The undersigned members of the medical profession,

having constantly before us the serious physical and moral conditions of degeneracy and disease resulting from the neglect and infraction of the elementary laws of Hygiene, venture to urge the Central Educational Authorities of the United Kingdom (the Board of Education of England and Wales, the Scotch Education Department, the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland and the Intermediate Education Board of Ireland). 

To consider whether

it would not be possible to include in the curricula of the Public Elementary Schools, and to encourage in the Secondary Schools, such teaching as may, without developing any tendency to dwell on what is unwholesome, lead all the children to appreciate at their true value healthful bodily conditions as regards Cleanliness, Pure Air, Food, Drink, etc…

Having regard to the fact that much of the degeneracy, disease and accident with which medical men are called upon to deal, is directly or indirectly due to the use of Alcohol, and that a widespread ignorance prevails concerning not only the nature and properties of this substance but also its effects on the body and the mind, we would urge the Board of Education of England and Wales, the Scotch Education Department and the Irish Education Authorities to include in the simple hygienic teaching which we desire, elementary instruction at an early age on the nature and effects of Alcohol. 

We gladly recognise (i) the value of the teaching on this subject given in some schools in Ireland and in a proportion of the schools of Great Britain, by means of reading primers, moral instruction talks, etc., and (2) the excellence of the occasional Temperance lessons provided in certain Schools by voluntary organisations:  but until the four Central Educational Authorities of the United Kingdom includes this subject as part of the system of National Education, it appears to us that the mass of the pupils must fail as at present to receive that systematic teaching of Hygiene and of the nature and effects of Alcohol, which alone we consider adequate to meet the national need. 

Finally, we would venture to urge the necessity of ensuring that the training of all teachers shall include adequate instruction in these subjects...