DURING POST-NATAL DEVELOPMENT. 



537 



three groups or show an increase. It is probable that some error has entered into 

 the preparation of the tables for girths by this investigator, since the data on girths 

 do not harmonize with the other data. 



Hitchcock has furnished data on measurements of college students grouped 

 according to age. If we compare subgroups of similar stature at the ages of 16 and 

 25 years (table L) we find that the average transverse diameter of the older group 

 (a) is 3.59 per cent greater than that in the younger group (&). Corresponding with 

 this we find an increase in relative sitting-height and in all breadths and girths with 

 the exception of the breadth of the head, which is smaller in the older group. 



TABLE 16. Percentages of superiority and inferiority in relative measurements 

 in a fat woman compared with college girls, stature 150 centimeters. 



Du Bois and Du Bois (1915) have given linear measurements for an unusually 

 fat woman, Mrs. McK., 149.7 cm. tall, weighing 93 kg. She thus has a metric 

 height-weight index of build of 0.02772, a figure seldom found except in infants. 

 The square root of this index is 0.1665. For the 150 cm. group of women in table L 

 the corresponding figure is 0.1166. The average transverse diameter of Mrs. McK. 

 is therefore 42.8 per cent greater than that of the Nebraska college girls of the 

 same stature. It may be of interest to compare the percentage of difference in 

 some of the relative measurements of the college girls and those of Mrs. McK. with 

 the percentage of difference in average transverse diameter (table 16). 



From these figures it may be seen that the trunk of the fat woman is relatively 

 lengthened by increase in height of the super-sternal notch and decrease in height 

 of the pubic crest and of the perineum. Allowance, however, should be made for 

 the fact that the DuBois measurements are made in the recumbent position, the 

 Nebraska measurements in the standing position. In the Nebraska data "sitting 

 height" is given, in the DuBois data "height of perineum." It is here assumed, 

 for the sake of making comparisons, that stature less sitting-height equals height 

 to perineum. The foot appears to be slightly below average relative length. The 

 inferior extremities are below average length. The superior extremities, not included 

 in the table given above, are 48 per cent of the stature in length, which is above 

 the normal. 



The girths are all increased. Of those tabulated, that of the head is least 

 increased. The greatest increase is in the girth of abdomen, 88.8 per cent over 

 twice that of the average transverse diameter, 42.8 per cent. 



