FITTEST IN WORLD

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 126, 30 May 1942, Page 6

FITTEST IN WORLD

AMERICA'S NEW ARMY

U.S. MEDICAL CONCLUSIONS

(Special.) WASHINGTON, April 17. The present American Army is unqualifiedly in the best physical condition of any fighting force in the history of the world. A very large proportion of those who have been rejected because of physical defects would be accepted without question by any army of Continental Europe. Most of the reasons for rejection of large numbers have little to do with the general health. Although the rate of rejections is somewhat larger than during the first World War, there is some evidence that the men are healthier. Such are the conclusions of Dr. Leonard T. Rowntree, Chief of the Medical Division of. the Selective Service system, after an exhaustive study of the records of about 20,000 registrants, a fair cross section of those from all sections of the country. The men of service age, these records show, average about 1501b in weight. The average for those drafted in the first World War was 1421b. The average height has remained exactly the same, 674 inches. The average chest measurement with forced expiration for registrants to-day is 33 9-10 inches— a gain of four-tenths of an inch over World War one. Curiously enough, Dr. Rowntree finds, the average height was exactly the same for northern soldiers in the Civil War. The average weight was 1361b and the average chest dimension 33i inches. The marked weight difference, however, may be due to some extent to the fact that men between 31 and 1 36 have been included in the present draft while they were not forced to register for the first draft in World War one. A large number of young boys were included among civil war volunteers. A man over 30 tends to jput on weight rapidly. Perhaps the most notable finding of Dr. Rowntree's study, just reported to the American Medical I Association, is the rapidity with which defects that disqualify for military service mount after the early twenties. The average man of 22 has approximately a ten-fold better I chance of passing the tests than the man of 36. He has about a threefold better chance than the average man of 30—and he in turn is about three times more likely to pass than the man six years older.—Auckland Star and N.A.N.A.