_Ibid._, Q. 9974. "The critical age," he considered, was "from 10 to 15." Looking at the enormous improvement in children in the Navy and in Industrial Schools, where they were properly fed, he did not "share the pessimistic view that the mischief is hopelessly done by the time a child reaches school age." He felt certain that "the provision of meals would do a great deal to improve the health and growth and development of the children of the poorer classes." (_Ibid._, Qs. 9973, 10047-8, 10051, 10006.) Footnote 93: _Ibid._, Q. 3992. Footnote 94: _Ibid._, Q. 452. Footnote 95: _Ibid._, Q. 475. Footnote 96: _Ibid._, Q. 6484. See also evidence of General Sir T. Maurice, Q. 278. Such were the arguments on the negative side--on the positive side there was ample proof of the good effects of a regular nutritious diet. Dr. Eichholz referred to Dr. Hall's experiment in feeding poor children at Leeds. "Taking sixty poor seven-year-old children, at the beginning of the period they totalled 455 lbs., below normal weight.... They gained in three months forty lbs. in addition to the normal increase in weight" for that time, "and they looked less anaemic and more cheerful."[97] Too much importance must not be attached to these figures since the data on which they are based are not sufficiently known to gauge their value, but that the improvement was very considerable cannot be doubted. Moreover, in the special schools for mentally defective children where meals were regularly provided, the results were astonishing. Dr. Collie told how, "in a large number of instances after the careful individual attention and midday dinner of the special schools," the children "returned after from six to eighteen months to the elementary schools with a new lease of mental vigour. These children are functionally mentally defective.... Their brains are starved, and naturally fail to react to the ordinary methods of elementary teaching."[98] "Bad nutrition and normal brain development," he added, "are incompatible."[99] Footnote 97: _Ibid._, evidence of Dr. Eichholz, Q. 486. Footnote 98: _Ibid._, evidence of Dr. Collie, Q. 3938. Footnote 99: _Ibid._, Q. 3973.