Apbil 25, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



405 



period of military training, and the informa- 

 tion here given simply reduces this well- 

 known fact to a quantitative basis. Some of 

 the measurements from which this material 

 was derived were made by officers of the Divi- 

 sion of Food and Nutrition of the Medical 

 Department, U. S. A., in the covurse of in- 

 vestigations of the army mess in camps in the 

 United States; the remainder were secured 



The first study to which attention will be 

 called was made on the weights of the men of 

 tliree companies at Camps Dodge, Funston and 

 Grant, respectively, approximately four months 

 after the men had enlisted. At this time, 

 the weights of the soldiers in these companies 

 were secured by Captain Leon A. Congdon, 

 one of the field officers of the division. The 

 original weights of the men, as noted above. 







The. Te,rm 'Wtqoencvl o = 

 \ ood 2. dcrtoTft^ IVic nu^rv 

 \rt each iMci^Ki" ttroop. 



in Uciore 

 ; indivi'dv. 



from records of physical examinations at the 

 time the men entered the service. The con- 

 ditions under which all the measurements 

 were taken were such that no great accuracy 

 can be claimed for them; however, as they 

 were made on a considerable number of men, 

 at various times, and by different persons, 

 such errors as exist will in- all probability be 

 compensating. 



were obtained from records of physical ex- 

 amination made at enlistment. The results 

 of Captain Congdon's work are shown in Fig. 

 1 in the form of distribution graphs. The 

 weights were divided for plotting into groups 

 differing by five pounds, and the niunber of 

 individuals in each group was noted. Ab- 

 scissas on the graph represent successive 

 groups increasing in weight toward the right 



