The Influence of overweight and underweight on vitality

Abstract

When your committee asked me to prepare a paper on some topic connected with life insurance for this meeting of your society, I was embarrassed to choose a subject which should prove of general interest. The subject should be one which contained a minimum amount of figures with a maximum amount of information and which should be of interest to all. The influence of overweight and underweight upon vitality seems to combine these facts. This subject can be handled with only a few figures if you will accept some assertions in place of figures. Furthermore, the profession as a whole does not realize its importance, nor the dangers which beset those who are far removed from the correct standard of weight, whether above or below. In life insurance we have to measure these dangers for commercial reasons. In 1836 Quetelet published a table of heights and weights based upon the facts gathered from the examination of a moderate number of Belgians. His data were evidently few in number and mostly taken from young people. The table shows one height and one weight for each year represented and those are supposed to be the average height and weight for that year. Thus at age 20, the average height is 5ft. 7in. and the average weight is 143; at age 30 the average height is 5ft 8in. and the average weight is 151. These isolated facts agree fairly well with our standard, but they are so imperfect that they are of little practical use. In 1846 Hutchinson published his table of heights and weights based upon certain data gathered in England. It purports to represent the standard weight for each height at age 30, and is as follows: