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This remarkable fact supports the view that observations taken on this large scale can be relied upon to
give accurate results, since no coincidence could explain the similarity of the figures, and it warrants
the conclusions presently to be made upon the figures for the other indices.
The maintenance of the status quo ante in regard to cleanliness has only been achieved by constant
vigilance on the part of the nurses, and is remarkable in the face of continued introduction of parasitic
infection and the increased employment of married women. The amount of work in this connection
performed bv the school nurses is detailed later in the report under the heading of personal hygiene.
Clothing.
The figures for clothing and footgear show that while the percentage of children ill-shod and
insufficiently clothed has remained low, but almost stationary, there has been an appreciable, though
not groat, diminution in the number well dressed and shod as contrasted with those only fairly well
provided for. It would appear that economic conditions have operated here and that the parents are
now beginning to spend less upon clothes and more upon other necessities. It is perhaps as well that the
tendency has been checked to expend the surplus of wages upon finery in apparel, so conspicuous a
feature in the first years of the war.
Nutrition.

The progressive reduction in the number of the children found with poor nutrition has been
maintained, the figures in this respect being better for 1917 than 1916 and less than half the pre-war
figures. It is noteworthy that this reduction has been continued right up to the end of 1917 and that
the figures for the third term of that year are the best in this respect that have ever been attained.
On the other hand, the percentage of children returned as of good nutrition as opposed to fair
nutrition only has showed diminution. This is no doubt to be explained by the anxiety of many
parents to fall in with the voluntary rationing schemes suggested by the Food Controller.
The above results were reported to the Education Committee, were carefully considered by
them, and were upon 13th February, 1918, made the subject of a special report to the Council in the
following terms:—
"The question of the physical condition of children in London schools is one which during the
war has received our close and continuous attention. The number of necessitous children fed at school
remains at an extremely low level compared with the number fed before the war. The school medical
officer's annual reports since 1914 have given the results of medical inspection based upon an annual
examination of some 200,000 children. He has pointed out that there has been an all-round improvement
in the physical condition of the children during the war, and that the number of children found
at medical inspections to be under-nourished has greatly decreased. The results for 1917 have now been
presented by the school medical officer, and they show that the improved conditions have been fully
maintained. During the third term of 1917 the inspection of all the entrant children, which had been
discontinued from the beginning of 1916, was again resumed, and the results of this term's examinations
are the best that have ever been attained, the percentage of children found in a poorly nourished
condition being considerably less than half the percentage found in 1913, the year before the war."
"It is with profound satisfaction that we find ourselves able to report these facts, showing, as
they do, not only that the horrors of war have not been allowed to affect adversely the general condition
of the children, but that, on the contrary, the general well-being of the children has, up to the present
continually improved in spite of the war."
Examination
of Entrants
The resumption in the third term of 1917 of the examination of entrants in detail which had
remained in abeyance during 1916 enables similar figures to be given once more for these as for the