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(i) Height and weight. The average height and weight
of children examined in the three age groups is given in Table
VIII.

In this table the figures given for the number examined
at each age refer to both heights and weights.
Many investigations have demonstrated the relative increase
in the heights and weights of the children of to-day as
compared with children at corresponding age groups in pre-war
years. The figures for West Ham children are set out in Table
IX, which shows the average heights and weights of children in
the three code age-groups for each year since 1930. The table
also gives the corresponding figures for the year 1927, and also
for the year 1914, in respect of children at ages 5 and 12 years.
(Mean heights and weights are also available for the 8 year group,
but the observations upon which these are based are too small to
make the results significant.) All the means given in the table
were calculated from samples which were large enough for the
purpose; the smallest sample consisted of 635 children, and the
largest of 2,891.
The average heights and weights for 1937 are compared
with the corresponding figures for 1914 and for 1927 respectively
in Table X.
Further examination of these figures is necessary in order
to reach detailed conclusions, but in certain cases the differences
are sufficiently striking to warrant some comment. The remarkable
increase in the weight of 12-year old children, as compared
with the average weight of children at this age in 1914, is considerably
greater than the increase observed in many other areas.
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