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
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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![From the Journal of the Statistical Societt, December, 1881. Statistical Observations on the Growth of the Human Body (Males) in Height and Weight, from Eighteen to Thirty Years of Age, as Illustrated by the Records of the Borough Gaol of Liverpool. By J. T. Danson, Esq. [Head before the Statistical Society, 18th January, 1881.] The subject of this paper, lying as it does somewhat beyond the usual range of our inquiries, seems to need some apology. It is our province, however, to collect facts, and especially such as have a national value ; and the excellence of a nation may be said to have its main root in a sound knowledge, and an apt use, of the human body. The animal man, as he exists in these islands, is the especial object of our patriotism. His good physical condition is the prime object of our public policy; but even his average height, and weight, when at maturity, or at what age he really attains that condition, may be said to be yet unknown. The delicacies, or the prejudices, of our time compel us to seek all such knowledge under difficulties. We have to resort, almost exclusively, to the dregs of the population. Hence we as yet know very little, and that little imperfectly; and hence the comparative poverty of the material, on a subject which might seem very simple and familiar, to which I have to invite your attention this evening. About twenty years ago I had occasion to visit the borough gaol of Liverpool. It is at Walton, a few miles from the town. It is large, and was then recently built; and its mode of management was then, and I believe still is, about as good as any yet in use. Under the law then in force, each prisoner committed for more than one month was, as he entered, and again as he left, measured for height, and also weighed. The purpose of this practice was to afford to the medical officer in charge of the prisoners, some precise data on which he might base his observation of the effect upon them of the prison treatment. The practice of measuring and weighing the prisoners on their discharge was afterwards abandoned. Bearing in mind the elaborate work of the eminent Belgian statist, M. Quetelet, “On Man, and the development of his Faculties,1’ and remembering the very narrow basis on which, for wrant of fuller material, he had been compelled to found some of his most important conclusions, I saw here an opportunity of obtaining some valuable additional information. Having got access to the gaol](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30473925_0004.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
