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72
the increasing accumulation of susceptible individuals to
infectious disease. I do not think this falling off is wholly
due to one or all of the following causes, viz., a decrease in
numbers of children at susceptible ages, or to the exhaustion of
the supply of susceptible children, or to that cyclical fall
which occurs every few years during the progress of infectious
diseases, but largely to certain circumstances called into opera
tion during recent years in connection with the education of elementary
school children. I do not claim the whole of the observed
decrease to the circumstances referred to, but I am of
opinion they have operated favourably during the past year, and
will continue to do so more and more in the reduction of infectious
disease in proportion as they are applied to school children
in the future. The circumstances I refer to are:—
1st. The feeding of necessitous schoolchildren.
2nd. The medical examination of schoolchildren, with
subsequent removal of adenoids and enlarged tonsils or
other unhealthy throat affections.
(1). The feeding of necessitous schoolchildren has now
found a place in the scheme of school education for London.
Originally the meals were provided by voluntary effort, and even
now a great deal of voluntary assistance is given in connection
with the scheme.
The original ground upon which the feeding of underfed
children was based, was entirely an educational one. It was said,
and with justice, that children who were underfed could not,
owing to physical incapacity, take full advantage of the educational
facilities provided for them. This view finds expression
in the following extract from the Education (Provision or Meals)
Act, 1906:—
SEC. 3. Where the local education authority resolve