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101
the bustle of family life the children get far too short hours for
sleep.
When morning comes the children are pale, with dark circles
under their eyes, and have no appetite for breakfast. It is
under such conditions that the scholars begin their educational
day, and it is doubtful whether the burden falls heavier on the
teachers or the pupil.
The evidence of insufficient sleep is not confined to the
working-class homes, for the need of at least ten hours' sleep
is not always understood by parents, and over-excitable, intelligent
children need more than this amount.
A few cases of mal-nutrition associated with heart-strain
occur in children who are engaged in some occupation besides
their school work. These cases are mostly found among the
boys leaving school where they are employed to run errands
on Saturdays, or to deliver papers or milk in the mornings before
attending school. Here insufficient sleep and poverty (which
makes the scanty earnings of these children a necessity), are
associated factors in contributing to the mal-nutrition, besides
the additional labour involved to the child.
It is interesting to note that cases of heart-strain are much
fewer since the Employment of Children Act, 1903, has come into
force in this district.
Occasionally, mal-nutrition may ba due to some local cause,
such as decayed teeth. The presence of many carious teeth either
prevents the child from masticating its food, or, if the mouth
is in a septic and unhealthy condition, the food material is
swallowed with products of decomposition which are harmful
to digestion, and produce a slow poisoning of the body.
The mothers who attend the medical inspection of their
children sometimes complain that they have difficulty in getting
the children to eat. On examination in several cases it was found