THE MEASURING 69 



When a boy's measurements are compared 

 with those tabulated for his height, weight, and 

 type, slight differences in girths must not be 

 given too much significance, though evidences of 

 muscular development are to be given full impor- 

 tance. But remember that the great purpose of 

 taking these measurements is the interesting of 

 the boy in his own physique, so that he can be 

 told to advantage how much under or over he is 

 the average measurements of his type. Further- 

 more, it acts as a great stimulus to " standardize " 

 a boy according to his physical status — that is, 

 according to his approach to the perfect measure- 

 ments for his type. This process is a purely 

 arbitrary one and can have little or no scientific 

 meaning; but the value is great from a psycholog- 

 ical standpoint, and this has been found true by 

 several years of experiment with many hundreds 

 of boys. In this standardizing, three classes are 

 recognized. The first-class boy approaches very 

 nearly the averages for his type, weight and 

 height. The second-class boy has a fair develop- 

 ment, but not as good as it might be, and the 

 third-class is distinctly inferior to the second. In 

 this standardizing no credit is given to measure- 

 ments which are very little under a boy's own 

 control. So special credit cannot be given to 

 height, for instance. 



The following measurements are used in mak- 



