202 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



families are taller than from poorer families. On the other hand, the 

 relation of log. height to log. weight, which we and others have regarded 

 as the best index of ' general nutrition,' is on the average the same now 

 as it was 56 years ago, and is identical for all classes of the community. 

 Both these facts have been pointed out before ; but it does not appear 

 that their combination has been sufficiently emphasised. There is some 

 factor in modern life that tends to promote growth in the children of the 

 wealthier classes ; this was missing 50 years ago and is still missing among 

 the poorer classes to-day. But though wealth tends to produce giants 

 and poverty dwarfs, both giants and dwarfs are equally well formed ; 

 their general nutrition remains the same. Heredity is certainly a factor 

 in promoting tallness or shortness ; but it is impossible to imagine that 

 the wealthy have unconsciously selected themselves for tallness during 

 recent years. There jnust be other factors and improvement of the food 

 supply with abundance of minerals and vitamins are obvious ones ; this 

 subject has been dealt with by Orr. In this connection observations by 

 Brody and others on animal nutrition are of great interest. The weight 

 and chest girth of steers are greater for a given age when the animal is 

 full fed than when it is scantily fed ; but the height at withers is the same 

 in the two cases. This is the reverse of the findings in children. The 

 steers were equally tall but the poorly fed were thinner ; so their general 

 nutrition was poor. 



The explanation may be as follows : In poorly fed steers the amount 

 of food was apparently cut down and therefore the Calories were deficient, 

 but the diet remained qualitatively the same, so that the growth factors 

 were adequate. On the other hand, according to Orr's observations, the 

 intake of vitamins, of calcium, phosphorus and iron is deficient among the 

 poorer classes of the community and is proportional to the amount spent 

 on food, which itself depends on the income of the family. These are all 

 growth-promoting factors. The intake of Calories is only deficient in the 

 poorest group where the income is up to los. a week per head, and of 

 this 4^. per head is spent on food. It is permissible to doubt whether 

 the Calories are really deficient in this group, considering the small size 

 of the individuals and the difficulty in estimating how many Calories are 

 required to keep up bodily nutrition — a subject which has been touched 

 on elsewhere.* At any rate Elderton's measurements of Glasgow children 

 show that there is no marked difference between the log. height/log. 

 weight relationship for the richest and poorest classes of the community ; 

 but the poorer children are shorter and lighter for their age than those 

 from better-class families, and the different classes of society have been 

 graded, as far as their wealth is concerned, by their tallness. It is reason- 

 able to assume that the main deficiency is in the growth factors and not 

 in the total amount of Calories. It does not follow that the small, short 

 individual with a normal general nutrition is a less perfect physiological 

 organism than the individual who is tall. In certain walks of life tallness 



* E. P. Poulton, Diets and Recipes and the Treatment of Diabetes and Obesity, 

 1937- P- 6. 



