36 METABOLISM AND GROWTH FROM BIRTH TO PUBERTY. 

 EARLIER DATA SELECTED FOR COMPARISON WITH OUR DATA. 



Employing the commonly accepted standards for normality, i. e., 

 the relationships between body-weight and age and between height 

 and age, we have prepared four charts (figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6), on which 

 we have placed several curves, comparing our measurements of 

 weight and height referred to age for our laboratory children 1 with 

 similar measurements derived from other sources. In selecting data 

 from other sources for comparison we were influenced by the considera- 

 tions outlined above relative to accuracy of measurements and number 

 of subjects measured. Almost at the very outset it was clear to us, 

 as has been pointed out by Holt, 2 that the difference in normal may 

 to a great extent be one of racial characteristics and therefore that 

 little, if any, consideration should be given to the average values of 

 foreign writers, especially when these values deal with a very homo- 

 geneous population. For a working basis, however, for this com- 

 parison, we have chosen, first, as representing foreign children, the 

 values from two typical foreign investigators, i. e., those of Quetelet 3 

 and Schmid-Monnard. 4 Fortunately the fundamental and classical 

 investigations of Bowditch 5 and the more recent studies made in an 

 effort to implant in the American mind the importance of conserving 

 our youth have led to the accumulation of a considerable amount of 

 data which may be stated to be fairly representative of the American 

 people. The more recent data, particularly that of Crum 6 and Wood, 7 

 have been admirably collected by Gray 8 and have been chosen by us 

 as best representative of American children. Finally, we have also 

 made use of measurements secured on private-school children by Holt 9 

 in New York City and by ourselves in private schools in the vicinity 

 of Boston and in eastern Massachusetts. 



The curves for all but our laboratory children and those of Holt 

 were plotted from average values representing definite age-groups. 

 Thus, the weights and heights from Quetelet, Schmid-Monnard, and 

 Wood, as well as those of our private-school children, were averaged 

 for each year, and those from Crum for each 6 months. The curves 



1 We use the term "laboratory children" to indicate those children whose metabolism was directly 



studied by us in one or more of the several respiration apparatus, and to distinguish them 

 from our group of private-school children. 



2 Holt, Am. Journ. Diseases Children, 1918, 16, p. 359. 



3 Quetelet, Anthropometrie, Paris, 1871, pp. 177 and 346; also Sur 1'homme et le developpement 



de ses facultes, Paris, 1835, 2, p. 46. 



4 Schmid-Monnard, Correspondenzbl. d. deutsch. Gesellsch. f. Anthropol., 1900, 31, p. 130. 



6 Bowditch, Growth of children, Public Document, Mass. State Board Health, 1877. Cited 

 by Holt, Am. Journ. Diseases Children, 1918, 16, p. 362. 



6 Crum, Quarterly Pub. Am. Statistical Assn., Sept. 1916, n. s., No. 115, vol. xv, Boston, pp. 



332-336. 



7 Wood, personal communication to Gray. 



8 Gray and Gray, Boston Med. Surg. Journ., 1917, 177, p. 894. 



9 Holt, Am. Journ. Diseases Children, 1918, 16, p. 359. 



