[18]. London School Board, Report of Special Committee on Underfed Children, 1895, Appendix 1, p. 6.
[19]. Mr. Mundella in the House of Commons, Hansard, July 26, 1883, 3rd Series, Vol. 282, pp. 577-9. "The effect on the health of the children," writes the Rector of Rousdon in January, 1885, "may be well exemplified by the most recent illustration—viz., that in the third week of December, though whooping-cough had been, and still was, prevalent among them, and the weather was damp and raw, the entry on the master's weekly report was, absentees, 0—that is, every child on the register had appeared on the Monday morning and paid for its week's dinners. Probably such a circumstance in a rural school district (with radius of a mile and a half at least) in the height of winter is unprecedented." (Sanitary Record, January 15, 1885.)
[20]. The Times, April 15, 1880. Speaking of the children at London Hospitals, Dr. Robert Farquharson writes: "Ill-fed and badly housed and clothed, exposed to depressing sanitary and domestic conditions, these poor creatures are frequently expected to do an amount of school work of which their badly-nourished brains are utterly incapable. I have long been familiar with the pale, dejected look, the chronic headache, the sleeplessness, the loss of appetite, the general want of tone, caused undoubtedly by the undue exercise of nervous tissues unprovided with their proper allowance of healthy food." Such children "are by no means inclined to shirk their lessons; they are frequently much interested in them; but, feeling the responsibility of class and examinations keenly ... they become sleepless and restless, and rapidly lose flesh and strength." (Ibid., April 19, 1880.)
[21]. "That good feeding is necessary for brain nutrition does not need to be demonstrated or even argued at length ... it must be evident that the position in which education places the brains of underfed children is that of a highly-exercised organ urgently requiring food, and finding none or very little. These children are growing, and all or nearly all the food they can get is appropriated by the grosser and bulkier parts of the body to the starvation of the brain.... It is cruel to educate a growing child unless you are also prepared to feed him." (Leading Article, The Lancet, August 4, 1883, Vol. II., pp. 191-2.)
[22]. Hansard, July 26, 1883, 3rd Series, Vol. 282, p. 597.
[23]. Ibid., p. 598.
[24]. The Times, September 16, 1884.
[25]. School Board Chronicle, December 13, 1884, pp. 628-9.
[26]. "It is now admitted that children cannot be expected to learn their lessons unless they are properly fed." (The Times, Leading Article, December 13, 1884.)
[27]. Ibid.