RESERVOIR OF PHYSICAL STRENGTH 13 



does not injure our credit to the extent of a single 

 penny. 



Finally, a large rural population is the national 

 reservoir of physical strength. This is no vague 

 assertion, no unsupported tradition. It may be true 

 that the existence of physical deterioration in the great 

 industrial towns cannot yet be proved, but the condi- 

 tions likely to produce physical deterioration can be 

 detected plainly enough. Take the Report for 1915 

 of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education. 

 It is impossible to summarise the figures here, but the 

 medical examination of the Elementary School children 

 in England and Wales showed that in the rural areas 

 the children were noticeably superior to the town 

 children in cleanliness — and disease wanes and waxes 

 in schools in direct proportion to the personal cleanliness 

 of the children — and exhibited fewer cases of malnu- 

 trition, defective eyesight,^ and most diseases. 



In submitting this Report Sir George Newman says : 

 " In particular I venture to lay emphasis upon the 

 extreme value of an open-air life and a proper system of 

 physical training." 



No one could contemplate the draining of the national 

 reservoir of health without the most serious alarm. 

 Yet that is just what we are threatened with. Even 



1 On the vital matter of eyesight the Report says : " It is inter- 

 esting to note the difference in the percentage of serious defect in 

 vision for the several tjrpes of areas. In the county areas which 

 are largely rural in their constitution, the percentage judged on 

 the examination of 18,273 children, is 9'2 ; in the county boroughs 

 on an examination of 28,634 children, 25'1 ; in the boroughs on an 

 examination of 15,732 children, 14-0 ; and in the urban districts 

 On an examination of 8,489 children, 13*3. These figiires would 

 appear to show that the child living in the country has a distinct 

 advantage in the matter of vision over the town child." 



