Statistical observations on the growth of the human body (males) in height and weight, from eighteen to thirty years of age / by J.T. Danson.

  • John T. Danson
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statistical observations on the growth of the human body (males) in height and weight, from eighteen to thirty years of age / by J.T. Danson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ages 23 to 26, gives 66*49 inches in the earlier, and 65*53 inches in the later period—or nearly an inch of difference. And, in like manner, for the ages 27 to 30, we have the figures 66*94, followed by 65*85, showing more than an inch of deficiency in the later period. On the whole, it would seem that the men of 1877-78 were, on an average, at each age, at least half-an-inch shorter than the men of 1867-68. But this is not confirmed by a comparison of the tables of weights. We find that the men of the later period were, generally, the heavier. But it seems now to be well understood among those best acquainted with the subject, that mere height and weight in a soldier, as in others working in the open air, is of less consequence than maturity. The late Dr. Parkes, in his “ Manual of Practical “ Hygiene” (fourth edition, pp. 493 and 494), drew the attention of our naval and military authorities to some important details in the final growth of the bones and muscles of the human body, whence it is to be inferred that the men of this and other European countries do not, in fact, arrive at physical maturity till they are about 30 years of age; and so do not, before that age, acquire their full capacity for exertion and endurance. The figures now before us, imperfect as they are in other respects, certainly lead us directly to the same conclusion. But this widely differs from the popular notion. That has long and widely consecrated the age of 21, or thereabouts, as the age of maturity. The armies of the world, in accordance with the popular notion, have long been, and still are, composed mainly of men much under thirty years of age. Our own recruits are accepted at 18, and often, through deception, at less. Yet the marches, the priva¬ tions, and the exposure of a campaign have always strewed the road¬ sides, and filled the hospitals, mainly with the younger men. Now it can hardly be doubted that, for all severe physical exertion or endurance, the conditions are the same ; and if this be so, we have, for lack of sound statistics, long been practising, with most precious material, a most unsound economy. I trust, therefore, that unsatisfactory as this paper is, in many respects, it may be of use : if only as attracting additional attention to a subject of some importance, and suggesting more careful collection, and more considerate use, of the order of facts on which it is founded. WELLCOME INSTITUTE LIBRARY Coll. Coll. N&- wcfMOmec pcm 7 ~r —. _ ORDINART TO HER MA/ESTY, iT. martin’s LANE.
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