Science and Physical Development 



betray a most serious condition of affairs, calling 

 for ameliorative and arrestive measures, the most 

 impressive features being the apathy of parents 

 as regards the school, the lack of parental care 

 of the children, the poor physique, powers of 

 endurance, and educational attainments of the 

 children attending school." This applies only 

 to the poorer schools, and the problem is how 

 to arrest these evils without weakening the 

 various influences already successfully at work 

 in improving the physical status of the better 

 children. A uniform level is undesirable and 

 unattainable, the poorer will remain poorer and 

 probably weaker, but they need not deteriorate. 

 Even if more slowly, they too must be helped 

 upwards. 



The Committee refrained from making an 

 estimate of the number of persons living " below 

 the poverty line " on any such bases as have 

 been adopted by Mr. Chas. Booth or Mr. Rown- 

 tree. They suggest that "the different estimates 

 of the number of underfed children which they 

 have had to consider seem to show that there 

 must be some very variable element which inter- 

 feres with the acceptance of such conclusions as 

 resting on generally accepted data." They refer 

 with approval to the trenchant criticism of the 

 methods employed contained in Mr. Loch's 

 Memorandum, which they print in the Appendix 

 to their Report. The experience of the present 

 writers in Poor Law and Police Court work 

 shows the extreme difficulty of ascertaining the 



