Part 9

Chapter 93,091 wordsPublic domain

Experiments and studies are being carried on which involve the use of every day throughout the year. To accomplish this end, the father and mother have become the assistant supervisors of the home work and the farm work, and they receive the advice, the suggestion, and the instruction of the rural supervisors of schools. While working to get the best possible results from the efforts made, and to establish the facts by samples, by photographs, and by financial relations of cost and return, these undertakings are accompanied by neighborhood meetings of many kinds which have had the effect of enlarging community interest, community support, and community improvement. Out of these efforts have come better social conditions, more harmonious relations, a development of better ideals, and a higher conception of life.

These demonstration schools, in addition to being a force among the people in the community where they are located, also serve as educational centers which are to be visited by the other rural teachers of the community in order that the inexperienced and untrained teacher may receive the benefit of the teacher of more experience. In addition, these schools also serve the purpose of experimental schools where many ideas are worked out and put into effect, and new methods of teaching as well as untried methods of farming are given a trial.

The rural school situation is being studied more to-day than ever before, for it is being realized that our country schools are not functioning to the best advantage. The social side of the task, extension work among the patrons of the district, consolidated and more efficient schools, and better trained teachers are only a few of the phases of this movement toward making the rural school a real force throughout the country. The movement is gaining ground each year, and though there are many problems to be solved and many difficult situations to be met, yet there is every reason to believe that out of this mass of experiments there will evolve the rural school of the future, which will be a more vital factor in the community than has been the case up to the present day.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT AND LONGEVITY

THE anthropometric examinations given in the University of Porto Rico during the last two years have provided data from which to determine the physical development of the Porto Rican. A total of 1,412 examinations has been made, including 616 men and 796 women. These students ranged in age from fifteen to thirty years.

A comparison of the physical development of American and Porto Rican boys and girls of the same age shows that the Porto Rican surpasses the American in nearly every point, at the ages of fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen. At eighteen the physical development is about the same, but from that time there seems to be little additional growth on the part of the Porto Rican, while the American continues to develop up to and including the twenty-second year. This seems to confirm the generally accepted theory that a person matures earlier in the tropics than he does in a temperate climate. That the slighter physical development is the effect of geographic or climatic conditions, and is not entirely due to race, is proved by the fact that measurements of Chilean boys, who are of Spanish blood, more nearly approximate those of North American boys than they do those of Porto Ricans. The following tables show a comparison of the development of the Porto Rican students with the average development of American men and women. The measurements are in pounds and inches.

TABLE I

==================================================================== |Average measurements | Average | of Porto Rican male |measurements of |students from 16 to 28 | American men | years of age |from 17 to 30 | | years of age ---------------------------+-----------------------+---------------- Height | 64.94 | 67.6 Weight | 110.67 | 138.6 Chest, transversal | 10.26 | 10.8 Chest, anterior-posterior | 7.92 | 7.5 Shoulders | 15.06 | 16.1 Neck | 13.05 | 13.9 Chest, contracted | 30.63 | 33.7 Chest, expanded | 33.25 | 36.7 Waist | 27.92 | 29.1 Right forearm | 9.33 | 10.4 Left forearm | 9.20 | 10.4 Right arm up | 9.61 | 11.9 Right arm down | 8.45 | 10.4 Left arm up | 9.42 | 11.8 Left arm down | 8.22 | 10.3 Right thigh | 17.97 | 20.3 Left thigh | 17.83 | 20.2 Right calf | 12.64 | 13.8 Left calf | 12.66 | 13.8 ---------------------------+-----------------------+----------------

TABLE II

==================================================================== | Average measurements | Average | of Porto Rican women | measurements of | students from 16 to | American women | 28 years of age | from 17 to | | 30 years of age --------------------------+-----------------------+------------------ Height | 61.78 | 62.9 Weight | 107.82 | 116. Chest, transversal | 9.35 | 10. Chest, anterior-posterior | 6.93 | 6.8 Shoulders | 13.64 | 14.4 Neck | 11.98 | 12.1 Chest, natural | 29.19 | 29.7 Chest, contracted | 28.57 | 29.6 Chest, expanded | 31.29 | 32. Waist | 25.14 | 24.3 Hips | 33.76 | 35.7 Right forearm | 8.71 | 8.8 Left forearm | 8.61 | 8.6 Right arm down | 8.44 | 9.8 Left arm down | 8.40 | 9.7 Right arm up | 8.99 | 10.8 Left arm up | 8.82 | 10.6 Right thigh | 18.79 | 21.1 Left thigh | 18.65 | 21. Right calf | 12.66 | 13. Left calf | 12.64 | 13. --------------------------+-----------------------+-----------------

If it is true that the Porto Rican reaches the height of physical development at the age of eighteen, then we may consider that an average of the measurements of the men and women from and after that age will give us what is practically the representative physical development of the Porto Rican adult. These averages are found in the following table.

TABLE III

_Representative development of Porto Rican students at the University of Porto Rico, of more than 18 years of age._

=============================================== | Men | Women ---------------------------+----------+-------- Height | 65.87 | 61.83 Weight | 116.21 | 107.93 Shoulders | 15.39 | 13.67 Chest, transversal | 10.39 | 9.34 Chest, anterior-posterior | 8.07 | 6.98 Neck | 13.32 | 12.01 Chest, muscular | 32.74 | 30.27 Chest, natural | 31.87 | 29.45 Chest, expanded | 33.84 | 31.30 Chest, contracted | 31.36 | 28.23 Waist | 27.96 | 25.08 Hips | 32.13 | 33.45 Right arm down | 8.62 | 8.49 Right arm up | 9.79 | 8.95 Right forearm | 9.53 | 8.61 Left arm down | 8.43 | 8.36 Left arm up | 9.61 | 8.83 Left forearm | 9.46 | 8.29 Right thigh | 18.38 | 18.76 Left thigh | 18.15 | 18.61 Right calf | 12.85 | 12.68 Left calf | 12.90 | 12.64 ---------------------------+----------+--------

For the purpose of comparing the Porto Rican boys with boys of Spanish blood, but of another climate, Table IV, which shows the comparative development of Porto Rican and Chilean boys from 16 to 20 years of age, is given. The measurements for the Chilean boys were furnished by the Museo Nacional of Santiago, Chili.

TABLE IV

+------------+---------- Sixteen years | Porto Rico | Chili --------------------------+------------+---------- Number observed | 16. | 340. Height | 64.42 | 64.49 Weight | 105.44 | 123.64 Chest | 31.01 | 33.09 Chest, transversal | 9.69 | 10.34 Chest, anterior-posterior | 7.79 | 7.66 Waist | 27.28 | 25.11 | | Seventeen years | | | | Number observed | 75. | 248. Height | 64.41 | 65.43 Weight | 113.41 | 128.48 Chest | 32.06 | 33.52 Chest, transversal | 10.11 | 10.72 Chest, anterior-posterior | 7.99 | 7.97 Waist | 25.05 | 25.54 | | Eighteen years | | | | Number observed | 92. | 138. Height | 65.72 | 65.86 Weight | 118.43 | 133.32 Chest | 32.61 | 34.33 Chest, transversal | 10.36 | 11.04 Chest, anterior-posterior | 8.14 | 8.09 Waist | 28.08 | 26.09 | | Nineteen years | | | | Number observed | 107. | 65. Height | 65.47 | 65.94 Weight | 111.53 | 133.98 Chest | 32.33 | 34.66 Chest, transversal | 10.27 | 11.35 Chest, anterior-posterior | 8.15 | 8.17 Waist | 27.15 | 26.13 | | Twenty years | | | | Number observed | 78. | 18. Height | 65.91 | 66.18 Weight | 113.32 | 113.52 Chest | 32.36 | 34.71 Chest, transversal | 10.39 | 11.43 Chest, anterior-posterior | 7.77 | 8.33 Waist | 27.58 | 26.44 --------------------------+------------+----------

A study of the census of 1910 showing the distribution of the population of Porto Rico by race and by age periods gives some interesting information. If the situation given there is taken to be typical of general conditions, by considering the number of children of each class under one year of age, we find that the highest birth rate is among the mulattoes; next in order come the native whites of native parentage, next the blacks, and last the native whites of foreign or mixed parentage. The actual percentage of each class under one year of age is as follows: mulattoes, 3.9 per cent; native whites of native parentage, 3.6 per cent; blacks, 2.5 per cent; native whites of foreign or mixed parentage, 2 per cent. The percentage of the population under five years of age in each class tends to confirm this statement. It is as follows: mulattoes 17.9 per cent; native whites of native parentage, 14.7 per cent; blacks, 12.2 per cent; native whites of foreign or mixed parentage, 9.5 per cent.

While the mulattoes have the highest birth rate, it is also true that, as a general thing, they are the shortest lived of any of the classes mentioned. The class which generally has greatest longevity consists of the negroes; next in order come the native whites of mixed or foreign parentage, then the native whites of native parentage, and last, the mulattoes. Thus the order, as regards length of life, is nearly the reverse of what it is as regards birth rate.

It is observed also that while native whites of foreign or mixed parentage have a comparatively great length of life and a comparatively low birth rate, their children, who fall in the class of native whites of native parentage, have shorter lives and tend to produce larger families, than did the parents. In each class the females outnumber the males, the proportion being 100 females to 99.4 males for the total population, which, however, includes the foreign-born whites, where the males outnumber the females. In the classes of native-born citizens, the difference between the numbers of the sexes is greater than the ratio for the total population would indicate, being the greatest among the mulattoes, where the ratio is 93.6 males for every 100 females. In each class it is found that the women enjoy greater length of life than do the men.

The following table shows what proportion of the total number of each class of the population falls under the age groups designated.

Transcriber's Note: The following abbreviations were used to keep this table to a reasonable width:

M = Males F = Females

TABLE V

===================================================================== | | | | Native | | | | Native | white | | Negroes | Mulattoes | white | of foreign| Foreign | | | of native | or mixed | born white | | | parentage | parentage | +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----- | M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F ---------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----- Under | | | | | | | | | | 5 years | 12.9| 11.6| 18.3| 17.4| 17.1| 16.4| 10.1| 8.9| .8| 2.1 5 to 24 | 42.3| 42.5| 48.2| 47.1| 46.2| 46.4| 45.6| 45.9| 18.8| 20.8 25 to 54 | 34.4| 34.8| 29. | 30.1| 31.7| 31.5| 36.6| 35.6| 64.6| 57.2 55 to 84 | 9.7| 10.5| 4.4| 5.3| 5. | 5. | 7.4| 9.3| 15.6| 19.2 85 years | | | | | | | | | | and over | .7| .8| .1| .2| .1| .2| .1| .3| .2| .8 ---------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----

It will be noticed that above the age of 55 there is a larger proportion of women than men in each class. Judging the median age for each group to be the year which divides the total number of that group into two equal divisions, so far as number is concerned, we find the following median ages: blacks, 23; mulattoes, 18; native whites of native parentage, 20; native whites of foreign or mixed parentage, 22; foreign-born whites, 37. These results correspond exactly with the statements previously made regarding the longevity of each group. This would, of course, only give the median age for each class at the time the census was taken, in 1910, but as practically the same age distribution is also found in the census of 1899, it may be concluded that the results are approximately correct. This means that 50 per cent of each group does not live beyond the age indicated, and is sometimes known as the "mean length of life." Data for calculating the average length of life are not available.

A comparison of the age groups in the United States and in Porto Rico shows that the proportion in the younger ages is greater in Porto Rico than it is in the United States.

TABLE VI

==================+==============+=============== | Native white | Colored +------+-------+------+-------- | Porto| United| Porto| United | Rico | States| Rico | States ------------------+------+-------+------+-------- Under 5 years | 16.5 | 13.5 | 17.1 | 12.9 5 to 14 years | 26.3 | 23. | 27.1 | 24.4 15 to 24 years | 20. | 20.3 | 19.8 | 21.3 25 to 44 years | 25.4 | 26.5 | 24.2 | 26.8 45 to 64 years | 9.6 | 13. | 9.4 | 11.3 65 years and over | 2.2 | 3.6 | 2.4 | 3. ------------------+------+-------+------+--------

Undoubtedly the work of the Department of Sanitation and of the Institute of Tropical Medicine will do much to change the death rate within the next few years, and to prolong life. We may well expect the next census to show a much larger percentage of the population in the higher age groups.