The Groicth of CMhhen. 93 



tables as given by Angerstein,* where tlie heights foreacli age 

 are, in most instances, expressed in an even number of Ger- 

 man inches. Moreover, the observations on boys of German 

 parentage in this city are few in number (752 of all ages), 

 and there has been no attempt to distinguish between natives 

 of different parts of Germany. It is therefore impossible to 

 draw positive conclusions on the subject, but the evidence, as 

 far as it goes, seems to indicate that even in the first genera- 

 tion after emigration the rate of growth has been modified 

 by new external conditions. 



Relation of Height to Weight. 



The data collected in this investigation afford the means 

 for ascertaining tlie relation of height to weight in growing 

 children of both sexes and of various races. This relation 

 is for each age most simply expressed by the quotient of the 

 weight in pounds divided by the height in inches. Series of 

 quotients thus obtained are given in Table No. 3, in the 

 columns headed "pounds per inch." Since, however, these 

 quotients increase with the increasing height,f it is manifestly 

 impossible to use them for ascertaining the relative stoutness 

 of children who at a given age differ from each other in 

 stature. To do this with absolute accuracy it would be 

 necessary to determine for each age, and in each set of obser- 

 vations, the average weight corresponding to each height. 

 Since, however, the direct determination of this value would 

 necessitate a complete retabulation of all the observations, it 

 has been thought best to adopt an indirect and somewhat less 

 accurate method of getting at the result. This method con- 

 sists in arranging the heights and weights corresponding to 

 each age opposite to each other in parallel columns, and then 



♦ Duetsche Turnzeitung, 18G4, p. 32(3. 



t Uniform growth in all dimensions would of course cause the weights of growing chil- 

 dren to vary as the cubes of the heights, but since growth is more rapid in the vertical than 

 in the lateral dimensions the weights increase approximately as a lower power of the 

 heights. A logarithmic equation, however, as given in the appendix to this article, ex- 

 presses the relation much more accurately. For a discussion of the question the I'eader is 

 referred to the works of Quetelet and Gould. 



