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of the feeble physical condition of many of the young recruits serving
during the late war in South Africa that public attention was directed to
the matter. The sense of uneasiness was much increased by an article
on the national health published in the Contemporary Review of January,
1902, by Sir Frederick Maurice, whose duty it had been for many years to
visit the Herbert Hospital, at Woolwich, which takes in the sick of the
Woolwich garrison and men belonging to the artillery invalided from
abroad. He was called upon to sanction the discharge from the army of
men brought forward by a medical board as unfit for service. On his examination
he found that sixty per cent, of those wishing to be soldiers
were found physically unfit after two years' service. He traced the
cause (1) to heart disease, pulmonary troubles and rheumatism, due to a
low anæmic condition consequent on a poor development of the body (2)
to fiat feet arising from badly constructed shoes, (3) to bad teeth, the
outcome of improper feeding in infancy, and bad management by ignorant
mothers, and (i) to early marriages in unsuitable subjects. Among other
causes he pointed to the continual rush of the people from rural districts
to towns, where the pay was insufficient to support them, and to the
unhealthy condition of crowded towns generally for those ill-fed, and compelled
to live under insanitary conditions. He emphasised what has been
so often said, that it is to the healthy, mental, moral and physical
condition of the women and children we must look, if our race is to be
properly maintained. In March, 1902, a Royal Commission was
appointed, with the Earl of Mansfield as chairman, to inquire into the
opportunities for physical training available in the State-aided schools
and other educational institutions in Scotland. The Commission took a
mass of evidence, but were unable to come to any definite decision as to
whether or not there exists a progressive deterioration of the slum population
of Great Britain generally, or of its large towns as a whole. They
found, however, that there was ample evidence of an undeniable degeneration
of individuals of the classes in which food and environment are
defective, calling for attention in obvious ways, one of which is the
provision of a well regulated system of physical training. Dr. Don,
deputy surgeon general, and senior medical officer of the London
Recruiting Station, when before this Commission said:— "I am convinced
that judicious physical and military drill, if combined with sufficient food
and heathy environment, will signally contribute to the moral as well as
the better physical development of boyhood and early manhood." He
laid stress on the fact that physical training should be accompanied by
sufficient food if good results were to be obtained. The publication of
this report from Scotland on physical training produced a great impression
on the public mind in England. Questions were asked in