733

12

713

8

7

more numerous and influential, must ultimately shape the future of Great Britain." Again :-"Infancy and age, with all the ills that flesh is heir to, detract, economically speaking, from the effectiveness of life, and add to its burdens. If feebleness in individuals or in families is fatal to advancement, dwindling strength and premature dissolution are no less so to the prosperity of a people." Great Britain contained in 1851 :

Thus the population was more youthful than it should be by the natural standard-younger probably in England and in Scotland than in any country of Europe. The inference therefore was that a preponderance must sooner or later be felt from the youthful element in society, be that wisely progressive or rashly precipitate. The entire results of the census of 1861 are not yet published; but assuming the returns of 1851 to exist in like proportions, a few facts on growth-on the actual physical condition of a fraction of this youthful element-may be interesting to this section of our Social Science Congress, particularly as statistics of growth are scarce. Should anything advanced by me assist in turning public attention to the necessity for physical culture, my end will be answered.

In 1862, in the Austrian Department of the International Exhibition, the remarkable tables of M. Liharzik were shown; but they were constructed only for the purpose of supplying art-students with correct proportions of the human figure at successive periods of existence, and they contain no account of weight, which must be an essential element in the consideration of growth.

Among the very valuable labours of Dr. Lankester, in the South Kensington Museum, there is a table in the food department devoted to the relationship between height and weight in adults. Dr. Lankester says:-"We may deduce the law that healthy men ought to weigh an additional five pounds for every inch in height beyond sixty-one inches, at which height they ought to weigh 120 pounds, less 1-17th of that gross weight for clothing." But in Dr. Lankester's table I see no mention of growing boys, though the period of growth in youth must be one amenable to laws.

The average height and weight of 500 boys aged from 8 to 18, with the ratio per pound to the inch are given here. Those of 1,000 or of 5,000 might with ease have been obtained, but my object has been rather to establish the importance of inquiry than to accumulate evidence.

The weights were all taken at the same hour of the same day; the measurements of the chest were directed by a medical gentleman, and precautions taken relative to inflation. The 150 boys are chiefly English, with a few Scotch and Irish, and two or three from abroad. They have been drilled daily, in divisions, excepting in the hottest weather; their friends are in easy circumstances; they

live in Surrey, where the average duration of life is higher than in any other part of England. Lastly, the weights and measurements were repeated to ensure accuracy. Upwards of 400 pupils of the Peckham Birkbeck Schools were weighed and measured by the kind permission of Mr. Shields. Averages of these also for each year have been carefully calculated :—

I do not attempt by my diagrams more than to show by lines and by figures, and on a uniform scale-a pound weight and an inch being represented by the same space :

1. The comparative height of 150 boys, varying in age from their eighth to their eighteenth year.

2. The comparative weight of ditto.

3. The ratio of weight to height per pound avoirdupois and inch, in each instance.

4. The increase in height among 75 boys from December 1st, 1862, to September 26th, 1863, or 300 days.

5. Increase in weight of ditto.

6. The circumference of the head, or the longest line that can be found horizontally over the plane of the eyes, in 134 of the cases above.

7. The circumference of the body on the nipples of the breast. 8. Per-centages of the results in all cases.

About 1-17th of the gross weight has been deducted for clothing in each instance.