August 7, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



157 



ing to classify the scholars as of ' good ' and 

 ' average ' intelligence, but any intimation 

 of the presence of ' poor ' or stupid scholars 

 was taken as a personal reflection upon the 

 teacher of the class in question. The re- 

 sult was that what was primarily intended 

 for a classification upon the lines of excel- 

 lence, mediocrity and stupidity became a 

 classification upon the basis of the two first 

 qualities only. What occurred in Worces- 

 ter was evidently the key to what occurred 

 in Toronto. There also the ' poor ' students 

 were no more than a mere handful and 

 had to be disregarded in making up the 

 material from the point of view of the 

 groups ' good,' ' average,' ' poor,' though not 

 with regard to the general average of the 

 city. Between the other two classes the 

 material was quite evenly distributed. 



The stature was taken, the child standing 

 erect, heels together and shoes removed, by 

 means of a straight rod marked in centi- 

 meters against which the child stood, an 

 arm at right angles to the upright being 

 brought in contact with the top of its head 

 and the scale read at the nearest centimeter. 

 For finger reach the child was required to 

 stand straight, place the middle finger of 

 one hand against the wall and stretch with 

 both arms at their greatest extent along the 

 rod mentioned before, held horizontally at 

 the height of its arm, the arm of the rod 

 being brought in touch with the middle fin- 

 ger of its other hand and the scale read as 

 before at the nearest centimeter. The weight 

 was taken on the ordinary weighing scales 

 in ordinary indoor costume and was re- 

 corded in pounds. 



The material has been arranged accord- 

 ing to sex and age, the children being 

 grouped according to age within the full 

 year, i. e., children between five and six are 

 classed as five years of age. Thus the chil- 

 dren are on an average a half year older 

 than the tables represent. The separation 

 into annual groups being made, the various 



measurements were then tabulated and the 

 average found. This was done by taking 

 the sum of the observations of one kind 

 within the year and dividing the result by 

 the total number of cases for the same year. 



In working up this material it was neces- 

 sary first to form the general average for 

 each series of observations for the whole 

 school population and then the averages of 

 the two classes of * good ' and ' poor ' stu- 

 dents. The averages of these two classes 

 were then compared with the general 

 averages. 



We have, therefore, in our tables six 

 groups, three for boys and three for girls. 

 Examining the tables we find that the 

 general rule is that the ' poor ' children are 

 more fully developed than the ' good ' chil- 

 dren, though in each series of measure- 

 ments there are one or two cases where the 

 '■ good ' children show a higher average than 

 the ' poor.' These cases are generally near 

 the latter end of the series. In the case of 

 girls' stature this is so at fourteen years, 

 of boys' weight at thirteen years, while for 

 girls' weight it is at ten years. In the 

 case of boys' and girls' finger reach, the pre- 

 ponderance of the ' good ' is seen at thirteen 

 and fourteen. Again, in boys' weight the 

 ' good ' are the heavier from five to seven, 

 inclusive, and the finger reach at six and 

 seven. The most striking difference be- 

 tween the two groups is in the case of stat- 

 ure for both sexes. The ' poor ' are the 

 better developed throughout, except, as be- 

 fore noticed, in the case of girls of fourteen 

 and possibly boys of thirteen. There is 

 generally about half an inch difference in 

 the averages of the two groups in favor of 

 the ' poor ' students. In the case of weight 

 this difference is not so marked. 



The reason for these differences is prob- 

 ably the following : As I have said, the 

 children of ' good ' ability were probably so 

 designated from their class standing, and 

 their class standing was undoubtedly in 



