Number of Rooms. Number of Percentage with Children Nutritional Examined. Defects. Children from 2 and 3-roomed 255 17.2 houses 4-roomed houses 486 16.7 5-roomed houses 657 13.2 6-roomed houses 1,486 13.5 Number of Persons per Room. Less than one 877 9.2 One 576 15.4 Between one and two 1,379 15.2 Two and more 181 17.7 Footnote 463: Report of the School Medical Officer for East Ham for 1911, p. 56. The interpretation of these tables, as the School Medical Officer points out, must be guarded. But, he continues, "I think it is safe to assume that nutrition ... suffered the more confined the individual."[464] Footnote 464: _Ibid._, p. 57. Actual physical defects, such as decayed teeth,[465] adenoids or enlarged tonsils, or definite diseases, such as phthisis, may account for malnutrition in many cases. Want of cleanliness again may be a cause.[466] Footnote 465: The School Medical Officer for Cumberland found that whilst, at the age of 3 to 4, 28.4 per cent. of the boys and 38.7 per cent. of the girls were classified as good, "the percentages diminish gradually till at the age of 7 to 8 they are only 12.8 and 15.9, but from 20.4 and 29.7 at the age of 12 to 13 they gradually rise to 36.0 and 34.6 at the age of 14 to 15. Probably in most cases the condition of the teeth is responsible for this falling off in condition. In the early years of life, before the teeth begin to go bad, the nutrition is good, but gradually gets worse as time goes on and more teeth decay, but nutrition again improves after the eruption of the permanent teeth, which, of course, are in the majority of cases sound for some little time." (Report of the School Medical Officer for Cumberland for 1911, p. 20.) Footnote 466: "The cleanliness of the houses and especially of the bedrooms ... has an important bearing on nutrition." (Report of the School Medical Officer for Congleton for 1911, p. 4.) A School Medical Officer in London told us that if a child improved in the point of cleanliness there was a marked improvement also in nutrition.