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This campaign should be directed towards the expectant
mother, the nursing mother, the infant, the toddler and the school
child right on to late adolescence or the end of the growing
period. The immense volume of recent work on growth and
nutrition in relation to diet and health all points in the same
direction. It would be impossible in the course of a short report
to summarise or quote from the important researches published
in recent years, but there is one volume which deserves to be
specially studied by all who are interested in the practical application
of the newest knowledge of nutrition to the problems of
preventive medicine. It is "The Diagnosis of Health," by
W. R. P. Emerson (Constable, 1930). A copy of this book has
been furnished to every elementary school in the borough for
the use of the teaching staffs. The system described by Emerson
for the cure of malnutrition amongst school children is the
formation of "Nutrition Classes" in the ordinary schools. The
organisation and procedure of the nutrition class is outlined in
Chapter XI. of his book.
Remarkable results were obtained by this system; e.g., in
Rochester, N.Y., fifteen hundred children in public, private and
parochial schools—under weight and in many cases still losing
weight—were enabled in their own homes and while carrying on
their regular school work, to make an average gain of more than
three times the amount expected of children of their age.
I do not suggest that the exact methods adopted by Emerson
in America are suitable for conditions of school life in England,
but I am convinced that equally striking results would follow
the adoption of a nutrition programme modified to suit local
conditions. I believe that malnutrition in children attending the
elementary schools of this Borough could be practically abolished
by a concerted effort of the kind indicated. I am equally convinced
that without such an effort malnutrition will remain the
chief physical defect in the elementary school population.
A successful nutrition campaign would bear fruit in many
directions and be a contribution to the solution of many problems
in preventive medicine, for example:—
(1) It would practically eliminate the weak, thin, pale, anæmic,
debilitated child.