Speech by the Earl of Meath on 6th July, 1903, on the national standard of physical health.

  • Meath, Reginald Brabazon, Earl of, 1841-1929.
Date:
[1903]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Speech by the Earl of Meath on 6th July, 1903, on the national standard of physical health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    W(V /j^ HOUSE of lords. SESSION 1903. SPEECH BY The EARL of MEATH On 6th JULY, 1903, ON The National Standard of Physical Health. The Earl of MEATH: My Lords, I rise to draw the attention of His Majesty's Government to the Report of the Royal Commission on Physical Training in Scotland, and to the Report of the 1 nspec.tor-General of Recruiting for 1902, in which he states that “ the onesubject which causes anxiety in the future as regards recruiting, is the gradual deterioration of the physique of the working classes from which the bulk of the recruits must always be drawn ” ; and to ask His Majesty s Government whether they would be prepared to issue a Royal Commission or a Committee of Inquiry with a view of ascertaining whether the poorer populations in our large towns are exposed to conditions which, if continued, must inevitably contribute to a low national standard of physical health and strength, seeing that if such be the case it would constitute a grave national peril. The Report of the Royal Commission on Physical Training in Scotland, over which my noble friend the Earl of Mansfield presided, and to whom and his colleagues we owe a deep debt of gratitude for bringing before the public in so concise and lucid a manner the present physical conditions of the people of that country, unanimously reported that— there exists in .Scotland an undeniable de- generation of individuals of the classes where tood and environment are defective, which calls tor attention and amelioration in obvious ways, one of which is a well regulated system of physical training.” Do these words apply only to Scotland, or are they applicable to the rest of the United Kingdom i 1 his is the question I desire His Majesty’s Government to take into their most serious considera-