CIRCUMFERENCE OP CHEST HEIGHT. 



43 



medium, and maximum chests, (as he termed them.) which should co-exist with each 

 increase of stature, from five feet upward. This table was approved by Dr. Hammond, 

 and announced as a safe guide to the medical officer in examining- recruits.' 



If, with a certain stature, the corresponding girth of medium chest was not found 

 to exist, the man was unsuitable for military service. The following table exhibits a 

 column of degrees of stature, with the three corresponding sizes of chest, from Brent's 

 table; the other columns show the results of Quetelet's observations, of Gould's, and of 

 our own. The figuires in the two latter of these are based on the examination of largo 

 numbers of both volunteers and di-afted men; and from these data have been discarded 

 all those rejected for physical causes, so that the picked men of the nation only are rep- 

 resented. It will be seen that the figures do not rise much above the minimum size of 

 chest, nor do they, in any instance, attain the medium size. Either these many thou- 

 sands of able-bodied men, in the prime of early manhood, varying from five feet to six 

 feet in stature, were so puny in build of chest that their mean girth did not exceed, to any 

 important degree, the very lowest figures of the standard, or else Mr. Brent's tables are 

 empirical. It will be seen that Quetelet's dimensions are somewhat in excess of the 

 others; but even they, although they represent his estimate of the mean normal man, 

 the typical man, as he termed him, are far below Brent's medium size. 



If vital capacity depend so largely upon mere length of limb, irrespective of cir- 

 cumference of chest, the question naturally arises, what value has it as a test of fitness 

 for military service 1 Its usefulness is perhaps rather negative than otherwise. If, with 

 a certain stature, or with a certain weight, the cubic inches marked by the spirometer 

 do not attain a proportionate number, some defect may be known to exist. It is in this 

 manner that the instrument is of importance in detecting incipient phthisis. The taller 

 the recruit the more important it becomes that he should be tested by the spirometer, 

 as the records of army-hospitals prove that from that class the cases of phthisical disease 

 are most largely supplied. If Chart No. 4 be inspected, it will be seen that the most 

 protended line represents men from G feet 1 inch to 6 feet 3 inches. 



'A treatise on hygiene, with special reference to the miUtary service, 8vo, Pliiladcliihia, 1803, p. 36. See, also, Manual, 

 for cnlistinij ami discharging soldiers, by R. Baktiioi.ow, I6mc), Pliiladelphia, 1863, p 193. 



