A statistical study of oral temperatures in school children with special reference to parental, environmental and class differences / by M.H. Williams and Karl Pearson.

  • Williams, Mary Hamilton.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A statistical study of oral temperatures in school children with special reference to parental, environmental and class differences / by M.H. Williams and Karl Pearson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Table M, Height, Weight, Temperature and Pathological Conditions, Height and Weight at years. Temperature at 12 and 13 years. Means Height (inches) Weight (lbs.) Temperature Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Normal Phthisical (Ph. + Ph. ?) Rheumatic (Rh. + Rh. ?) 54- 72 + -14 .54-22 ± -09 55- 07 ± -09 55-76 +-15 54- 90 ±-10 55- 37 ±-08 72- 99+ -47 70-89 +-31 73- 26 ±-31 76-13 + -61 71- 55+ -35 72- 74 ±-29 98- 95 +-02 99- 67 +-01 99-63 ±01 99-07 + -01 99-74+ -01 99-74±-01 Standard Deviations Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Normal Phthisical (Ph. + Ph. ?) Rheumatic (Rh. + Rh.?) 2-898+ 098 2 681 + -062 2-577 +-061 3-200 +-107 3-130+ -072 2-963+ -058 9-754+ -330 9-502+ -220 9-222 +-217 11-124+ -290 10- 340+ -255 11- 269 +-218 0-394 +-oil 0-422 + -008 0-458 + -009 0-401 + -010 0-409 + -007 0-452 + -007 Now this table brings out some extremely interesting points. The temperature of both boys and girls is significantly higher in the pathological groups, although there is nothing as far as temperature is concerned to distinguish between the average temperature in the phthisical and rheumatic groups. Thus the temperature confirms the clinical diagnosis. But if we turn to the Weight and Height columns we see for both boys and girls that only the phthisical show diminished physique. The rheumatic boys are heavier and taller than the normal, and although the weight and height of the rheumatic girls are not as large as those of the normal girls, there is not much difference in height; further the weight of the normal girls appears to be somewhat exaggerated relative to the boys. Turning to the variabilities, we see that the pathological groups are more variable in temperature than the normal children, the rheumatic being more variable than the phthisical. But in height and weight, with the one exception of the rheumatic girls, the pathological groups are less variable than the normal children. Thus if we were dealing solely with a mixture of phthisical and normal children, we might have anticipated a quite considerable correlation between weight or height and temperature, but a condition like the rheumatic shows us that a higher temperature may be associated, as it is in boys, with greater weight and stature. It is probable that it is these different effects, under different pathological states, which produce the very low correlations between physique and temperature we have already noted. We have seen that there is no appreciable relation between order of birth and temperature. We have data for 861 children, boys and girls aged 12 and 13, with regard to their order of birth and their pathological state. The data are very irregular and the normals are so relatively few that we have placed the doubtful phthisical and rheumatic cases with them and obtained the following results;