Science and Physical Development 



numbers of recruits being rejected for enlistment. 

 It is almost the only breakfast food of the factory 

 women, and is repeated very often with "pickles 

 and vinegar" for the mid-day meal. Hence, of 

 course, dyspepsia, then alcohol to allay the pain, 

 and physical and mental ruin for the woman and 

 her children only too often follows. 1 



Not only is there ignorance as to the uses of 

 foods, but " a very general disinclination to spend 

 sufficient money upon food, even among those 

 with ample resources," especially young women. 

 Desire for adornment, love of amusement, and 

 especially betting and drink these consume the 

 money which should go for food, and which even 

 without these deductions would hardly suffice in 

 a vast number of cases to adequately feed the 

 family. There is no need to fill in the details of 

 this picture they are far too familiar. What 

 remedy has our Committee to offer us ? There 

 is need of "training of a socially educative char- 

 acter among girls and young women," of " mothers' 

 meetings and lectures conducted on simple and 

 practical lines," of " health visitors in the employ- 

 ment of the Local Authority, or acting in co-opera- 

 tion with it," of radical reform in the present 

 unpractical methods of teaching girls at school, 

 and still more of compulsory attendance twice a 

 week of all girls who have left school, at continua- 

 tion classes where physical training shall be given, 

 discipline enforced, and every branch of domestic 

 hygiene taught. Are these reforms too much to 



1 See Report, p. 41. 

 29 



