Abstract
Growth Changes in Physical Correlation.—Dr. Joseph Bergson, in Human Biology, vol. 1, No. 4, publishes the result of a study of the relation of height, weight, and chest measurement in the human male from birth to maturity in accordance with Pearsonian biometric methods. His object is to show that, as conjectured, the alternate stimulus and retardation known to be exhibited during growth are incidental to an all-pervading interdependence of one structure and another. He finds that intercorrela-tions between height and weight, weight and chest circumference, and height and chest circumference all show significant variation with age. The correlations between height and weight show in their trend on age alternate maximum and minimum points in the neighbourhood of ages 1–5 years, 3 years, 6 years, 11 years, 14 years, and 21 years. The correlations between weight and chest measurement and height and chest measurement, as well as between height and weight, show a maximum point in the neighbourhood of 14 years. Each of the other statistical functions, means, standard deviations, and coefficients of variation, also shows in its trend with age a maximum point in the neighbourhood of 14 years. This is taken to be associated with adolescence and a subsequent decline is regarded as a “post-pubescent decline”. The relative size of the correlation coefficient after about 10 years is highest for weight-chest circumference and smallest for height-chest circumference. Between the ages of about 6 years and 10 years the height-weight correlation coefficient is higher than the weight-chest circumference coefficient, while the latter and height-chest circumference retain the relative position they occupy after 10 years.
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Research Items. Nature 126, 486–488 (1930). https://doi.org/10.1038/126486a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/126486a0