280 
NATURE 
[May 16, 1912 
FOOD AND THE CHILD. 
Ee conferences held in London since our last 
issue show that increasing attention is being 
given to questions relating to the physical and mental 
development of children from a national point of 
view. At one conference, held at the Guildhall, the 
subjects considered related to diet at public and private 
secondary schools; and at the other, held at the 
University of London, the health of the child in rela- 
tion to its mental and physical development formed the 
general basis of discussion. 
Of all that mankind has attempted since the world 
began, there is nothing which it has practised so 
regularly, so persistently, and on the whole so success- 
fully as eating and drinking. It is therefore some- 
what disquieting to find the great civilised nations 
suddenly smitten with misgivings as to whether the 
rising generation is being suitably nourished. It is 
admitted that the provender provided for the better- 
class school children of to-day is more abundant in 
quantity, better in quality, and better served than 
that supplied to their immediate ancestors; that it is, 
indeed, exceptional for the fare to be actually deficient 
in amount, while, whatever its form, it certainly com- 
prises those essential elements of proteids, fats, and 
carbohydrates upon which previous generations 
achieved a national pre-eminence. Yet, evidence 
accumulates to the effect that all is not well with the 
school child in relation to his diet; and, this being 
so, the impression arises that the fault lies with the 
eater at least as much as with the food supplied to 
him. This also appeared to be the opinion of most 
of those who spoke with authority and from experi- 
ence at the recent conference on school diets. 
The healthy normal child will eat with avidity of 
plain wholesome fare, and may even be trusted to 
eat of it to repletion without risk of injury, it was 
stated. But, by the healthy normal child was clearly 
meant one whose teeth were sound, who used them 
effectively for complete mastication, and whose natural 
appetite had not been vitiated by a too promiscuous 
feeding on more highly seasoned viands at home. 
Now only a small proportion of school children possess 
quite sound teeth. The rest have mouths more or 
less septic, and, consequently, infected digestive 
tracts. Practically none masticate their food com- 
pletely, and their digestion is by so much the further 
hampered; while many of those belonging to the 
upper social classes, when at home, share the more 
delicately prepared and attractively flavoured foods 
which are needed to stimulate the faded appetites of 
their parents, and consequently come to regard simpler 
fare as insipid and unappetising. 
The situation is one of national importance. It 
calls for a reform of the home dietary and upbringing 
—hbeginnine in the earliest nursery days—dquite as 
much as for a reform of school diets. The latter 
may, indeed, be here and there modified with advan- 
tage, both in matter and in method; these details, 
important enough in themselves, were more or less 
clearly hinted at, but a single-day conference did not 
provide the time for their adequate consideration. 
The conference, so far as it went, was as a useful and 
most suggestive troubling of the waters. Its repeti- 
tion on a more complete and more comprehensive 
scale would serve to bring out with greater clearness 
the need for some effective collaboration between the 
home and the school in relation to one of the most 
important factors in determining the future of the 
race. 
At the conference of child-study societies existing 
in various parts of the kingdom, held on May o-11 
in the University of London, an address was 
delivered by Sir James Crichton-Browne, the presi- | 
NO. 2220, VOL. 89] 
, dent of the central society. He took for his subject 
the need for proper classification and education of 
feeble-minded children, with especial reference to the 
discrimination of those who presented mentally 
abnormal qualities not amounting to feeble-minded- 
ness, and those whose mental defects might by suit- 
able education under medical guidance be removed 
and their minds strengthened. At the meeting on 
May 10, papers were read by Dr. Kerr Love, on the 
influence of defects of hearing in relation to the 
mental and physical development of the child, and 
by Mr. Bishop Harman, on the influence of defects 
of vision in relation to the mental and _ physical 
development of the child. Mr. B. P. Jones, as a 
teacher of the deaf, gave a successful demonstration 
with two ex-scholars of what may be done for the hard 
of hearing. Dr. Jane Walker read a paper on the 
tuberculous child. In the afternoon, a visit was paid 
to Sir Francis Campbell’s normal college for the 
blind, where an excellent musical performance was 
given by members of the college. In the evening 
Dr. Saleeby lectured on eugenics and child-study. At 
the meeting on May 11, Dr. Hyslop read a paper on 
mental hygiene in relation to the development of the 
child, and a discussion ensued in which Dr. Perey 
Nunn and Mr. Kirkpatrick, of the Normal College, 
Fitchbury, Mass., took part. A discussion followed 
on the instruction of the young in sexual hygiene, in 
the course of which admirable addresses were 
delivered by several ladies. In the evening the dele- 
gates were entertained by Sir Richard and Lady 
Martin at their house in Hill Street. The next con- 
ference will be held at Liverpool. 
THE REFORM MOVEMENT AT 
CAMBRIDGE. 
(ree progressive party in Cambridge has lost 
heart about reforming the University from the 
inside, and a memorial asking for a Royal Com- 
mission, which has been signed by six professors and 
some twenty-two other members of the University, is 
being generally circulated: for signatures. The 
signatories hope that power may be given to the 
commission to make statutes in regard to such 
matters as financial and other relations between the 
University and the colleges, and the administration of 
funds devoted to fellowships, scholarships, and ex- 
hibitions. A certain number of those usually 
associated with reform movements in the University 
have withheld their signatures, partly, apparently, 
because they mistrust the sort of commission they 
anticipate the present Government would nominate, 
and partly because they feel that the resident members 
have by no means made up their minds on what lines 
they would wish reform to be initiated; but some at 
least hold the view that it is not desirable that the 
commission should have power to frame statutes. 
The petition is as follows :— 
To the Right Hon. H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister. 
We, the undersigned resident members of the 
Senate of the University of Cambridge, desire to lay 
before you a request that a commission may be 
appointed to inquire into the constitution of the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge, the financial and other relations 
which exist between the University and the colleges, 
and the administration of funds devoted to fellow- 
ships, scholarships, and exhibitions; and that power 
may be given to the commission to make statutes in 
regard to these matters. 
We venture to remind you that on July 24, 1907, 
in the House of Lords, the Marquess of Crewe, speak- 
ing on behalf of the Government, stated that the 
