Porter — The Growth of St. Louis Children. 305 
The number of children of rich families and of very poor 
families in the public schools is small, the larger part of the 
pupils being from what would be called in England the lower 
middle class, and the school population is accordingly more 
homogeneous than would have seemed possible at the first 
glance. 
The difference in the weight of children of the professional 
and merchant class is probably of little importance until the 
period of prepubertal acceleration. Such at least is the 
inference from Table No. 13, where the weights of these two 
classes are compared. 
TABLE No. 13. 
A COMPARISON OF THE WEIGHTS OF THE DAUGHTERS OF MANUAL TRADES- 
MEN WITH THE WEIGHTS OF THE DAUGHTERS OF PROFESSIONAL MEN 
AND MERCHANTS. 
Professional Men and Merchants. Manual Tradesmen. 
Age at | Number of ee haar Number of | Age at 
Nearest | Observa- (Kilo- ; (Kilo- ¢ Observa- | Nearest 
Birthday. tlons. grammes) | grammes) Birthday. 
6 19.53 18.95 237 6 
Zz 148 20.63 20.74 04 7 
8 170 3.00 22.89 723 8 
a 152 25.48 25.09 68 9 
0 168 27.61 27.46 651 10 
1 173 30.63 29.45 569 11 
2 86 32.28 556 12 
3 160 39.04 87. 402 
4 140 43.59 41.68 251 14 
5 i? 47.49 45.62 145 15 
16 rg 50.16 49.18 §2 16 
T 46 51.07 17 
What is true of weight is in this instance probably true of 
the physical development as a whole, and Table No. 13 would 
seem to indicate that a wide difference in social status or 
material prosperity may exist without much influencing the 
growth of children up to the prepubertal acceleration. But 
further investigation is necessary before a generalization can 
be made. It must suffice here to state: 1. The daughters of 
professional men and merchants are very little heavier than 
the daughters of manual tradesmen until the period of pre- 
