A striking letter on our physical deterioration from Dr. Farquharson,
the popular Member for West Aberdeenshire, appeared in last Saturday's Times. As a former Army doctor, medical officer to one of our great public schools, and physician to a leading hospital, Dr. Farquharson claims the attention due to an expert. He admits that the conditions now prevailing in our elementary schools are far less likely to lead to overpressure than when Sir J. Crichton-Browne inaugurated his crusade twenty years ago; but when he pleads for the establishment of a free breakfast-table as a corollary to free education, he neglects to forestall the obvious objections to such a scheme. With his longing for patriarchal legislation to deal with juvenile cigarette-smoking we find ourselves more in sympathy, and he makes an excellent point in insisting on the short-sighted policy which denies a messing allowance to recruits at so critical a period in their development.
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