20 DECEMBER 1935, Page 2

The Health of the Child ' The first annual report

of the new Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education, Dr. A. S. MacNalty, sounds an almost lyrical note when its writer declares that, " in this land of fog and mist and, let us add, this land of bright spring days and radiant' summers, the old Greek spirit has been recaptured and harmony between training of the mind and training of the body has been re-established. It is implicit in the aims and objects of State education." This 'is perhaps putting it rather high. In these columns last week it was demon- strated how far we still are from achieving such an ideal in our educational system. Work, it is true, is going forward. Much is being done to establish harmony between bodily and mental training, but a long road' still lies ahead. But that in any case concerns only one section of the Report. Another, equally important,' deals with the feeding of school-children. Under the new milk-in-schools scheme the children receiving milk' on payment have increased from 900,000 to 2,650,000, and the number receiving free milk has increased five times between 1931 and 1935. In spite of this there is full justification for the new circular just issued by the Board of Education calling for more frequent physical examinations of the children with a view to supple-, mentary nutrition where necessary,