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106
Annual Report of the London County Council, 1911.
Mailing Hansen, in the deaf and dumb institution at Copenhagen, weighed 72 boys daily for three
years, and found a rapid increase in weight in summer and autumn, from the end of March till the
middle of August, giving the chief increase of the year. Schmidt Monnard, further south at Halle,
found two-thirds of the increase in weight was in August to October and one-fifth in November and
December, the first six months of the year only accounting for a very small increase. It may, therefore,
be taken that there is a seasonable variation in growth in weight, and that this
accounts for a considerable amount of the increase noticed in the open-air schools. Now that schools
are to be kept open through the winter, it will be possible to observe in some measure this variation,
but such observation will scarcely suffice for the observation and determination of the standard
seasonal variation in healthy children. A complete knowledge of any such variation is necessary before
many problems which are now arising can be satisfactorily handled.
Figure 3.—Birley House Open Air School. Heights and weights to show seasonal effect.
For the past year, Figure 3 shows the heights and weights of 49 children at Birley House, summed
for the 14th, 24th, 34th, 52nd week of 1911, and 7th week of 1912, and the heights at approximately
corresponding dates. There was a slackening here in the summer, chiefly due to prevalent
enteritis resulting from intense heat, and after about the 44th week of the year the winter slackening in
weight is noticeable, at the same period an accentuation in growth is obvious. This interesting subject
is also referred to later in connection with Kensal House School.
Playground
Classes.
Lhe playground classes described generally in previous years have been continued during 1911.
Measurements of height and weight were taken in the playground classes of type A (central classes)
and certain others, and at Cator-street, as already mentioned, a control measurement of children of
the same ages in the ordinary classes of the school was made by observing 30 boys of various ages
from 8 to 12, but of equal numbers at equal ages in the ordinary school classes. In 26 weeks the boys
in the ordinary school presented an average weekly increase of .326 per cent. Those in the playground
class, selected on account of debilitv, onlv save about half this increase, namelv, .154 per cent, weekly.