Final report of the Anthropometric Committee / F. Galton, Chairman.

Date:
[1883]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Final report of the Anthropometric Committee / F. Galton, Chairman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tlie other four averages, and it is therefore the average of the four classes rather than of all the individuals measured and weighed. The observa¬ tions referring to adults are fairly representative of the general popu¬ lation as they were received from all parts of the country ; but those referring to children were received from schools devoted to the educa¬ tion of special classes of society, and in numbers which did not correspond with their respective percentage proportion of the general population. By adopting the average of the averages of the four classes into which the school children have been distributed according to the occupations of their parents, the inequality of the percentage proportion has been eliminated. Tables and a diagram showing the mean stature, weight, chest-girth, and strength of males, as deduced from all the observations collected by the Committee, are given in the Report of 1881. 58. Tables (XIII., XIY.) have already been given (s. 53) which show the falling off in the average stature of children of the age 11-12 years, and of adults of the age 25-30 years, as the conditions under which they live are less and less favourable to healthy physical development. The children vary to the extent of five inches, and the adults to 3J inches, and corresponding variations occur in the weights and other physical qualities. 59. Plate X. shows the growth in stature, weight, and strength of individuals of both sexes, and the girth of chest, head, arm, and leg of males as far as they have been recorded in the returns received by the committee. The tracings are made from the averages in the column re¬ presenting the general population. Similar tracings of the standard class (males) having been given in the Report for 1880. 60. An examination of the curves and tables shows the following facts :— (1) Growth is most rapid during the first five years of life; the observations, however, at those ages are not sufficient in number or variety to give a trustworthy average. (2) Prom birth to the age of five years the rate of growth is the same in both sexes, girls being a little shorter in stature and lighter in weight than boys. (3) Prom 5 to 10 years boys grow a little more rapidly than girls, the difference being apparently due to a check in the growth of girls at these ages. (4) From 10 to 15 years girls grow more rapidly than boys, and at the ages 11^ to 14^ are actually taller, and from 12^ to 15^- years actually heavier than boys. This difference appears to be due to a check in the growth of boys as well as an acceleration in the growth of girls incident on the accession of puberty. (5) Prom 15 to 20 years boys again take the lead, and grow at first rapidly, and gradually slower, and complete their growth at about 23 years. After 15, girls grow very slowly, and attain their full stature about the 20th year. (6) The tracings and tables show a slow but steady increase in stature up to the 50th year, and a more rapid increase in weight up to the 60th year in males, but the statistics of females are too few after the age of 23 to determine the stature and weight of that sex at the more advanced periods of life. (7) The curve of the chest-girth in males shows an increase at a rate similar to that of the weight up to the age of 50 years, but it appears to have no definite relation to the curve of stature. (8) The strength of males increases rapidly from 12 to 19 years, and
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