FOOD OF RURAL CHILDREN 137 



4. The housewives, chiefly through lack of knowledge of even the simplest 

 principles of good nutrition, do not make provision for meeting the food 

 requirements of growing children. The meals are planned almost solely from 

 the point of view of the tastes of the adult members of the household, and 

 the children have free access to anything on the faJiiily table, in quantity 

 as well as in kind. 



5. The medical examinations, having been made from the angle of incidence 

 of tuberculosis, did not produce many data bearing on the state of nutrition 

 or on the general health of the children. 



6. In this study, therefore, the records of condition of teeth are the 

 principal available data for evaluating states of nutrition. Since the dental 

 examinations were conducted with extreme care and by an able hygienist, 

 these data have a high degree of accuracy. 



7. The six-year molars, the four first permanent molars, have been chosen 

 as the teeth to be used for purposes of comparisons, thus obviating chances- 

 of error arising from data based on teetli with varying tendencies toward 

 decay. 



8. Judging l)oth from the number of all permanent teeth with unftlled 

 cavities, the size of the cavities, and the number of first permanent molars 

 either carious or with fissures, the teeth of the children of Southwick were on 

 the whole in much better condition than those of the Carver children. This 

 is particularly true of the two groups of children of native stock. 



9. The smallness of the numbers does not permit detailed classifications of 

 condition of molars and diet, but the excellence of the teeth of the South- 

 wick children as compared with those of the Carver children is believed to 

 have as its chief causal factor the high milk consumption of Southwick and 

 the low milk utilization of Carver. No other difference between the two 

 towns — economic, social or dietary — has been found to explain the difference 

 in the teeth. 



10. Because of the many elements, hereditary and environmental, which 

 affect the physical state of the individual, and the imjiossibility of isolating 

 factors, let aJone controlling them, relationsihips of cause and effect cannot 

 here be demonstrated from the records of individual children. Nevertheless, 

 large group differences are undoubtedly significant, and the objectives of 

 this study were best attained in the presentation of material showing the 

 positive correlation between milk consumption and condition of teeth. 



PART V. APPENDIX 



1. School blank 



2. Home blank 



3. Dental record form 



