96 American Statistical Association. 



I. Growing bo3^s are heavier in proportion to their height 

 than growing girls until the height of 68 inches (147.9 c.m.) 

 is reached. Above that point the reverse is the case. This 

 is true in all the various sets of observations. The fact is 

 rendered apparent by the curves on Plate XII, where the 

 ordinatcs represent the weight in pounds corresponding to 

 each inch of height, the values being calculated from the 

 average dimensions of all the Boston school children meas- 

 ured, irrespective of the nationality of the parents. The 

 height of 58 inches is attained in the 14th year, and it seems 

 probable that the reversal in relative proportions of the two 

 sexes may be connected with the accumulation of adipose 

 tissue which occurs in girls at about the period of puberty. 



II. The difference between children of American and those 

 of foreign parents is constant in one direction for all ages, 

 only in the case of boys of German parentage. These, as 

 will be seen by the curves on Plate XIII, are uniformly 

 heavier in proportion to their height than the sons of Amer- 

 ican-born parents. 



III. The children of the laboring classes in England are, 

 as shown by the curves on Phite XIV, decidedly heavier in 

 proportion to their height than those of the non-laboring 

 classes. This fact, taken in connection with the differences 

 in absolute height and weight of the same children (as shown 

 by the curve on Plate VIII), seems to indicate that depriva- 

 tion of the comforts of life has a greater tendency to diminish 

 the stature than the weight of a growing child. 



IV. A comparison of the pupils of the selected Boston 

 schools above mentioned with the children of the English 

 non-laboring classes at the public schools and universities 

 shows that the former are in generid heavier, in proportion 

 to their height, than the latter (see Plate XV). It seems, 

 therefore, that the influences above alluded to (p. 297), which 

 give to a growing boy in this communit}^ a greater height and 

 weight than are attained b}' an English boy of the same age, 

 affect the weight more powerfully than the height, and that 



