Reiiort on Antlivopometry in the United States. 3 



inimbers of school children, in respect to height, in order to 

 determine the normal dimensions of desks and seats to be 

 used in school by the children in question. It would appear 

 that no investigations of this sort, worthy of mention, have 

 been made as yet in this country. 



Dr. Bowditch's papers are of capital importance, by reason 

 of the light they throw on the law of growth, and the signifi- 

 cance of the physical changes incident to puberty. Their 

 bearing upon school management has not been sufficiently 

 recognized as yet by school authorities in this country. Dr. 

 Bowditch is now generally credited with being the first to 

 show that boys and girls have different rates of growth, as V 

 regards height and w^eight ; and his observations and conclu- 

 sions have been strikingly corroborated by Peckham, Porter, 

 and West in the United States, and by the investigations of 

 a Royal Commission in Denmark, by Roberts in England, 

 Pagliani in Italy, Erismann in Russia, Geissler and Ulitzsch in 

 Saxony, and by Axel Key in Sweden. 



The writer, who is at present engaged in making a com- 

 parative study of mortality and growth rates, finds that there 

 is a striking relation between the death rates of Boston boys 

 and girls and their respective rates of growth, as determined 

 by Bowditch. That is to say, the death rates of Boston boys 

 are low^est during the period of their most rapid growth, and 

 the death rates of Boston girls are lowest during their period / 

 of most rapid growth. He also finds that a similar relation 

 exists between the death and growth rates of Swedish boys 

 and girls. The results of the writer's investigations touching 

 this question will be published shortly in the Quarterly Piih- 

 lications of the American Statistical Association. 



The use of anthropometry as a means for guiding and 

 testing procedures in physical training is becoming general in 

 the leading colleges for men and women, and in a few second- 

 ary and special schools, and in the Y. M. C. A. Herein is 

 found one of the most characteristic developments of anthro- 

 pometr}^ in America. In this connection, special mention 



