The Growtli of Children. 85 



to attribute 51 certain importance to the greater average com- 

 fort of the inhabitants. The prolonged period of growth in 

 this country is certainly not to be regarded as an argument 

 against this view, for, in the absence of any evidence of a 

 diminished rate of growth, this may well be regarded as a 

 result of abundant nutrition. 



Statistics from which evidence can be drawn as to the 

 effect of comfort and misery on the size of growing children 

 are not numerous. The observations of Quetelet, Villerme, 

 and Cowell * seem to show that in a given community the 

 children of the wealthier classes are, as a rule, larger tlmn 

 tliose of the poorer classes. The following table, for which 

 I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Roberts, throws light 

 upon this question. 



An examination of this table shows that children of the 

 laboring classes, inhabiting towns, are, at all ages, decidedly 

 shorter than the children of the non-laboring classes attend- 

 ing public schools and universities, the difference attaining a 

 maximum of over four inches at thirteen years of age. The 

 difference of weight is also, as a rule, decidedly in favor of 

 the non-laboring classes, the exceptions being chiefly between 

 the ages of eighteen and twenty-one. These facts are ren- 

 dered apparent by the curves constructed on Plate VIII. 



In searching for the cause of this great disparity in size, it 

 is to be noticed, in the first place, that the laboring classes 

 in the above table are taken from the town population only, 

 while in the case of the non-laboring classes no such restric- 

 tion is observed. In the absence of exact information as to 

 the way in which these statistics were obtained, it is difficult 

 to draw positive conclusions, but it is probable that the 

 influences which tend to produce a physical degeneration of 

 urban populations! exhibit here their effect upon the size of 

 growing children. This tendency of city life depends upon 

 the fact that, in the struggle for existence, physical vigor 

 plays in cities a less decisive part than in the country, owing 



* Ludwig : Physiologie, II, 717. 



t See De Candolle's Histoire des Sciences et des Savants, p. 3C8. 



