§ Sir JOHN GORSTTo ask the Secretary to the Board of Education if he will state what are the terms of reference to 725 the Departmental Committee now sitting on physical degeneration.
(Answered by Sir William Anson.) The original reference charged the Committee with a preliminary inquiry into the allegations concerning the deterioration of certain classes of the population as shown by the large percentage of rejections for physical causes of recruits for the Army and by other evidence, especially the Report of the Commission on Physical Instruction in Scotland, and to consider in what manner the medical profession can best be consulted on the subject with a view to the appointment of a Royal Commission, and the terms of reference to such a Commission, if appointed, but this reference was subsequently explained to imply the duty (1) to determine, with the aid of such counsel as the medical profession are able to give, the steps that should be taken to furnish the Government and the nation at large with periodical data for an accurate comparative estimate of the health and physique of the people; (2) to indicate generally the causes of such physical deterioration as does exist in certain classes; and (3) to point out the means by which it can be most effectually diminished.