192 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 
These figures are nearer to expectations, although unsatisfactory for 
those who aim at 100 per cent. efficiency. 
The proportions of Grade I. varied from 80-85 per cent. in rural areas, 
over 75 per cent. in mining areas, 72 per cent.in the suburbs around London, 
down to 49 per cent. in the crowded industrial areas of Lancashire. Some 
of the Scottish returns in particular indicate the price of urbanisation, 
at the ages of eighteen to twenty-one-* 
Rural | | Metal 
: i Small . 
| a Agriculturists| Miners... | workers | Towns City 
| a eee ree I | 
GradelL | 85-7. | 806) |). 862 | 727 63 
a ee | 1-9 | 9-3 | 8-2 13-2 17 
7 ap Le 4-4 7-2 | 2-9 | 9-6 12 
3 AV: 2-0 | 2-9 2-6 | 4-4 7 
There is nothing in these figures to suggest that the British people 
have degenerated more than other nations. The German pre-war figures ” 
showed 72 per cent. fit or prospectively fit for service and 28 per cent. less 
fit or unfit for service, with the same contrast between the rural and urban, 
the agricultural and the textile areas, as is noted in Britain; while the 
United States rejected 21 per cent. of their draft of men from twenty-one 
to thirty years of age.* In the latter country the higher proportion of 
rejections were from the urbanised and more industrial States, and the 
lowest from the more rural and sparsely populated areas of the West. 
In general it may be noted that many of the causes of low grading 
at all ages were defects which would readily yield to treatment in their 
initial stages, and that great advantage would arise from the establishment 
of a social tradition in favour of early treatment, and in particular against 
septic mouths and uncared-for teeth. The younger members of the 
community are greatly in advance in these respects, and it is clear that 
the school, and its ancillary accompaniments, must now be reckoned 
among the most powerful of public health agencies. 
Actual data on stature are very sparse in the reports of the recruiting 
boards ; the figures are below those of the British Association Committee 
taken as a whole, but differ little if at all in those areas in which corre- 
sponding classes of the community can be compared, while the relation 
between physique and occupation is of the same order in the two reports. 
The Ministry returns show that a large number of the adult male population 
examined as conscripts in 1918 had statures between 64 and 67 inches, but 
the average figure obtained has little significance as an index of the whole 
pre-war population, since a large proportion of the tall stock had already 
enlisted. The returns from the United States 7 show that the average 
stature of the members of their draft who had been born in Britain was 
Scottish 67-9, English 67-7, a distinctly higher figure, probably to be 
explained by the greater tendency of the taller stock, the Nordic, to 
emigrate to fresh fields. The lowest statures quoted by the recruiting 
* Report, Ministry of National Service, vol. i., p. 132. 
5 Rep. Inter-departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration, vol. iii., p. 56. 
6 * Defects found in Drafted Men.’ Washington. 
7 Report of Medical Dept., U.S.A. Army, vol. xv., Pt. I., p. 106. 
