Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 73.djvu/256

252 there is some 100 points difference in the tests of Groups 3, 4, and 7 and 14, all the groups of scholarship men have surpassed the strength test of the average university student of 1880. The height and weight of the student within normal limits may be said to represent his potential strength and vital capacity. The actual test of strength gauges his real functional power—or would so gauge it if each student tried to do the best he could. While the required physical test for athletes and scholarship men has undoubtedly stimulated many students to make greater physical efforts in preparation for the examination, it has made many of them simply content in doing just about enough to pass the minimum requirement. This in a measure accounts for the more uniform tests of the scholarship men, and the little difference between Groups I., II. and III. The average student, as shown in Groups 3 and 4 is more likely to try to make a good strength test than the scholarship men, as he is desirous of passing the minimal requirement for the athletic teams, in order to be eligible to one or more of these organizations. Although the average height and weight of all the scholarship men are below the average student of to-day, the average of the honor scholarship men is considerably above the average of the university students of 1880—while the average of the stipend scholarship men of the present time is not only below the average students of that year in point of weight, but is below the average of the stipend men of the early eighties. Although the number of men in Groups 6 and 9 is rather small to base definite conclusions upon, the numbers in the other groups are large enough to give conclusive evidence of the trend of physical development in the three great classes of Harvard students, namely, the scholars, athletes and the average students. The discrepancy in the physical measurements of the several groups of scholarship men and the average students raises questions which are in my opinion worthy of grave consideration. The physical superiority of Group I. over Group II. in point of height among both the honor and stipend class of scholarship men is perfectly consistent with acknowledged physiological truths in regard to mental and physical development. But the dominating factors that determine stature and weight are age, race and nurture. The medium or average age of Group I. of stipend scholarship men is 19 years, of Group II. 20 years, of Group III. 19 years and 3 months, and the Lawrence Scientific School Scholarship Group is 22 years. The average age of Groups I. and II. of the honor scholarship men is 18 years and 6 months, respectively. Here it will be noted that the honor scholarship men, though the youngest are the tallest, heaviest and strongest. Does the advanced age of the stipend men indicate inferior natural ability or retardation in mental and physical development due to preoccupation with other work? In either case the question also arises whether the