§ Mr. CHARLES BATHURSTasked whether, as the result of the statement contained in the Annual Report for 1909 of the chief medical officer of the Board that 20 to 40 per cent. of the 6,000,000 children in the public elementary schools of England and Wales suffer from extensive and injurious decay of the teeth, and in view of the opinion of the medical officers that such condition is largely traceable to the consumption of bread from which the germ and the skins of the grain have been mechanically extracted to ensure whiteness, and of the general ignorance as to food values and the preparation of food for human consumption, any steps are being taken by the Board, by the preparation of a special syllabus of domestic economy instruction or other- 550 wise, to minimise the magnitude of youthful physical degeneracy disclosed by the above Report?
§ Mr. TREVELYANThe Board's medical officers have expressed no opinion as to the relation between the consumption of bread of any particular character and decay of the teeth. The best hope of arresting tendencies to physical degeneration appear to the Board to lie in the development of the school medical service and of school hygiene in its various aspects. In this connection the Board rely upon the efforts of local education authorities, care committees, and others to secure the co-operation of parents. The Board do not propose at present to attempt to deal with the matter by means of the issue of syllabuses, but the hon. Member need feel no doubt that the whole subject is engaging the earnest consideration of the Board.