15 
not only physical training, academic learning, and a theoretical 
knowledge of the facts bearing on fitness, but also a practical 
training in their application. In illustration of this, the lecturer 
mentioned the knowledge of food values, and their modification 
by judicious cooking and proper mastication, and maintained that 
although an exact estimate was impracticable of the extent to 
which assimilable food failed, after being eaten, to be assimilated, 
yet the percentage was probably higher than generally imagined, 
and if added to the amount wasted by uneconomical choice of 
food, was fully as great as the deficiency in the food supply itself 
of the working classes. Food that, while capable of being 
digested and absorbed, was swallowed without undergoing those 
processes, was not only a source of dyspepsia and indirect 
impairment of nutrition, but was as much a direct economic loss 
as if not eaten at all. Rendering food more assimilable was 
as much an addition to food supply as the provision of additional 
food, and to teach effectively the necessary rules to secure 
competence in choosing food, and use skilfully cheap and simple 
means of savoury cooking, would doubtless on any national scale 
be a relatively costly matter, involving, for example, national 
training of girls for some time after they had left school, but the 
cost on any conceivable estimate would be only small in com- 
parison with the thrift of food introduced into the national habits 
and the improvement in national fitness. 
The lecturer then pointed out that the main defect of our 
present day education was failure to teach habits. Life, without 
habits of self denial and determination to live well within the 
limits of one’s income, was not only miserable for the individual 
_ but also mischievous to the community. 
’ The second factor of the ratio determining public health was 
then considered, viz., environment, and as regards the “direct” 
means of modifying it, Dr. Newsholme stated that the present 
direction of public health legislation and administration had been 
reached by inquiry and study without stint, and that its results 
afforded ground for congratulation and encouragement to those 
who had helped to determine it ; but that as regards the factors 
‘contributing to the ‘indirect ” modification of environment, their 
consideration could not be disposed of so readily. Of these, the 
_ two most important were (1) Conditions of National Employ- 
‘ment ; (2) The Problem of Poverty and Destitution. 
: As regards the former of these, a great change had taken place 
_ during the last hundred years. The original relation of master and 
‘servant was one of unmitigated competition, and in quite modern 
times there was still a practically unrestricted liberty to the employer 
to exact from the artisan more than he could give without detriment 
to his health, and to give him less than was sufficient to nourish 
his family and him adequately. Children were employed at an 
age and to an extent quite inconsistent with their well-being and 






































