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ABSTRACT OF A PAPER 



REAX) BY 



C. KNOX ORD, Esq., M.D., F.L.S., 

 Fleet Surgeon, R.N., 



ON THE 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT OF LONDON BOYS 

 OF THE LOWER CLASSES, 



W/to were Examined for the Royal Navy, 19th December, 1883. 



Out of some 8,000 London Boys of the Lower Classes, who 

 were desirous of entering the Royal Navy between ist July 

 1866, and 31st October 1869, when I was Senior Medical 

 Officer of H.M.S. Fisgard at Woolwich, I obtained the 

 following observations on 3,060, from 14^ to 16 years old, 

 who were measured physically before being examined 

 medically. 



From ist July, 1868, and afterwards, boys under 15 were 

 not required. There were, therefore. Two Series separated 

 by that date. The First Series included 700 boys from 14^ 

 to 15 years; also 1,400 from 15 to 16 ; and was published in 

 a Blue Book (Report of the Health of the Navy for 1567). 

 The Second Series, consisting of 960 boys from 15 to 16 years 

 only, has been computed specially for this paper, and has 

 never been published. Some 300 boys from 16 to 16^, whose 

 measurements were recorded, are completely excluded from the 

 present observations. 



I may state here, that not having required to refer to the 

 Records of the First Series since it was published (1869) I 

 did not discover, until searching for them preparatory to this 

 paper, that they were lost or mislaid. The results, which 

 were all that was actually required, are fortunately preserved 

 in the above Blue Book. But during this search, I was 

 much pleased by alighting unexpectedly on the Records of 



