INDIVIDUALS AND MEASUREMENTS CONSIDERED. 



63 



The materials for adults may be tested for normality, in the 

 general sense in which we have used the term here, in two other 

 ways. 



Age and stature, in adult life, should not be sensibly correlated 

 except as a result of post-maximum shrinkage. Our data cover a 

 portion of the age of pre-maximum increase and of post-maximum 

 decrease as well as the age of maximum stature. Our correlations are 

 given in table 13. Some of the constants are positive while some are 

 negative. In only the athletes are the coefficients as much as 2.5 times 

 as large as their probable errors. When N is small the ordinary stand- 

 ards of trustworthiness can no longer be maintained. Taking the 

 results as a whole, we have no reason to conclude that in the age range 

 covered by our data there is any great change in stature with age. 



TABLE 13. Correlation between age and stature and age and weight and partial correlation 



between age and weight for constant stature. 



For comparison with our own constants we have those for 500 

 criminals examined by Goring. The correlations deduced by Whiting 71 

 are: 



For age and stature r as = +0.023 0.030 



For age and stature with weight constant ^r as = 0.070 0.030 



General observation suggests that individuals tend to gain in weight 

 with increasing age, 72 even after the normal period of growth has 

 passed. In support of such general observation may be cited the 



71 Whiting, Biometrika, 1915, 11, p. 8. 



72 It seems quite possible that the correlation between weight and heat-production may be 



somewhat disturbed by the correlation of weight with age. It is, therefore, necessary to 

 investigate such relationships as this in detail. 



