INTRODUCTION 



ONE good effect of the War has been that it has thor- 

 oughly awakened public interest in the importance of 

 physical fitness, not only to the individual but also to 

 the nation. Hitherto there has been no satisfactory nor 

 uniform method of estimating the physical fitness of a 

 man, woman, or child. It is the aim of this book to 

 supply medical men and others directly interested in 

 the subject with a method, new only in the details of its 

 application, whereby physical fitness can be assessed on 

 the basis of a few simple physical measurements. This 

 method will, I believe, be found to be easily learned, 

 speedy, and trustworthy. 



INADEQUACY OF THE OLDER METHODS. Investigators 

 who have been concerned with the study and estimation 

 of the physical development of the population of this 

 and other countries must undoubtedly have felt how un- 

 satisfactory the results obtained by the use of existing 

 Tables dealing with the height and weight of the body 

 have proved. 



Extensive statistics have been gathered, but the in- 

 formation derived therefrom has often been contradic- 

 tory, especially when applied to collections of individuals 

 varying widely in age and bodily development. 



Most of the existing Tables dealing with the size of 

 the normal human body are based on the theory that 

 definite relations between age, height, and weight exist. 

 It has, however, been satisfactorily proved that such re- 

 lationships do not exist when individuals varying widely 



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