Paris has long offered to other cities an inspiring example of an efficient and uniform system for feeding poor school children. She was the first to make systematic provision on a large scale. She had a basis of organisation ready to her hand in the _Caisses des Ecoles_. These bodies correspond in some degree to the English Care Committees, though with a far wider sphere of action. The original object of these school funds was to encourage school attendance by rewards to industrious pupils and help to the needy. The first _Caisse_ was established in 1849 by the National Guard in the second _arrondissement_, and gradually the system spread. In 1867 a law was passed encouraging the formation of _Caisses_ in every _commune_, and directing that their revenues were to consist of voluntary subscriptions and subventions by the commune, department or state.[584] This law was merely permissive, but in 1882, by the Compulsory Education Law, the establishment of these organisations was made obligatory.[585] A _Caisse_ was accordingly set up in each of the twenty _arrondissements_ of Paris. Attendance at school being now compulsory, and it being therefore no longer so necessary to provide incentives to attendance, the _Caisses_, though they still continued to grant prizes, turned their attention more and more to the physical needs of the children, boots, clothing, food, country holidays and, later, creches, Savings Banks, skilled apprenticeship and medical treatment. The _Caisse_ was a voluntary body, but was officially recognised by the municipality. The General Committee was composed of the Mayor, the members of the Municipal Council, and the school inspector for the district, together with from twenty to twenty-four persons elected by the subscribers.[586] Footnote 584: "The Free Feeding of School Children," a reprint of the reports by the Special Sanitary Commissioner of the _Lancet_, 2nd edition, 1907, p. 7. Footnote 585: _Ibid._, p. 8. Footnote 586: _Ibid._, p. 9. As in other towns, the early attempts at feeding poor school children were due to private initiative; meals were provided by the _Caisses des Ecoles_ or other voluntary associations or by philanthropic individuals. These attempts were unco-ordinated and inadequate to deal with the evil of underfeeding. In 1879 the Municipal Council made an enquiry into the whole question. As a result a scheme was drawn up to place the work on a more satisfactory and uniform basis under public control. The provision of meals was entrusted in each _arrondissement_ to the _Caisses des Ecoles_, and a grant of 480,000 francs was voted by the Municipal Council to aid them in this work.[587] Footnote 587: "The Cantines Scolaires of Paris," by Sir Charles A. Elliott, in the _Nineteenth Century_, May, 1906, pp. 834-5.