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99
PHYSICAL EXAMINATION OF CHILDREN. — In December, 1905,
I presented a special report on the physical examination of the
children attending Princess Road and Oval Road Schools. Since
then I have been able by the. kindness of Mr. Andrew (Whitgift
Grammar Scnool), Mr. Jones (Whitgift Middle School), Mr. Scott
(Elmhurst School), Miss Leahy (High School for Girls), and Miss
Walford (Woodford House School) to obtain comparative figures
for boys and girls attending certain of the Secondary Schools. As
the comparision between height and weight of Secondary and of
Elementary School children was of interest, and many inquiries
have been made as to the results obtained, I have reprinted the tables
previously presented, together with similar tables of heights and
weights for children attending Secondary Schools.
I should also like to thank the Head Mistresses and Head
Masters named for their kind assistance in permitting me to take the
necessary measurements of their children.
LIMITS AND METHODS OF ENQUIRY—As a complete
physical examination was for obvious reasons impracticable, it was
decided to limit the enquiry to the following points :—
Age in years and months.
Height in inches and quarter inches without shoes.
Weight in pounds and quarter pounds in ordinary clothes,
but without boots.
The date of inspection, name of child, standard, and
sufficiency of clothing was also noted in each instance.
Though the metric system offered many advantages, it
was thought better to use standards with which the teachers had
greater practical familiarity.
The observations were all entered on cards, white cards
being used for boys and red cards for girls. This method minimises
the considerable labour involved in tabulating the results, and supplies
a convenient permanent record.
It is useful to note that the actual weighing and measuring
did not take very long In one school 1,005 children were weighed
and measured in 22 hours.
METHOD OF TABULATION —As at Dundee, Mr. Francis
Galton's method has been preferred to that of simple averages.