Evening star., 1909-07-11


"A statistics as to the physical and
mental condition of her school
children, and today t. first of
the reports of the medical officers ap-
pointed under the new scheme are being
published and are coming in for wide and
earnest discussion. To say that the coun-
try is shocked at the condition of things
revealed by the first thorough inspection
Is putting the case mildly. She is aroused
to the danger implied in the conditions,
and the revival of the military spirit
which has been going on for some time is
intensifying the concern of the public.
Where are our soldiers coming from if
we are breeding a race of Weaklings?"
men are asking. and strong public de-
mand is going up for immediate measures
to check the degeneracy which is being
revealed.
The man in the street realized in mild
sort of way before that England today is
not breeding men equal to those of his
grandfather's time, but he consoled him
self with the reflection that even if they
were not as big they were quite as
healthy, and declared that when the time
came Englshmen would show that they
had not forgotten how to fight. Now,
however, he has the situation set before
him in relentless figures and comparative
must be done, and done at once.
So far it is not claimed for the statis-
tics that they are more than partial, but
so far as they go they are accurate.
Some of the new medical officers, owing
to the delay in getting the law into work
ing order. organizing their staff and
working out system of inspection, have
only six months actual work to report on,
but in nearly every part of England the
same story is told the children who are
or al ha n
ped by the conditions under which they
are compelled to live. and many of them
are actually diseased or mentally defec-
tive.
The country children are better off in
many respects, of course, than the chill
dren OF the towns, but even in the agri-
cultural districts a lamentable amount of
under development and neglect is found.
Two typical reports are those of DR.. Stew
enson, medical officer for Somerset, whose
system has been adopted as a model by
the local government board, and DR.. San
ders. medical officer for West Ham. Som
erset is almost purely agricultural
county, where the conditions for the
ought to be ideal, while West Ham is one
of the great working class suburbs of
East London. where the children are
crowded into tiny houses in narrow
streets and subject to all the hardships
resultant on the irregular and scantily
paid employment of their parents. 1t
might be expected then that Somerset
would make a better showing in some re-
spects than West Ham, and it does, but
in others it is lamentably behind.
To begin with the question of height
and weight. In 1885 the British An
thropometrical Association fixed a series
of standards based on the figures then
available for the entire country Tor the
height and weight of boys and girls at
various ages. The standards, OF course,
were averages, and we might expect that
in Somerset the height and weight of
the children would be above the standard.
1t is not At most ages it is just about
the standard; while at some 1t is slightly
lower. In West Ham. of course, both
height and weight at all ages are greatly
below the standard. Even in the small
towns of Somerset the height and weight
of the children are noticeably below those
in the purely agricultural districts.
In the matter Of nutrition. too. there is
q striking difference between the country
and the town. DIR. Stevenson finds not a
single child in the whole county which
could be classed as distinctly badly fed,
and he finds only II per cent who are be-
low the normal. In Somerset 81 per cent
Of the children are normally nouriShed
and 26 per cent are distinctly well neur-
ished In West Ham. on the other hand.
II per cent of the children are recorded
as badly nourished, while nearly all the
rest are below the normal.
When we come to teeth there is not
much to. choose. In West Ham only 40
per cent of the children had full set of