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74 (i
v. social movements.
throughout the land. The advisory work which has been done by this
association, in close co-operation with the authorities in the läns and with the help of
grants from the county councils, has constituted an endeavour to compensate for
the lack of legal inspection.
Efforts in Social Hygiene.
It is characteristic of every kind of modern social work that it pays
increasing attention to preventive measures and allows itself to he guided
by considerations of medical science. The care of both the poor and
children, as well as other work aimed at helping the needy, is nowadays
carried on according to social-hygienic principles, but there are besides
many enterprises which concern themselves solely with preventive measures.
The work which has best repaid the efforts expended in this respect has
been that devoted to children. In other parts of this work accounts have
been given of vacation colonies, Schildren’s workshops, children’s shelters,
milk dispensaries and dental care of school children. Hence we shall
confine ourselves here to some other enterprises of a preventive nature, which
are to be met with in very different spheres of activity.
In recent years, more and more attention has been devoted to the problem of
providing poor and underfed children of school age with wholesome and
nourishing food. Consideration for the children and a desire that they should profit
from their school education have thus compelled measures in this direction to
be taken, although the danger that the parents’ sense of responsibility would
thus be blunted has not been lost sight of. Meals for poor school-children
(cf. article on the Elementary Education) are now provided in the
majority of the towns, and here and there in rural districts, either occasionally
or as a regular institution. Methods have varied as regards selecting the
children, control, meeting the cost, etc. In Stockholm, where a grant of 70 000
kronor has been made for the purpose by the city, 2 373 children were provided
with free meals in 1911, at the expense of the municipality. The children were
selected by the school authorities in consultation with the Poor Law
representatives. In some places donations are employed for the purpose, or the meals
are provided entirely by private generosity. In Gothenburg funds are provided
by the town and by private persons, and there is a special society for their
administration.
Another task of social-hygienic work is the provision of sea-side sanatoria for
children that are afflicted with scrofula or tuberculosis of organs other than the
lungs. There are three such sanatoria in existence: Kronprinsessan Victorias
kustsanatorium (Crown Princess Victoria’s sea-side sanatorium) at Skelderviken,
Kustsanatoriet Apelviken (the Apelviken sea-side sanatorium) at Varberg, and
Kustsjukhuset å Styrsö (the Styrsö sea-side hospital) at Gothenburg. By means
of grants made by the County Councils and other bodies, many children are
afforded care and nursing at these institutions free of charge, and the State
makes grants for the covering of travelling expenses, so that children from all
parts of the country are enabled to enjoy the advantages afforded, without
appreciable cost.
Children’s gardens or Kindergarten, which are intended to occupy and educate
children that are not yet of school age, are now to be found in most large
towns, though they are almost exclusively for paying pupils. Children’s gardens
for the poorer classes, on the other hand, have only come into existence in
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