FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION OF WEIGHT— UNITED STATES ARMY 



RECRUITS AS DETERMINED FROM POISSON-CHARUER 



FREQUENCY CURVES 



The frequency curves are shown in graphic form on page 42. 



RACK IN RELATION TO CHEST MEASUREMENTS 

 The third and last physical measurement of United States Army 

 recruits, as reported upon by the Surgeon General is the chest measure- 

 ment. Unless the method of measurement employed is carefully defined 

 and its precise significance is clearly indicated, the results may be quite 

 considerably at variance with the facts or the inferences drawn there- 

 from. Methods of chest measurement vary widely. * The difference 

 between the chest at rest and the maximum expansion and the minimum 

 deflation is not only quite considerable but not always accurately ascer- 

 tained without difficulty. What the methods have been in the Army, how 

 much they have varied from time to time and whether the instructions 

 have been precisely followed are all matters open to question. The 

 distribution of chest measurements as obtained for white recruits is 

 given in the table following: 



* The rules regarding chest expansion have undergone more or less important changes. 

 According to the new standard of physical examination promulgated by the Secretary of 

 War under date of June 5, 1918, all registrants "with a chest measurement of less than 

 thirty inches and a chest mobility of less than two inches" require to be unconditionally 

 rejected. The Army rules require "all chest measurements to be taken on a level just above 

 the nipple." See "Details of Military Medical Administration," by Joseph H. Gora, Colonel, 

 Medical Corps, United States Army, Philadelphia, 1918, page 493. The chest expansion must 

 not, of course, be confused with pulmonary capacity. B. A. Gould, in his Investigations in 

 the Military and Anthropological Statistics of American Soldiers, considered this question 

 at considerable length, including observations on the relation of pulmonary capacity to stature, 

 to length of body, to circumference of chest, to play of chest, and to age. He refers to the 

 well-known observations by Hutchinson, according to whom "The vital capacity differs in 

 man according to height, weight, age and disease." For these and other reasons, all chest 

 measurements should be in conformity to thoroughly standardized and well-understood methods 

 of examination. See, also, Direction No. 2 on page 35. 



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