GROWTH OF HOBART SCHOOL BOYS. 827 
years, when it, according to Mr. Kohleman, should be about 
20 inches. Mr. Kohleman is looked upon as an authority 
in this branch of the work, as he has made a special study 
of the development of the chest. He puts the normal 
annual increase in chest-girth between years 8 to 12 to be 
from 0°50 to 0:80 inches, while the years 13 to 15 should 
show accelerated development varying between 1-2 to 1-6 
inches. I find the Tasmanians follow the rule fairly well, 
their measurement being, for the first period referred to, 
0-47 to 0-95 inches, and 1-15 to 1-42 inches for.the last 
two years. The chest-development thus follows the law of 
prepubertal acceleration. 
The chest-expansion, by which I mean the difference 
between the girth of the expanded and that of the con- 
tracted chest, does not vary very much during the years 
observed, namely, 2°37 to 2:71 inches. I have here a few 
copies of the tables prepared by the men who have studied 
the subject in other countries. The comparison in every case 
is unfavourable to the Tasmanian boy. I referred before to 
Kohleman as a first authority—well, the Tasmanian boys are 
below his figures. Our boys are also below the American 
ones quoted in books on anthropometry. It would hardly 
be fair to compare with McLaren’s tables, as his figures 
were most likely taken from boys who had had gymnastic 
training. Mr. Coghlan, the Sydney Statistician, who tabu- 
lated the result of the anthropometic measurements of 2000 
children in Sydney, found on comparison that the Sydney 
boys were very much below measurements quoted in other 
tables. I regret to say our Tasmanian boys are not better 
than the Sydney ones. 
Relation between Physical Development and Mental 
Ability (Diagram K.).—My investigation does not include 
an attempt of getting an idea of the mental ability of the 
boys, so allow me to quote Dr. Porter, who, with his 
assistants, measured 33,500 children in St. Louis public © 
schools. He says—‘‘I demonstrated that children who 
possessed more than the ordinary power of mental labour, 
as measured by the progress in their studies, are heavier, 
taller, and larger in their girth of chest and in width of 
head than their less-gifted companions of the same age.” 
(Volume 6, No. 7, of the Transactions of the Academy of 
Science of St. Louis, March 21st, 1893.) 
A more extended statement of those observations were 
presented to the Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologie, 
July 15, 1893, and appears in Virchow’s Zeitschrift fiir 
