoided in the next generation much more time and attention would have to be given to the training and development of girls’ feet, and this could never be done effectively with the feet cramped and enclosed in any sort of footwear. The best results could only be obtained by a barefoot work and training. It might be objected that these conditions were going to cost too much to provide. Was any price to high to pay for a nation of healthy bodies free from deformity and controlled by habits of use and carnage that were one of the best possible insurances in favour of lifelong health? Surely the provision of these conditions was a matter that touched closely the interests of education boards and of school committees. Many of the schools of this city were provided with gymnasia, he believed, originally through the activity of the school committees. How many ot these gymnasia were properly equipped to allow of proper conditions of temperature, of fresh air and of the admission of sunshine? Indeed, how many were being used for the fulfilment of their original function and how many as additional classrooms? In large schools the provision and equipment of gymnasia for the training of the bodies was just as iiuportant as the construction and cquip.r ment of the classrooms. In smaller schools the construction and arrangement of furniture within the classrooms should be such that they could be used as gymnasia within a minute or two every day, so that the training of the body should have its rightful place and rightful conditions and accompaniments. It was very little use, however, for the lesson in body training to be followed by hours of lessons in which the position and use of the body during the various educational exercises was lost sight of again. The principles of body care and training should permeate the whole of school life, and should certainly dominate the questions of the construction and furnishing of school rooms. These should be fresh air and sunlight rooms, and teachers should be open-air and sunlight teachers, whilst desks and chairs should be such as to assist in and not to hinder full and normal body action and development.

A demonstration was then given by 12 girls from the Normal School under the direction of Miss Gloyn, one of the teachers in special training in physical education. This demonstration /was meant to illustrate some of the principles that should guide a typical lesson for girls of this age—postural training, training and exercise of the bare teet, the correction of existing defects, body-build-ing exercises, recreational folk dancing and rhythmic exercises to music with the object of developing rhythmic sense and that combination ot relaxation with perfect control that is the essential of the technqine of any art requiring bodliy action for its expression or performance. This was followed by a demonstration of more advanced wouk on all these lines by the specialist in physical training from the Dunedin Training College under the direction of Miss Rena Tnckwell. These were very much appreciated by the audience; Tiie speaker concluded by stressing again the prevalence and incidence of the detormitios among the children of school ago, the importance of those in relation to health in later life, the twofold origin, dietetic and mechanical, of most of these, and the nature of the whereby alone these can be prevented. The knowledge of how to prevent is ours, some of it as old as the some of it just born yestor year,” said Mr White. “ All that is required is persistence, organisation and co-operation on the part of all interested and concerned, and all the bodies and societies represented here tonight are already self-confessedly interested and concerned. Are you prepared so to co-operate and organise?’ Professor Hewitson summed up the lessons to be learned from the address and demonstration. “ Look at the pictures of those children in our schools that we have seen to-night. They are something at which we should be and or which wo should bo ashamed.” They all knew what the national stock-taking ot our manhood had shown in 1914, in our hour of direct national need. He had an uneasy feeling that if tilings went on us before if the next generation was called upon in such an hour, things would not he found very different to what they had been with ns. A vote of thanks to the lecturer and to all those who had taken part in the demonstrations terminated the meeting.