§ DR. FARQUHARSON (Aberdeenshire, W.)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he can inform the House how many of the Metropolitan Poor Law children will probably come under the jurisdiction of flu; proposed new Asylums Board for Sick Children, and what number of children suffering from ophthalmia, contagious diseases of the skin or scalp, debility, defective intellect, or other physical infirmity, are respectively likely to require the services of the Board?
§ Mr. CHAPLINAccording to Returns received from the several district and separate schools, including the large Roman Catholic certified schools, the cases of ophthalmia number 760, and, if the number of children in the workhouses and infirmaries is added, the number for which separate treatment is desirable may be roughly estimated at 1,000. The number of children in the schools referred to who are returned as suffering from ringworm is 208, and of those suffering from skin disease 168. If the number in the workhouses and infirmaries is added, the total number of these children may be estimated at about 500. I have no information as to the number of children requiring special treatment during convalescence, or seaside air, or of children who, in consequence of defect of intellect or physical infirmity, cannot 1549 properly he trained in association with children in ordinary schools; but the number of the latter class I should not anticipate would be large.