The Validity of the Medical Examiner's Rating

Abstract

OUR EXPERIENCE over a number I of years provides sufficient evidence to substantiate the statement that one of the great problems in physical education has always been the adequate physical examination of boys and girls.In an endeavor to solve the problem, our first methods called for a great number of very complete and painstaking measurements of the body, as well as an examination of the organs. Many of us have been guilty, at one time or another, of accepting the physical measurements of a man as indicative of his potential power. The tendency to emphasize the significance of anthropometry is still too prevalent. We should not be too willing to accept any such traditional scheme of measurements without first accurately determining the full validity of the theory by scientific experimentation.When the scientific attitude reigns, there will be little difficulty in understanding that measurements tell nothing of the texture and quality of the parts covered, i.e., how much is fat or bone and how much muscle, neither do they alone give any information about heart power, nor the degree of interdependence between nerve and muscle upon which power and efficiency so frequently depend. Again, we will be less likely to believe that all-round efficiency is determined by big biceps and the distance, measured by the calipers, from the olecranon process to the tip of the middle finger.