248 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE PHYSIQUE OF SCHOLAES, ATHLETES AND THE 



AVERAGE STUDENT 



By Professor D. A. SARGENT 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



IN the year 1893 Dr. W. T. Porter, now professor of comparative 

 physiology in the Harvard Medical School, examined some 30,000 

 children who were attending the public schools of St. Louis, Mo. He 

 found that among pupils of the same age, ranging from 6 to 18 years, 

 the average height and weight of those who were in the higher grades 

 were greater than that of those who were in the lower grades. In 

 other words he found that those pupils who were mentally the most 

 precocious were also physically the most precocious. This announce- 

 ment called forth considerable criticism at the time, and many teachers, 

 recalling a number of exceptionally bright pupils who were small in 

 stature for their age, doubted the truth of the statement. It is of 

 great scientific interest, therefore, to note that Porter's conclusions have 

 since been confirmed by observations made by Hastings in Omaha, 

 Nebr., by Byer in Cambridge, Christopher in Chicago, Roberts in 

 London, Burgerstein in Vienna and by Leharzig in St. Petersburg. In 

 the face of such a body of concurrent statistics from different parts of 

 this country and Europe, no one can doubt for a moment the natural 

 relationship between a vigorous brain and a vigorous body. Moreover 

 this intimate relationship between body and mind does not appear to be 

 limited to growing youth as shown by the statistics to which I have 

 just referred, but it is true of all classes of individuals when taken 

 collectively. For instance the fellows of the Royal Society of Eng- 

 land and the English professional class, who may be said to represent 

 the greatest brain power of the British Empire, average respectively 5 

 feet 9% inches and 5 feet 9*4 inches in height and 160 pounds in 

 weight ; while lunatics, criminals, idiots and imbeciles who may be said 

 to represent the other end of the intellectual scale, if they are not 

 classed as mentally defective, average in height from 5 feet 7 inches to 

 5 feet 4.87 inches, and average in weight from 147 pounds to 123 

 pounds. Here is a difference of 4.88 inches in average height and 37 

 pounds in average weight between the highest and lowest classes of 

 English society as represented by members of the Royal Society and 

 idiots and imbeciles. Compared with the general population, lunatics 

 according to Roberts show a deficiency of stature of 1.96 inches and 



