Report of the Inter-departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration.
- Great Britain. Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration.
- Date:
- 1904
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Report of the Inter-departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![EEPOET. To THE Lord President of the Council. My Loed Marquess, 1. The Committee appointed by your Lordship's predecessor, the Duke of Devonshire, late Lord President of the Council, under His Grace's order of reference of the 2nd day of September, 1903, beg leave tn report that they have sat on twenty-six days for the purpose of hearing evidence and that they have examined sixty-eight witnesses, from England, Scotland and Ireland, of whom fifty-four were men and fourteen women. Out of this number, twenty- three (twenty men and three women) held official positions, either under His Majesty's Government or under Local Authorities throughout the Kingdom, in connection with Local Administration, Schools and Factories ; thirteen of the official witnesses were members of the medical profession, which besides was represented by twenty-one other witnesses, seven of whom were specially nominated to give evidence by the Eoyal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons and by the British Dental Association ; two witnesses were noted anthropologists, two were Members of Parliament, and the remainder were either independent authorities or representative of well-known organizations and charitable institutions. 2. For convenience sake this Eeport is divided into three parts, the first consisting of an examination into the evidence deduciblc from the War Office figures and a statement of the steps required to obtain reliable data for deter- mining questions of national physique, the second and largest part dealing with the causes and indications of degeneracy in certain classes of the com- mmiity and the means by which it may be arrested, and the third part con- taining a summary of the ])rincipal recommendations which the Committee desire to make. Part I. 3. Before the Committee proceeded to take personal evidence they deemed it their duty under the terms of their reference to consider what information of a documentary character was available which could throw any light upon the questions they were directed to investigate. 4. The Memoranda issued by the War Office upon the responsibility of the Director-General of the Army Medical Service and the Insjiector-General of Recruiting were necessarily the first to engage their attention. It appeared that soon after the publication of these Memoranda the Secretary of State for the Home Department had addressed a communication to the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons respectively, asking for observations on a pro- posed inquiry into the causes which have led to the rejection in recent years of so many recruits for the Army on the ground of physical disability, and the possible measures by which this state of things might be remedied. By the courtesy of the Secretary of State the Committee were furnished with copies of the replies of both Colleges, which, with subsequent correspondence, will be found in the Appendix. 5. It is sufficient to state here that these replies appeared to point to the following conclusions: (1) that the evidence adduced in the Director-General's Memorandum was inadequate to prove that physical deterioration had affected the classes referred to ; (2) that no sufficient material (statistical or other) was at present available to warrant any definite conclusions on the question of the physique of the people by comparison with data obtained in past times ; (3) that a partial investigation, as for instance into the condition of the classes from which recruits are at present mostly drawn, might be very misleading, however carefully conducted, and might give rise to erroneous conclusions on the general question unless checked by expert knowledge. 174. A](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21358916_0009.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
