INCREASE IN STATURE OF AMERICAN BOYS IN THE LAST FIFTY YEARS

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Increases in the stature of children (average height for age), as shown in some recent series of observations,1 may be due to taller ancestry or to more comfortable economic class. But between two homogeneous groups an increase may also be due to other causes: measurement in the morning rather than the after noon; measurement in a month of the year when seasonal growth is more rapid; accident (random sampling); progress in control of various infantile diseases that retard growth; knowledge of vitamins, sunlight and rachitis, with consequent better nurture. This paper, however, is concerned not with the cause but with the phenomenon. It is said by Boas 2 to be evident for various peoples in Europe. Is it also a fact for American boys, and how great is the increase? Evidence may be seen by comparing our private school boys with as nearly similar a series measured half a

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: