Summarising the results of this investigation, those set out in the first part of the paper are, on the whole, very gratifying. Making due allowances for difficulties of comparison, there is little doubt that entrants now are in a better condition than they were twenty years ago. The characters, e.g. general nutrition and state of teeth, for which there has been no improvement or actually a set back in recent years are those which might be expected to have been influenced by transitory conditions due to the war and are also those the measurement of which most closely depends upon the standard adopted; this standard has probably risen.

In the second part of the paper, I have shown that there is an intimate relation between various defects which develop before, sometimes long before, school age and defects or disabilities which are of grave importance during school life. How far one is dealing with environmental effects and how far with inborn weaknesses cannot, of course, be ascertained without further data; but it is clear that the care of the child before admission to school is a matter deserving as much attention as possible, even with respect to shortcomings often attributed to factors only coming into play during school age.