TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 851 



■evident that the difficulties of the operation would be diminished if the value were 

 only raised to a lower point. For instance, if it were enacted that 12 rupees 

 ■should go to the 1^., which would only bring the value of the rupee to one shillinn^ 

 and eig'htpence, thus givin» us w" = 17'50 about, x would then be equal to 5,102,508 

 kgr., of which 727,568 kgr. only would have to be- transported without equivalent, 

 and 4,375,000 kgr. would have to be transported in exchange for 250,000 kgr. of 

 gold. And the two operations would give a prolit, to which there would be added 

 the profit to be realised as the result of the transformation of silver merchandise 

 into regulating token currency. 



If it were not thought possible or proper to make any movement of floating 

 capital, in the form of money, from India to England, we should have to lay down, 

 as a new condition, that the quantity of silver imported from India to England 

 should be exactly balanced by the quantity nf gold imported from England to 

 India ; that is to say, we should have to assume 



X = yw", 

 an equation which, taken with the preceding one, gives us finally 



y^ -777-77 — rSa, 



to \w —w') 

 in which two quantities only remain to be arbitrarily determined. It follows 

 immediately that, in order that y may not be too large a fraction of Q^^ w' must be 

 as small as possible, and w" as large as possible. 



WEBJVESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. Food as an Aid to Elementary Education.^ 

 By George Heebert Saegant. 



The plan of providing needy children with food at school dates at least as far 

 J)ack as 1846. Again, about 1859-60, a period of depressed trade like the present, 

 produced cheap dinners for school children, and schemes for providing cheap meals 

 for the working classes. Records have been preserved of tlie early successes of 

 such ventures, but none of their subsequent failure. Similar schemes are now 

 succeeding, and it wiU be interesting to watch whether they will be more 

 permanent. 



Attention was directed by Mr. Mundella in the House of Commons on July 2Q, 

 1883, to Sir Henry Peek's penny dinners at Rousdon. Dr. J. A. Campbell after- 

 wards gave particulars as to similar work at Farnell, N.B. And the experiment 

 was successfully tried on a large scale by the Rev. Moore Ede, at Gateshead. 



At Birmingham in the winter of 1884-85, penny dinners were foimd to be 

 beyond the means of the really poor children. The price has therefore been 

 lowered to a halfpenny, and even to a farthing, but at the same time it has been 

 necessary to give large numbers of the meals free. During last winter (1886-87), 

 four-fifths of the meals were free. 



The children to whom they were given get little or no food at home : they are 

 insufficiently clothed, usually in rags. Their home life is miserable, and though 

 in most cases the influences are not altogether for evil, in many they are hopeles-sly 

 bad. Reduced by privation, they cannot resist disease ; they cannot eat, many are 

 quite imfit for school work. 



The reports as to the results of the children's dinners have been so unsatisfac- 

 tory that I, last winter, tried to make some accurate observations. Children, 

 selected for their great need of food, were fed regularly for some time and their 

 condition before and after carefully recorded. The results thus observed, after 

 being compared with other information, have been divided under three heads : — 



Physical. — Marked improvement in appearance and spirits, and in poT^er to 



• The paper appears in extenso in the Fortnightly Heview for September 1887. 



S I 2 



