Evening star., 1931-04-26
NEW TABLE FOUND
FOR CHILD GROWTH
Or. Charles B. Davenport
Shows Variation in Normal
Development.
BY HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE.
BY the Associated Press.

hx HOWAhD w. bLAhESAEE.
BY the Associated Press.
PHILADELPHIA, April 25.-Science
today offered relief for mothers worry
ing over children who bring home school
reports Of having weights and heights
wrong for their ages.
This relief is in q new set Of growth
tables presented at the closing sessions
of the American Philosophical Society
by Dr. Charles b. Davenport, director
of the Department of Genetics of the
Carnegie Institution of Washington at
Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y.
Discovery of an elephant tooth calen-
dar that promises to date outstanding
human events Of more than million
years past was reported by DR.. Henry
Fairfield Osborn of the American Mu-
scum of Natural History. A dust storm
source of the rich farmlands Of the Mis-
sissippi Valley was explained by DR..
William H. Isobbs of the University Of
Michigan.
Growth Curves Differ.
Studies of child growth hitherto, said
DR.. Davenport, have been made chiefly
by measuring about 100 children at a
time from lowest to highest school ages.
This has given mass growth curve
against which individuals were matched.
But there Is a different story In
growth curves of individual children
which DR.. Davenport has been making
for seven years. These individuals
often fail to fit the mass curves. They
have other periods of growth, some
times ahead of the mass, sometimes be-
hind, and even taking several different
spurts. But they are normally healthy.
when child Is growing four, five or
six inches in year." said DR.. Daven-
port, 1T Is quite probable that he Is in
q rather peculiar physical and nervous
condition compared with his time of
slower growth. Yet the growth Is likely
to occur at time when physical and
mental demands are made upon him
most heavily. It is question whether
some special consideration should be
given to child at this fast-growing
period"
Enamel Ridges Key.
The elephant tooth calendar is dis
covery that for more than q million
years the amount of enamel on under
grinding teeth Of elephants has been
increasing. The enamel grows in ridges.
If these ridges could be stretched out
like an accordian, the length of enamel
q million years ago would be about 2
feet. But 1t had heightened to 26 feet
by the time of Cro-magnon man, which
was about 1900 years ago. Dr. Osborn
stretched paper samples Of his accord
ian calendar before the scientists and
the longest were nearly as wide as the
room.
This length had grown centimeter
BY centtmeter during the estimated
1000, 900 years of the age of man." he
said. "aS the research proceeds we shall
probably be able to ascertain just how
long it took to produce a centtmeter Of
enamel length"
Such timing will make the calendar.
It can be applied to dating man be-
cause his bones have been found prin-
cipally in association with the bones Of
ancient elephants. Elephant records go
back 20.OOO,O0O years with man found
thus far mostly In the last million.
Tells Of Sandst0rms.
The enamel calendar, said DR.. Os-
born, gives the age Of the Piltdown fos-
sil man Ia England Is about 1850, 900
years. The Pektng man as believed con-
tempOraneCus with this Brittsher,' but
the elephant calendar has not been
used In China.
DR.. Hobbs told Of Winter sandstorms
In Greenland as bad as those of scorch-
ing deserts. They occur ut the edge of
the glacier, near University of Mich
1gan observation station, where they are
laying down rich deposits of top soil.
DR.. Hobbs said the Greenland sand
storms probably duplicate the glacial
action which deposited the e300-an-
acre farmland of the Mississippi Valley
Thousands Of years ago.