the absolute increase of either weight or of stature—but only on the increase of either in relation to the other in the course of the school life. The measuring and weighing must be accurate, and finally they must be done regularly, at equal intervals, so that a child who is weighed and measured in March and September one year, is not weighed and measured in April and October the next! If irregularly done the thing has no value, but well done, it gives indications so true and delicate that the weighing and measuring machines are looked on by some teachers as a kind of mental and moral barometer, rarely if ever at fault!
The Wiesbaden order on this point has been adopted by nearly all German towns. It runs as follows:—
"The weighing and measuring of children will be done by the class teachers. It is to be carried out half-yearly (measurement to half-centimetre and weight to one quarter of kilogramme). The doctor will measure regularly the chest girth of all children who are suspected of having lung disease, or whose constitution and health is such that they are under medical control."
The health sheet and the weighing and measuring machines bring home to teachers the fact that the
