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(a) Malnutrition.
The number of children recorded as suffering from malnutrition
was only nineteen. There were, of course, others in a poorly
nourished condition, whose poor condition was due to a definite
disease, but in the case of these nineteen no such disease was
present to account for the malnutrition, the defect being due either
to failure or neglect on the part of the parents to provide proper
nourishment, or to inability on the part of the child to profit by
the nourishment provided.
There is, I am glad to say, very little evidence of neglect on
the part of parents, but there are very many cases where the family
circumstances are such that when the high rent which is, unfortunately,
so common in Wood Green has been paid, the amount
left over from the weekly wage is obviously inadequate to provide
all that is necessary in the wav of food and clothing for the family.
In this type of case the Care Committee plays a very useful part,
in providing meals at the feeding centre, or milk at school, or
malt and oil at the School Clinic, and there is little doubt that
these services by the Care Committee contribute in no small measure
to the satisfactory state of nutrition of the elementary school
children in Wood Green.
In previous reports I have referred to the importance of the
provision of a sufficient supply of milk to the growing child, and
I have expressed the opinion that the steady growth of the milk
habit among the children which has resulted from the institution
of milk clubs in the schools is bound to cause a definite improvement
in the nutrition of the children. During the past year the
scheme set on foot by the Milk Marketing Board to provide milk
for school children at one-half the former price has resulted in a
very greatly increased number of the children in Wood Green having
their daily bottle of milk, and over 60 per cent, of the elementary
school children now avail themselves of this provision.
(b) Uncleanliness.
The standard of cleanliness among the children remains very
high, and reflects great credit on the vast majority of the mothers.
The school nurses visit the schools regularly to carry out routine
inspections of the children for cleanliness. Over 40,000 individual
inspections of children were made during the year, and the number
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