The physical examination and development of public school boys : based upon records of over 40,000 observations : a paper read before the Association on April 4th, 1899 / by Cecil Hawkins.
- Hawkins, Cecil.
- Date:
- 1900
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The physical examination and development of public school boys : based upon records of over 40,000 observations : a paper read before the Association on April 4th, 1899 / by Cecil Hawkins. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![more than '2 inches in places, and any ar^^mnent based uj)on tlie absolute <lifference betAveen the observed avepa|?e c)f a class of boys, and the average which they ought to possess accoixling to the j)articular standard which hap- pens to be (juoted in the nearest text-book, must, in my o])inion, be liable to grave errf)r unless this fact is borne in mind. Still, for ordinary pur})ose8, the average boy would make a fair working unit, provided that it were true that the rate of growth of individual boys ought in all cases to conform to that of the average, for we do not, as a rule, want to compare the individual with other boys at all, except as a means of comparing him with himself. If at any age a boy is found to be a pound or an inch above the average boy, and when subsequently examined is found to continue in that i)osition, then we maj’ be pretty sure that he is holding his own, and making the growth which may be expected of him. Thus, by comparing such a boy at any time with the average boj', we can compare him with himself at various stages of his development. But how about the boy who, at the age of Id, is above the average for public school boys by as much as 11^ in. in height, and 41 lb. in weight ? Is he too, to continue in the same variation ? If so, at the age of 20 he will stand () ft. <S4 in. high, and weigh 13 st. S lb. Fortunately we are not compelled by observed facts to anticipate this. Betw^een this very excei)tional boy and the average boy come a large number of cases, whose measurements and rates of growth differ so widely from those of the average boy that we cannot conveniently form an accu- rate conce})tion of their physical progrt'ss by comparing their details of measurement with his. We obviously recpiire a more extended system of standard boys, so that we may be able to compare every case which comes under our observation with a standard or standards differing but little from the boy observed. Such a system of standard boys is practically given to us in the system of j)ercentile grades, explained by Mr. Francis Oalton in his charming book “Natural Inherit- ance.” As many j)eople are unfamiliar with this method](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22449450_0012.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
