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Milk.—All liked it except two, both girls of 13.

*Condiments.—The children were asked about all the condiments in turn, no particular stress being laid on
vinegar. Forty-nine children stated that they liked condiments, and fifteen had a special preference for vinegar.
This would seem to be a very high proportion if one did not know that vinegar is very commonly taken by people
of this class. Also, the proportion is markedly higher in boys than in girls—nine boys and six girls, that is,
20 per cent, against 11 per cent. It is perhaps an unusually high result, but no great importance is attached
to it.
**Sweets.—When questioned about sweets, 83 children stated that they had them frequently and five
occasionally. The children appeared to eat them at any time during the day, both before and after meals.
Comments.—Although twenty-three children stated that fruit was their favourite food, very little fruit
appears to have been given in their diet. For breakfast only one had fruit, for dinner only seven, for tea none,
and for supper three. As oranges should be a very important item in the diet of rheumatic children, owing to
the known shortage of vitamin C in this type of case, this is obviously a serious defect. Apart from instructing
the parents in this respect, it Should be fairly easy to get the children's assistance in remedying this deficiency.
It will be noted that nearly all of them like sweets and have them almost daily. It is a common custom to give
the child a halfpenny or penny to spend on the way to school, and this is almost always spent on sweets ; with
encouragement the child could be taught to spend this on fruit.
Only three named cake as a favourite, and yet sixty-four children had stated that they had cake for tea.
It is probable that this cake would not be of a very nourishing type, and it may be possible to persuade the mother
to substitute fruit in some cases, especially as the children do not seem to like cake very much.
Twenty-three children gave meat as their favourite dish, and it appears that the vast majority do have meat
daily.
Only thirty-one stated that they had puddings for dinner. This is probably due to lack of energy on the
parents' part in cooking suitable puddings ; similarly, fish and chips, popular for supper, are probably bought
ready cooked.
No differentiation was made between butter and margarine, because the children did not know which they
had.
A great deal of tea is drunk, some children having it with every meal. Sixty-five have it for breakfast,
twenty-eight for dinner, seventy-one for tea, and seven for supper ; a little milk and sugar is taken with the
tea, but more nourishing beverages might be substituted.
Two points have emerged which rather surprised the investigators. A few years ago when some enquiries
were made about diet, it was often said that children would not eat greens ; in this investigation, however,
seventy-six out of ninety said that they liked vegetables, and only five said that they disliked greens. Every
endeavour has been made to impress on parents the importance of this item of diet.
The second point was that only two children did not like milk. These were both girls of thirteen years of
age. It is certain that the same replies would not have been given two or three years ago, and this satisfactory
result is probably due to the fact that children are now given milk at school. They are hungry, are encouraged
by their masters and mistresses to drink it, and have found that by taking milk they have come to like it.