The physical examination and development of public school boys, based upon records of over 40,000 observations : a paper read before the Associaton on April 4th, 1899 / by Cecil Hawkins.

Hawkins, Cecil.

Date:: 1900

Credit: The physical examination and development of public school boys, based upon records of over 40,000 observations : a paper read before the Associaton on April 4th, 1899 / by Cecil Hawkins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$which I have worked throughout. On the base line in the figure the numbers 10, 20 . . . refer to the number of boys per cent, who are below the height which is found upon the vertical scale opposite to the points where the vertical lines through the numbers 10, 20 . . . cross our curve of distribution. To draw the curve, we first observe that 29 of the boys are less than 56 in. in height. This is, roughly, 2 per cent, of the whole number, so we make a dot on the horizontal line through 56, at a distance from the left equal to 2 of the hundred parts into which our base line can be divided. Including these 29, there are 116 whose height is less than 58 in., which is 7 per cent, of the whole number, so we put a dot on the line through 58, at a distance from the left equal to 7 per cent, of our base line, and so on, 20 per cent, being below 60 in., 40 per cent, below 62 in., &c. (I have omitted fractions, and in actual practice I should not be satisfied with so rough an approximation as a mark at every 2 inches). When all the marks have been made, they are joined by a flowing curve, with the result shown in the diagram. Portions of the similar curves for boys of 14 and boys of 16 are also shown. Now, let us consider the Mean Boy. He is the boy whom the greatest number of other boys most closely resemble. He is the boy generally meant when people talk about the average boy. He is not precisely the same as the average boy, but their dimensions are so nearly alike that no great harm can be done by confusing them. He is the boy whose growth takes place along the line marked 50, so that he measures 60j- in. at 14, 62| in. at 15, and 65J- in. at 16. This is my mean boy computed from a large number of observations at various public schools, and Fig. 1 shows that he closely resembles Mr. Roberts’ average public school boy. Now, if we are to have only one standard boy, this mean boy must be the right one to take, since a larger number of boys can be readily compared with him than with any single boy whose growth takes place along one of the other vertical lines in our diagram ; but in all other respects any boy whose growth takes place along one of the vertical lines is equally suitable as a standard, since he always keeps$