The Daily New Era, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1904.06.09.

Research, transcription and comments by Jorgen Malling Christensen.

Illustrations by Sverre Avnskog.

 

This article is a comment on a work published by Professor Granville Stanley Hall (1846-1924) in 1904: “Adolescence: Its Psychology and its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime and Religion”. Hall was an influential and rather controversial American psychologist and educator. His emphasis was on childhood development and evolutionary theory. He founded the ‘American Journal of Psychology’ in 1887, and in 1892 he was appointed the first president of the American Psychological Association.

 

He spent part of 1878-79 at German universities and hence would have acquired proficiency in German, enabling him to read Malling-Hansen’s Fragment II and III.

 

The article below (shortened) was in fact published by 28 other American newspapers and journals – see the full list after the text! So: 14-15 years after Malling-Hansen’s death, his research was brought to the attention of the professionals and to the general public, once again, by one of the most prominent American scientists of that period.

 

I regret that I cannot access the original article for the time being, as payment for access is required.

 

WHEN WE GET OUR GROWTH.

 

________

 

Curious Points on Boy and Girl Development
Picked Up by the Scientists.

 

     When and how and how long do we grow?

 

     In his new work on “Adolescence”, just published by the Appletons, Prof. G.Stanley Hall devotes a great deal of space to this question and cites many observers.

 

     He notes that from May, 1882, to February, 1886, Malling-Hansen, director of the deaf-mute institution at Copenhagen, daily weighed 130 of his boys, and for the last two years of that period daily measured them. He found that the weight of an average boy from nine to fifteen years passed three annual periods of change. The period of greatest growth was from August to the middle of December. During the second four and a half months, till the end of April, growth was of average rate, and it was least for the next three months, ending with July. For growth in height the minimum period begins in August and lasts till near the end of November, the middle period lasts for four months, till the end of March, and the maximal period lasts four and a half months, to the middle of August.

 

     Increase in height varies with local temperature, so that all these changes the author ascribes to the sun.

 

     Malling-Hansen suggests in the interest of proportion that children who are in danger of remaining short and thick go gradually south to warmer climates toward the end of summer, and so be removed from the influence of the maximal period of growth in thickness. Conversely, a tall, slender child must be removed from the influence of the maximal period of growth in height by being taken slowly north in April.

     This theory of possible regulation by travel is interesting. However, Prof. Hall remarks that its practicability “remains to be tested”.

 

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Also published in:

1. The Semi-Weekly New Era (Pennsylvania) 11 June 1904

2. The Greenville News (South Carolina) 19 June 1904

3. St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri) 22 June 1904

4. The Kansas City Gazette (Kansas) 1 July 1904

5. The Fort Payne Journal (Alabama) 6 July 1904

6. The Marion Democrat (Alabama) 6 July 1904

7. The Luverne Journal and the Crenshaw County News (Alabama) 7 July 1904

8. The Centreville Press (Alabama) 7 July 1904

9. The Birmingham Times (Alabama) 8 July 1904

10.         The Burlington Democrat (Kansas) 8 July 1904

11.         The Solomon Tribune (Kansas) 13 July 1904

12.         The Florala News (Alabama) 14 July 1904

13.         The Unionville Crescent (Michigan) 15 July 1904

14.         Chetopa Advance (Kansas) 15 July 1904

15.         Alton Evening Telegraph (Illinois) 16 July 1904

16.         Jewell County Republican (Kansas) 11 August 1904

17.         Lane County Journal (Kansas) 10 August 1904

18.         The Opelousas Courier (Louisiana) 15 Oct 1904

19.         Smith County Journal (Kansas) 6 Oct 1904

20.         The Times-News (Utah) 12 Aug 1904

21.         The Ottawa Daily Republic (Kansas) 19 July 1904

22.         Hill City Republican (Kansas) 1 Sep 1905

23.         Macksville Enterprise (Kansas) 18 Aug 1905

24.         The St. Paul Journal (Kansas) 17 Aug 1905

25.         The Kirwin Kansas (Kansas) 17 Aug 1905

26.         The Burlington Democrat (Kansas) 16 Aug 1905

27.         The Kinkaid Dispatch (Kansas) 11 Aug 1905

28.         The Strong City Herald and Elmdale Reporter (Kansas) 11 Aug 1905