Early seriatim research on human somatic growth.

Biological knowledge is synthesized from human longitudinal data on individuals measured between 1759 and 1915. The variables treated are stature, body weight, head girth, and chest girth. Seriatim records are assembled from early studies in Austria, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, and the United States. Analyses are made for somatic size and gain during infancy, childhood, adolescence, and the postnatal span from birth to early adulthood. Findings pertain to differences among individuals during small and large portions of ontogeny, sex differences in body dimensions and growth rates, and differences among variables in the pattern of size-on-age curves for the period between birth and early adulthood.