Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 73.djvu/254

sists of 295 university football men examined since 1880. The mean height of this group is 69.5 inches, and the mean weight 157.6 pounds. Both the crew and the football groups are composed of picked or selected men, the former being chosen largely for superior height and the latter for superior weight. It will be observed that the strength of both of these groups being 625 and 652, respectively, is lower than some of the groups that follow. The reason for this difference may be explained by stating that prior to 1890 there was no required strength test, and the great majority of the crew and football men in the eighties fell below the present requirement for university athletes, which is 700 points. Group 3 is composed of 505 students who entered the Lawrence Scientific School during the years 1902-6. The height is 68.7 inches, the weight 143.3 pounds, and the strength 680 points. Group 4 is composed of 530 students who entered the academic department during the years 1904-6. The height is 68.7 inches, the same as that of the Scientific School men, but the weight is 140 pounds, or 3.3 pounds less, while the strength is 650, or 30 points less than the Scientific School men. These two groups, comprising some 1,035 undergraduates, are made up of all classes—of athletes, scholarship men, semi-invalids and average students—as they come to the university from the preparatory schools. The Scientific School students are heavier and stronger than the academic students, a fact frequently referred to by the late Professor Shaler, showing his remarkable powers of observation. The most significant facts in regard to these two groups can only be comprehended when they are compared with Group No. 11, comprising 1,000 students taken from the four classes and all departments of the university in 1880. It will be observed that in 1880 the medium height of the university student was only 67.7 inches, although the group contained many men who had been in college three and four years. The medium weight of this group was 135.2 pounds and the total strength 490 points. The average weight and height of the Harvard student at this time was about the same as that given for the American youth, ranging from 21 to 26 years of age, who entered the army in 1860. At the present time the average student is an inch taller, and from 4 to 8 pounds heavier than the average student of 1880, while his strength has increased from 490 to 650 and 680, a gain of 140 and 190 points. In 1880 only 50 per cent, of the Harvard students would have surpassed the height and weight of the army average. To-day over 65 per cent, would pass that standard. This is a most remarkable uplift in growth and development for any considerable body of men in any country or community to have attained in 25 years. My only hesitation in accepting this fact as conclusive is the lingering doubt as to what effect the 30 or 40 per cent, of students who are never weighed or measured at the gymnasium might have upon the medium height and weight. The 1,035 men examined from