Technique of oil myelography.

opia. The use of a common set of records for all the children referred either to the school clinic or the hospital requiring treatment for squintoramblyopiawouldbe administrativelymuch easier and be more sensible from a clinical point of view. In this particular area a child with a squint and amblyopia detected as a result of a sight test at school could have three sets of records each kept in a different place-for example, a school clinic card, hospital records (if operation was necessary), and separate notes for the orthoptist. Furthermore, it is quite common for a child to attend both the hospital and the school eye clinics. For example, he could be referred before he goes to school to the hospital clinic with a squint, only to default and reappear at the school clinic after his amblyopia had been picked up again as a result of a sight test done at school. In such circumstances a second round of attendances would start on a second set of records, and much extra work by the ophthalmologist and orthoptist and unnecessary attendances for both parent and child could be prevented by the initial set of records being readily at hand. The idea of one set of records for all these children, together with the concept that they should all be seen in the same clinic, led to our thinking that it would be better to have a special children's eye clinic. This clinic would draw cases referred both from the general practitioners and as a result of sight tests at school. Furthermore, the traditional orthoptic record sheets have been dispensed with and all notes kept on the ophthalmologist's records. The idea of a children's eye clinic is not an entirely new one because in some parts of the country-for example, Northampton-children with ocular defects detected at a school eye test are seen in a "school clinic" held in the hospital eye department, although they are not recorded on hospital records. This applies, however, only to those children who live in the borough of Northampton. Children living just outside the borough at present come under the County Health Authorities and are referred to a "school eye clinic" held elsewhere in the town of Northampton. Rationalization of anomalies such as this should come with the imminent merger of the three divisions of the health services. This will mean that advances in preventive medicine will have to originate from a single source and probably, in the case of specialized subjects such as this, this would be the hospital part of the service. The concept of a children's eye clinic centred in the hospital eye department seems to be ideally suited to fill this role.