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252
The average minima of heights and weights are taken by
selecting the shortest and lightest scholar in any particular group
for each school and taking the average of the figures so obtained.
The average maxima heights and weights are also obtained in
the same way.
The figures again show that the period of most rapid growth
in stature is earlier in boys than in girls, the latter grow most
rapidly and put on most weight during the last years of school
life; boys, on the contrary, appear to grow most rapidly between
8 and 12 years of age.
During the period of growth from 5 years to 8 years the boys
gained on the average 11.5 lbs. in weight and 6.1 inches in height.
The girls gained 11.6 lbs. in weight and 6.1 inches in height.
From 8 years to 12 years the corresponding gains are 22.0 lbs.
for boys and 24.1 lbs. for girls; 6.4 inches for boys and 7.4 inches
for girls.
During the period of growth from 5 years until the end of the
12th year the boys increased by 12.5 inches in height and 33.5 lbs.
in weight; the girls increased 13.5 inches in height and 35.7 lbs. in
weight.
The records of 4,000 boys and girls of public elementary
schools in Croydon born during the period 1916-1919 were
analysed by the Galton Laboratory. The results gave consistent
mean heights and weights of the values, 55.68 ins. for boys and
56.23 for girls, and 75.95 lbs. for boys and 76.94 lbs. for girls
when the mean age had been reduced to the standard of 12 years.
The apparent growth rates from measurements at a nearly
constant age are, as might have been expected, not very consistent
from year to year, varying in height from 1 to 2 ins. per year for
the boys and from 2 to 3 ins. per vear for the girls, and from H
to 8 lbs. in weight per year for the boys, and from 8 to 9½ lbs. in
weight per year for the girls.
The boys are less in stature and in weight than the girls at
this age; and the excess in height of the girls is more than can
be accounted for by the excess in weight.
There is a marked variation in the phvsique of both boys
and girls in the different schools of the Borough. This is shown
specially in weight.