New Britain herald., 1928-05-28
Average Girl Is Too Light
Underweight and Wears
 Too Few Clothes.
(By NEA Service)

l y an like in this day of Flaming Youth. anyway?
 Dr. Reginald F'itz. associate pro- lessor of medicine at the Harvard University Medical school. can an- swer that question about as we'll as anyone can, at least as far as physi- cal characteristics go. Not long ago he made a series of examinations of large number of college boys and girls. ranging in age from 19 to e6; and in the current issue of Hygeia, the magazine of the American Med ical association. he summarizes his findings.
 The average girl, he finds, is first of all, bit underweight.
 She tends deliberately to under nourish herself in order to keep thin," he explains. "One gets the im- pression that a girls present aim is to keep thin at all costs: failing to attain this end she may become dis couraged and conclude that the ef- fort is more bother than it is worth, in which case she may so to the other extreme and placidly eat her self into condition of abnormal obesity"
 In the second place, she doesn't wear quite enough clothing.
 Dr. Fitz found that two pounds of clothing. including shoes. is con- sidered excessive by the average girl; 12 ounces seems just about right to great many
 These two traits have effects which doctor can readily spot.
 Too light clothing makes the aver age girl constantly cold-in the win- ter time, at any rate. Body tempera- lures fully two degrees below normal are often encountered: blood pres sure also tends to be subnormal. The result is not good for the health.
 "She'-the average girls con- i stantly below par and thus liable to minor infections in the way of colds or sore throats and may readily in- cur more serious troubles" writes Dr. Fitz. Thus in my group it was found that 36 per cent of the women had lost two or more weeks time from minor illnesses during the pre- ceding two years, while only Is per cent of the men had been bothered by a similar loss of time as a result of illness.
 "Even more striking was the number of girls who complained of getting easily tired. a complaint all most unheard of among the men. This perhaps. is more serious mat ter. The modern girl requires pep at all costs. Her popularity and dash depend entirely on this altogether in- especially to be wondered at, there fore, that the modern, undernourish- ed girl who continually feels cold. who is liable to minor infections and gets easily tired on very moderate ef- fort, acquires the habit of obtaining pep by artificial means" On the whole, however. Dr. Fitz l gives the average girl a good bill of health.
 "she was active and graceful in the handling of her body. had good posture. was fairly tall. had well formed shoulders and a small waist, l was perhaps a little thin, but well muscled and sturdy" he writes "On the whole. she appeared to be per fectly healthy, both in mind and body, and was much more of the athletic than the flapper type" He lists a few physical character istics of the average girl thus: Age, P years. Height, 5 feet 1 inches. Weight. 126 pounds. Tenn perature. sse degrees. pulse rate, SS. Blood pressure. 12o.
 The Average Boy
 So much for the average girl And the average boy.
 The boy tends to keep his weight up to par better than the girl. 1n- deed, he is apt to be slightly over weight rather than underweight. He enjoys good health and is decidedly of the athletic type-sometime to a greater extent than is good for him.
 They tend, perhaps, to lead too strenuous an existence" he writes. Tt is a question whether so much violent and spasmodic exercise as many are taking for recreation may not prove to have detrimental in- fluence on the heart and blood ves- sells by throwing on them an un- necessary load which will be harmful in the long run"
 Here are his figures on the aver age boy:
 Age. g years. Height, feet 10 inches. Weight. 159 pounds. Temper ature. 3S.7 degrees. Pulse rate. S2. Blood pressure, 129.
 All in all Dr. Fitz is highly en- couraged about modern youth.
 ''On the whole, the youth of to- day are a fine crowd of young men and women." he writes. "As they have their innings. they will carry on the work of the country in the best possible way. No doubt they will. in turn. presently come to be more or less bewildered by the conduct of