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tent by infant schools. These diseases were the causes of some 24,000 deaths yearly in the
decennium 1893-1902; of which, as respects measles, 94 per cent. were those of children under five
years old, whilst as respects whooping-cough, not fewer than 97 per cent. of the total deaths occurred
among children under five. The deaths from all causes under that age in the Royal
Borough, in the decennium 1894-1903, were more than a third of the total mortality, and equivalent
to about one-fourth of the registered births. It remains to be seen what further action the Board
of Education under the present Government will take in the matter. Should the practice of exclusion
become general, the need of a substitute for the infant school for children under five would
be imperative. Without such provision the exclusion of children at the age-period 3—5 years would
be of doubtful advantage, and would assuredly lose much of its value as a measure for diminishing
mortality in early childhood. Possibly authority may be given to sanitary authorities to
provide municipal creches. But the Lambeth Borough Council, having asked the London County
Council (Education Committee) " to consider the advisability of all children under five years of
age being excluded from the Public Elementary Schools "—a course which would lead to a large
reduction in the education grant—further suggested," That in the event of such children being
excluded, the expenses connected with the provision and upkeep of the necessary criches and
infants' nurseries be provided out of Imperial taxation and not out of local rates." The scholars
below five years of age under instruction in England and Wales, are some 588,000 in number, the
amount of the annual Grant for them being about nine hundred thousand pounds.
Ill-nourished. Scholars.—It is notorious that insufficiently fed children are unable to profit
by the " education" received in elementary schools, and strenuous efforts are being made to
secure for these unfortunates at least one good meal a day. It is not improbable that, ere long,
legal provision will bte made to secure this boon, desirable as much in the interests of the community
as in those of the little sufferers. The London Education Committee are moving in the
matter, and feeding many children. The scheme outlined in one of their reports last year, proposed
that the food dressed in the cooking centres be utilised, as far as possible, in arranging
for dinners at certain named schools, the expenditure incurred to be recovered from parents or
from charitable funds. The Committee however do not desire to interfere with the work of
charitable institutions, but rather to organise existing agencies and work in harmony with them.
The Laws of Health.—It is interesting to note that the Board of Education in the new
Code of 1905, called attention to the teaching of the laws of health, and circulated a syllabus on
the subject, worked out on the lines suggested by Sir Michael Foster, M.D., and Dr. Hutchinson.
The Vice-President expressed the opinion, which surely will be generally accepted, that the said
syllabus " is one of the most practical and useful of the sort which has yet been issued by the
department, or any other authority in charge of these matters." In my first annual report, for
1871, I asked, When will this teaching form an integral part of the education of children in the
Public Elementary Schools? The London Education Committee, it is understood, are taking
steps to secure, by proper technical training, a body of competent persons for teaching the subject.
MILK DEPOTS (LONDON) BILL.
A Bill so intituled, was introduced last Session by Mr. T. Lough* (supported by Sir Charles
Dilke among others), its object being to legalise action already taken by some of the Metropolitan
Borough Councils, and to authorise the others to take similar action, by establishing depots
for the sale of pure and sterilised milk for the use of infants. In the Memorandum prefixed to
the Bill it was stated that the expenditure thus involved had been very small; but that "in the
absence of legal power to carry on the depots "it had been surcharged by the Local Government
Board auditor. The Board had, however, each year, remitted the surcharge at Battersea, and had
intimated that they would do so in the case of Lambeth. It was the object of the Bill to remove
that difficulty, and to confer power upon such Councils as might wish to adopt the proposed Act, to
maintain milk depots free from the fear of surcharge. There were three operative clauses. The first
to give power to the Council to establish milk depots; the second providing that the expenses
should be paid out of the general rate, and the third defining a milk depot to mean" an establishment
for the purification, improvement, preservation, sterilization, and sale of milk and cream."
The Bill did not become law.
* Now Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education.