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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![every boy in one of 20 grades, so selected that each grade ought to be e(|ually j)robable, and I numbered these grades from the top downwards. This classifica- tion has been found to be very convenient in practice, and to yield results which can be readily understood. In order to ensure that each grade shall be equally probable the limits are so fi.xed from the curves of distribution that the lowest o per cent, at each age are in grade 20, the next r> j>er cent, in grade 10, and so on. The curves of distri- bution enii)loyed had been constructeil for each half-year of age, and in in}’ first tables 1 fixed the grades for the inter- mediate months by intei-polation. I have since found out a better way of doing this, which I will explain presently, and I have constructeil, for the purposes of this ])aj)er, a new set of tables for classification by height, by weight, and by chest-girth, calculated from a large number of observations, recorded at several different schools. As regards my own power of forming a conception of the i)osition among his fellows hekl by any boy, of the progress which he is making physically, and of the relation which his development in weight, height, and chest-girth bear to one another, I can only say that the increase of ease in grasping the situation in all its bearings afforded me by the adoption of this system of classification, is quite immeasurable. I take a sheet of observations, which seems a bewildering mass of figures, from which only the closest studj’ can evolve any meaning. I take my tables and some red ink, and in a very few minutes I enter above each observation the number of the cone- Bponding grade. The effect is similar to that produced by sui)i)lying the key to a letter written in cipher. Hefore constructing my tables I seriously considered whether it would not be better to leave the age out of consideration altogethei-, and form my tables so as to show the distribution of weight and chest-girth for boys of the same height. I thought at the time, and I believe the idea is a common one, that the relation of weight to height is the true test of a boy’s healthy development. 1 con- structed a certain number of curves of distribution ujion this principle ; but in order to test the (piestion whether](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22449450_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
