NORMAL, AVERAGE, AND IDEAL STATES OF NUTRITION. 71 



in other words, that our private-school children represent the more 

 purely typical American or Anglo-Saxon type. To a certain extent 

 this is probably true, but we are not in a position to throw definite 

 light upon this subject. We think it highly improbable, however, 

 that this explanation completely accounts for the greater height of 

 this group of children. For an estimate of the ideal height of children 

 we believe, therefore, that one should rely not upon the so-called 

 "normal" curve, but more nearly upon an ideal curve which is measur- 

 ably higher than a normal or average commonly given. On this 

 basis many analyses of the measurements of children which indicate 

 that the children are above normal height simply mean that the 

 normal level is arbitrarily adjusted at too low a point. Nutrition 

 experts and pediatricians must hold this important relationship clearly 

 in mind and not be content with the statement that a child is of 

 average height when the possibilities of greater skeletal growth are 

 presented by better living conditions, medical treatment, and general 

 care. 



Normal 'body-weight. The emphasis laid upon the relationship 

 between height and age is far overshadowed by that laid upon the 

 relationship between body-weight and age. A child of a certain age 

 is commonly supposed to have a certain weight, and if below this 

 weight is considered an underweight child. As in the case of height, 

 average weight is invariably taken as the normal weight. Normal 

 tables or average tables have been prepared, and almost every writer 

 combines several of the earlier series and obtains his own individual 

 normal which he uses for his study. The very fact that this divergence 

 and uncertainty exist in the minds of all students of the physiology of 

 childhood shows that there has been an unwritten hesitation to accept 

 as normal many of these values. We believe that with children 

 certainly we should no longer consider the average as normal. With 

 adults there are a large number of overweight individuals to compensate 

 for the number of underweight individuals, so that the average value 

 for body-weight represents a median line with approximately the same 

 proportion of overweights as underweights. With children the situa- 

 tion is quite the reverse. The number of overweight children, even 

 using the erroneous term "normal" when applied to the average, 

 are much fewer than the number of underweights. On standing in 

 front of any of our public schools and noting the condition of the 

 children running out at the end of a day's session, one may see at a 

 glance that the obviously overweight children are very few indeed, 

 while those who are obviously underweight usually pass by more 

 rapidly than they can be counted. On this ground, therefore, to take 

 an average value for children seems wholly erroneous. 



If a child is seemingly underweight for a given age, this may be 

 due in part to his short stature possibly a racial characteristic 



