View report page

38
A well-organised system of physical drill, carried out, not in
crowded schoolrooms, but either in the outside air or in special
buildings, will promote physical fitness, which counts for so much
in the future well-being and success of the scholars. These drills
should be directed by some person who is well acquainted with the
object of each particular exercise. Many of the drills which I have
witnessed in Board schools are a hollow farce, and the manner in
which the scholars are allowed to go through them is ludicrous. It is
difficult to see how any good can result from them.
FOOD AND DRUGS.
Under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, 122 samples of food and
drugs were taken and analysed. The results are shown in Table C.
Twelve of the samples were not satisfactory, and, therefore, the percentage
of non-genuine samples amounted to about 9.9 per cent., a
figure which is slightly above that of the preceding year, when it
was 9.3 per cent. The figure for the whole country was 8.7 per cent.
during the year 1902.
9.1 per cent. of the milk samples were unsatisfactory, as against
16 per cent. during the preceding year. 8.0 per cent. of the samples
of milk taken on Sundays were adulterated. There was one conviction
obtained for selling margarine contrary to the provisions of the
Act.
The number of samples of food and drugs taken during the
year to every 1,000 of the population amounts to about two—which
is far below the average of the London Boroughs—the average figure
amounting to nearly 4. During the current year therefore I have received
instructions to increase the number of samples from 120 to 156.
Nearly five-twelfths of the samples taken during 1902 in
England and Wales were of milk, and of these 11.6 per cent. were
reported against. This is the highest rate of milk adulteration
recorded in any year since 1893.