38 METABOLISM AND GROWTH FROM BIRTH TO PUBERTY. 



children were of American-born parents, but were of different stocks, 

 including German, Irish, Swedish, and some Italian. According to 

 Crum's statement, the measurements were made upon "normal healthy 

 children in various sections of the country" 1 and "should serve as a 

 fair guide for many practical purposes without any additional refine- 

 ments." 1 Professor Wood's measurements were made on several 

 thousand boys and girls in the Horace Mann School, connected with 

 Columbia University. The heights and weights were taken without 

 clothing, but he adds the important information that the "weight of 

 clothing ranges from about 3 pounds in five-year-old children to 6 or 7 

 pounds in older pupils, and is slightly greater for boys' than girls' 

 clothing." 2 He considers that these measurements are fairly repre- 

 sentative of healthy children in the United States. 



In quoting from Professor Wood, Gray very properly brings out 

 that "a child who is short in stature for his age is apt to be under 

 weight" 2 and that children of constant age but varying height should 

 have different weights ; but for our purpose we have taken the average 

 value of all the weights and all the heights at the several ages, as 

 reported by Crum and Wood, and have included them in a combined 

 curve on our charts. It is of considerable interest to note in the 

 several charts that there is no striking break in the curve between 

 4 years of age, where Crum's data end, and 5 years of age, where 

 Wood's begin, but that the curve is reasonably regular- in character. 

 To indicate the lack of data between 4 and 5 years of age this portion 

 of the curve has been drawn in as a broken line. 



Holt's measurements were obtained on boys only, in the Browning 

 School in New York City, a school which in his opinion represents 

 one of the better grades of day schools in that city. In all, 1,774 

 observations were made "on about 350 different boys whose weights 

 were taken semi-annually, without clothes, over a period of years, 

 the average number of observations on each boy being five. This 

 group of American boys, with but few exceptions, came from wealthy 

 families and had had the advantage of good care and proper food all 

 their lives." 3 



Our own data for private-school children represent boys and girls 

 probably of the same social class as those measured by Holt. Records 

 of age, height, and nude weights were made on 886 boys from eight 

 private schools and on 323 girls in two private schools, in the neighbor- 

 hood of Boston and eastern Massachusetts. Private schools were 

 selected because the children attending them were presumably living 

 in the most ideal home and school surroundings and should be closer 

 to the ideal American in physical development than those living in 

 less favorable surroundings. 



1 Gray and Gray, Boston Med. Surg. Journ., 1917, 177, p. 895. 



2 Gray and Gray, loc. cit., p. 897. 



3 Holt, Am. Journ. Diseases Children, 1918, 16, pp. 360 and 362. 



