Weight

wat, the downward force, heaviness, or gravity of a body. It is due to the attraction between the earth and bodies on its surface. A stone pulls the earth toward it just as hard as the earth pulls the stone, but, if dropped from the hand, a stone will go to the earth, because the earth is so much heavier. Though the movement is imperceptible the earth really falls toward the stone as well. Weight should be distinguished carefully from mass. A cannon ball contains the same amount of material, that is to say, has the same mass wherever it may be; but it weighs most at the surface of the earth, or more strictly speaking, at the sea level, and loses weight perceptibly at high altitudes, and very rapidly indeed beneath the earth's surface. Half way to the earth's center it would only weigh about one-half as much. At the center of the earth, it would have no weight at all, yet the mass would remain the same. For measures of weight, see AVOIRDUPOIS; TROY WEIGHT; METRIC SYSTEM; POUND; TON, etc.

Weight of the Human Body. As is well known, people differ in weight. Midgets are not uncommon. When Tom Thumb first called on Barnum, the showman, he weighed but fifteen pounds. Lambert of London, who was five feet eleven inches in height, weighed 704 pounds. Infants vary in weight quite as much as adults. A weight at birth of from six to ten pounds may be considered normal; boys as a rule weigh about a pound more than girls. Insurance experts have built up tables of averages based on the weight and height of many actual weighings and measurements. The standard table for men is that of Dr. George R. Shepherd, compiled in 1897. As people are weighed with their clothing and standing in their shoes, the actual weight may be found by subtracting about one eighteenth from the weights given in the table. To find the actual height, an inch and a quarter should be subtracted from the given height. The following is condensed from Dr. Shepherd's

TABLE OF THE HEIGHTS AND WEIGHTS OF MEN.

A second table was prepared by Dr. F. S. Weisse for women. Dr. Shepard is of the opinion that exact figures may be had by subtracting one-eighteenth from the weight for clothing and by deducting an inch and one-half from the height, on account of high-heeled shoes. The following, then, is a condensed

TABLE OF THE HEIGHTS AND WEIGHTS OF WOMEN.

Some interesting deductions may be drawn from the tables. A young man weighs about seven pounds more than a woman of the same height and age. Short men grow stout faster than tall men. Fifty years is about the age of greatest weight for both men and women. After the age of twenty-five women increase in weight faster than men. In calculating risks, life insurance medical directors regard a weight of five per cent below normal as the best risk for persons about thirty years of age, but for ages below thirty a weight five or ten per cent above standard is considered an indication of sound health. A weight of twenty per cent above standard is considered stout. Overweight does not add to strength. It is considered a more serious menace to health and longevity than is underweight. Physicians claim that one should keep his weight within ten per cent of the standard.

Many interesting facts relating to weight may be stated. The average child doubles in weight during the first twenty-two weeks of life. This rate of increase is not kept up. If it were a child would weigh several tons before the age of school arrived. So far as the makeup of the body is concerned a weight of 150 pounds is distributed about as follows: muscles and their appendages, eighty-one pounds; bones, twenty-two pounds; fat, eighteen pounds; skin, seven pounds; brain, three pounds; internal organs, twelve pounds; blood, seven pounds.

As the body is about seven-eighths water it follows that the parts of the body named contain about 137 pounds of water by weight, or not far from seventeen gallons. Directors of athletics state that it is not unusual for an oarsman to lose eight pounds of weight in the twenty minutes required to row the annual race at Poughkepsie over a four mile course.