Abstract
THE debate in the House of Lords on July 12 on the subject of national physical training—introduced by Lord Samuel, discussed in an admirable expository speech by Lord Dawson of Penn, and answered on behalf of the Government by Lord Clifden—has again directed public attention, to the urgency of a problem which was first officially raised by the Physical Deterioration Committee of 1904, so long as thirty-six years ago. It will be remembered that that Committee held a grand inquest on the physical condition of the English people, the greatest inquiry of its kind since the Royal Sanitary Commission of 1868: “The people perish for lack of knowledge.” It thus set going the action of the State to remedy matters, and recommended the medical inspection and feeding of school children, with the hygiene and physical training of boys, girls and adolescents. Indeed it made fifty-three separate recommendations, some fifty of which have now been adopted or discharged. Their beneficial effects were recognized during the War of 1914–18 by the Ministry of National Service and its Galloway Report on the physical examination of recruits in 1917–18. Now the War recalls us once more to tackle the same old problem.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
NEWMAN, . Physical Education in Great Britain. Nature 146, 115–116 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/146115a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/146115a0