Note 19 — Chapter I · THE HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT FOR THE PROVISION OF SCHOOL MEALS

Mr. Mundella in the House of Commons, Hansard, July 26, 1883, 3rd Series, Vol. 282, pp. 577-9. "The effect on the health of the children," writes the Rector of Rousdon in January, 1885, "may be well exemplified by the most recent illustration—viz., that in the third week of December, though whooping-cough had been, and still was, prevalent among them, and the weather was damp and raw, the entry on the master's weekly report was, absentees, 0—that is, every child on the register had appeared on the Monday morning and paid for its week's dinners. Probably such a circumstance in a rural school district (with radius of a mile and a half at least) in the height of winter is unprecedented." (Sanitary Record, January 15, 1885.)