230 
NATURE 
a ean 
7 
| Fuly 21, 1870 
HEIGHT AND WEIGHT 
RAEN the last few years public attention has been 
drawn to the question of what individuals weigh, 
by the facilities afforded for weighing by the construction 
of weighing-chairs. These chairs are not only to be seen 
at the Crystal Palace, where diminutive boys tout for 
custom, offering to tell your “correct weight,” but 
they are also seen at the stations of the Metropolitan 
Railway and many other places. The practice, there- 
fore, of getting weighed is obviously on the increase, and 
we want to utilise the knowledge thus gained by showing 
how it may be turned to most advantage. It will be 
easily seen that to know the weight of a person without 
reference to some other standard, such as height, would 
be of little advantage. But if by taking the height of a 
person we can say what he ought to weigh, then we have 
a means of ascertaining what persons ought or ought not 
toweigh. The difficulty on this subject has been to deter- 
mine what a man ofa certain height really ought to weigh. 
If this can be determined, then we can say whether a man 
of a certain height exceeds or falls short of the average 
weight of men of his stature. 
One of the earliest efforts made to obtain anything like 
a fixed relation between height and weight was that of 
Dr. Boyd, who weighed a certain number of inmates in 
St. Marylebone Workhouse. He took the height and 
weight of 108 persons labouring under consumption, 
and found they measured 5ft. 7in., and weighed ninety 
pounds. He then measured and weighed 141 paupers 
who were not consumptive, and found that their average 
height was 5ft. 3in., and that they weighed 134]b. 
This subject attracted the attention of the late Dr. 
John Hutchinson, and he determined to take the 
height and weight of all’classes of persons in the com- 
munity. 
of upwards of 5,000 persons. This list, however, included 
persons who exhibited themselves as giants and dwarfs, 
and other exceptional cases. He therefore reduced his 
instances to 2,650 persons, all of whom were men in the 
vigour and prime of life, and included sailors, firemen, 
policemen, soldiers, cricketers, draymen, gentlemen, 
paupers, and pugilists. This group of cases was intended 
to make one class as a set-off against another, so as to 
get a fair average. The following is the result of Dr. 
Hutchinson’s observations :— 
Height. Weight. | Height. Weight. 
ft. in, Stal Day ates st. Ib. 
Rigel 317815) 7 Io 8 
Bem OMT Ss Bie EY te 
bays She ta eye) PIS: 
iS ierd 9 13|\5 10 12 1 
Sanit 5 hO! MZ 5) EL 12/30 
5 6 Io 5|6 0 I2 10 
Of course the result of these investigations of Dr. 
Hutchinson can only be considered as approximative, 
and he himself thought that a larger number of observa- 
tions would lead to a more perfect law. The fact is, his 
observations are quite sufficient to establish all that weneed, 
and to show that amongst a certain set of healthy men his 
estimate of weight and height may be regarded as an 
approach to a healthy standard. It is only where consider- 
able departures from the estimates given by Dr. Hutchinson 
take place that any particular case demands attention. If 
In this way he collected the height and weight 
this table is examined, it will be seen that the increase 
in weight for every inch of height is a little more than 
five pounds. In fact, allowing for any error in obser- 
vation, we may say that Dr. Hutchinson’s table is redu- 
cible to the law that for every inch of stature beyond sft. 
lin., or sixty-one inches, a healthy man increases five 
pounds for every inch in height. If this deduction be 
accepted, we may very much simplify Dr. Hutchinson’s 
table, and say that as a rule, a man’s weight increases at 
the rate of five pounds for every inch of height, and this 
rule holds good for all practical purposes. Starting then 
with a person 5ft. in height, who, according to the as- _ 
sumed law, should weigh 8st. 3lb., we obtain the follow- 
ing results :— 
| Height) ‘Freight in| Weight ina) Weishe te 
inches. feet. pounds. stones. 
in. | ft. in. Ib. st. Ib, 
(Solna ease te) 115 cans 
OTe wea 120 8 8 
62 SG epe) 125 8 13 
oe aes Kick 130 9 4 
64 | 5 4 135 9 9 
65 Gea) 140 I0 Oo 
66 a0) 145 IO 5 
67 ned 150 10 10 
68 ite) 155 Lp Gert 
69 Seu G) 160 Tl, 26; 
70 5 Io 165 II It 
71 Gack 170 12a 
2 6 0 175 T2o07, 
73 Cr 180 Ga ite 
74 | 6 2 185 13253 
75 be 8 190 13 8 
[i378 6 4 195 TZA13 
Although this law is approximately good for a certain 
number of cases, even above and below this table; it is 
practically found, and especially in the case of children 
and growing persons, that there is a wide difference of 
weight at heights below 5ft. 
Attention may also be drawn here to the fact that there 
will constantly occur in the community instances of per- 
sons where either the muscular or bony systems are exces- 
sively developed, and who consequently weigh more or 
less than their height. Dr, T. K. Chambers, in his admir- 
zble essay on corpulence, published in 1859, calls especial 
attention to the researches of Mr. Brent on the assumed 
weights of the statues of antiquity. In order to get at 
this, Mr. Brent immersed in water accurate copies of these 
statues, and by ascertaining the quantity of water they 
displaced he calculated their weights. Dr. Chambers has 
taken the pains to reduce the absolute weights of these 
statues to assumed heights, and thus compared the heights — 
and weights of these statues of antiquity with Dr. Hutch- 
inson’s modern man. Without giving the whole of the 
heights and weights, we present the series at the assumed 
height of 6ft. Thus :— 
| Heighe| Weight. iE 
jcc: st. Ib, 
Bronze Tumbler .| 60 ite 
Hutchinson’s Man | 60 12 10 
Dying Gladiator..| 60 14 0 
Theseus, Brit. Mus.| 60 15 0 
Hercules, ,, ,, 60 16 10 
Farnese Hercules. | 60 13 7 
A 
Nee 
