514 HEIGHT AND WEIGHT IN RELATION TO BUILD 



BREADTHS AND DEPTHS. 



In chart J, p. 535, a few relative breadths and girths have been plotted. The data 

 on which these curves are based are shown in table K. The midline of the chart repre- 

 sents zero. The distance to the right or left of this line represents the percentage of 

 stature of a measurement of one-half of the body. No attempt is made to illustrate 

 lateral asymmetry. Since relative adiposity influences transverse diameters and 

 girths more than it does vertical measurements, we find greater variability in most of 

 the measurements plotted here than in those of chart I, and therefore greater 

 difficulty in plotting satisfactory curves. 



Span. Measurement of span is especially variable because of the difficulty 

 of uniform posture for this measurement. At birth the span is less than the stature, 

 but authors differ as to the period in childhood when span equals or exceeds stature. 

 Weissenberg (table D) makes this period relatively early in childhood and relatively 

 earlier in boys than in girls. According to his data it reaches a maximum of 104.1 

 per cent of the stature in boys at age 17, in girls 103.4 per cent of the stature at age 

 16. Hastings (table F) finds the span less than the stature up to the age of 11 in 

 boys, 15 in girls. He finds its greatest relative length in late adolescence in both 

 sexes. He finds it greater in tall than in short individuals. This is not evident in 

 American college statistics (table L). It is greater in males than in females. 



Breadth of head. Quetelet (table E) gives data on relative breadth of the head 

 which show that it decreases from 20 per cent of the stature at birth to 9.1 per cent 

 in males and 9.3 per cent in females at maturity. Data for more limited periods of 

 development are given by Landsberger (1888), Hrdlicka (1899), Hastings (1902), 

 West (1893), Boas and Wissler (1904), Ernst (1906), Schwerz (1910), and others. 

 There is comparatively little difference in growth-curves based on data from 

 these various sources. The head relative to stature is narrower in tall than in 

 short adults (table L). The head relative to stature in older girls and in women 

 appears to be slightly broader than in males. Most of the authors mentioned also 

 give data on the anterior-posterior diameter of the head. Pfitzner (1899) states that 

 the cephalic index is constant from birth to old age, Boas (1904) that it decreases 

 slightly during growth. Hrdlicka (1899) found the younger children he studied 

 had rounder heads than the older children. The only evidence of such a condition 

 found by Ernst (1906) was a slightly greater proportion of hyperbrachycephalics 

 among the younger children she studied. According to Boas (1912), the female head 

 is slightly more round than that of the male. 



Breadth of neck. Quetelet (table E) gives data for the male which correspond 

 fairly well with the curve in chart J, except for infants. The relative width he gives 

 for infants is 9.9 per cent of the stature. Zeising (1858) gives 13.6 per cent. In the 

 infants I have measured I have found the average relative width 11 per cent. Que- 

 telet's data show the female neck relatively wider than the male. I find no evidence 

 for this in normal individuals. The statistics on college students (table L) show 

 the female neck smaller than the male. Godin (1910) shows a marked increase in 

 the relative width of the neck from 17.5 to 23.5 years of age. 



