The government in providing an examination for applicants for positions as apprentices in the different shops of navy yards secures thereby several important objects and advantages. The mental part of such an examination, when conscientiously and properly conducted, will insure a higher degree of intelligence among the workingmen of the future and, consequently, a better quality of work in all the different departments at navy yards. The physical examination, as a means of selecting none but physically fit subjects for these positions, contributes, moreover, towards increasing very materially the value in time and money which the government invests in these boys by teaching them a trade, on account of the fact that the average life of apprentices thus selected will naturally be longer than that of the physically unfit. The method that has recently been followed out for the examination of these apprentices at the· Boston Navy Yard, in accordance with Navy-yard Order No, 14, Revised, is so well adapted to the purpose and, at the same time, so far in advance of the older methods, that a brief description of it seems rather desirable, especially so as its general adoption throughout the service would seem to be as advisable as it is desirable.
Navy-yard Order No. 14, Revised, requires that each applicant shall be marked for his physical examination. As regards the physical part of an examination, there had never been any system in vogue either in the Navy or elsewhere, to my knowledge at least, by means of which a candidate was given a definite mark, expressed by a number which should count in the sum total of his entire examination, and thus· be made the means of materially assisting him to get or preventing· him from getting, as the case might be, the coveted position. A candidate for any position in the Navy, including that of cadet, is found either fit or unfit, is either accepted or rejected accordingly, on physical examination, without any fixed or well-defined system of marking. In the case of an examination being required, the marks obtained in the mental were the only ones that were counted. Physical excellence being so obvious a factor in the general make-up of the personnel of a service like the Navy, it had long since seemed to me desirable to establish some standard which should be absolutely accurate as well as calculated to give a boy credit for the physical advantages or disadvantages which he possessed in such a manner as to permanently influence his career and without doing him the least injustice. Knowing, moreover, that his physique would count in the final examination, it would serve as the very best stimulus for him to improve it whenever opportunity was favorable. This was undoubtedly the intention of the order under which Examining Boards of Navy Yards were obliged to do their work, although the more general applicability of the same principle must be clear to everyone acquainted with the needs of the service. After considerable thought on the matter, it occurred to me that the best method of attaining this end was to make use of the percentile grade system and the normal growth and development tables published in the proceedings of the U. S. Naval Institute No. 74, and give each boy the proper physical percentage which, by nature and according to his age, belonged to him. One of these tables, No. XIX, for the sake of convenience is here reproduced.
After this manner, a boy becomes his own physical record and takes his relative percentage position and mark without there being the slightest chance for the examiner to do him the least injustice or to favor him in any way. No mental examination can compare with it as regards accuracy of results and fairness to the individual. If, for example, the boy is superior in physique, he has advantages which it is useless for anyone, not up to his standard, to dispute him, and he should receive the necessary credit for them; if he is inferior, the boy can blame no one, except perhaps himself, for not having exercised proper care in the selection of his ancestors. No argument can change his record or mark; his own exertions alone might improve it.
Method. - The method is simple and may be briefly described as follows: A boy's age is calculated from the nearest birthday and found to be fifteen; he is now measured in the usual way and his height standing is recorded as 64.3 inches. What is his mark or height? Table XIX, finding the line of the height opposite the fifteen-year old boys, we follow it until we come to 64.29, which is the nearest to his recorded height, and the percentage number above this value will be found to be so, which is the mark the boy is entitled to receive for his height; he is an average boy for his age. This simple process is applied in finding the percentages of any other dimension that it is desired to include in the examination by referring to the respective tables of these different dimensions. Height, weight, chest-circumference being the leading dimensions, these were the only ones made use of in the present instance. The percentage values ascertained and calculated after this manner are now added together and averaged; their average constitutes the boy's mark for his physical examination.
There is, however, one item which is not to be found in the percentile grade .tables which must be included in the result. This item we have termed "general health," and its value is ascertained through an examination which is purely medical in character. The chief factor in this is a good heart and a good pair of lungs; a secondary factor ·is whether a boy approaches or not the percentile grade into which he belongs in regard to the greatest number and the most important portion of all his dimensions.. A boy, for example, whose height puts him into the 75th percentile grade, but whose chest-circumference places him into the 25th percentile grade, would not be entitled to get the mathematical average of these two numbers for general health but would receive about 35 instead of so.
In accordance with the above-described method, eighty-five boys of an average age of sixteen years were examined in the Boston Navy Yard about three months ago. Seventy of these boys were accepted (82 per cent) and fifteen rejected (18 per cent) by the physical examination alone. The adjoining Table I has been arranged to show the relations existing between the accepted and the rejected boys and also that which both these bear to the total number examined.
In explanation of the large percentage of boys that were accepted (82 per cent) it ,must be added that the understanding of the members of the board that the mere fact of a boy's being small in stature and light of weight should in no instance be regarded as a sufficient cause in itself alone for his r ejection, inasmuch as such a boy might still be one of more than average health. In this respect it was not considered necessary to exact from navy-yard apprentices the rigid standard for strength, power and endurance that was usually required from apprentices intended for the regular Navy. Nor were color-blindness and defective vision, unless the latter was very bad, made a leading cause for rejecting a boy.
A comparison of the averages received by the accepted boys and the rejected ones, seen in Table I, shows the accepted ones to be superior in all respects to the rejected ones, but more especially so in respect to weight, chest-circumference and general health, notwithstanding the fact, which was mentioned before, that a small boy and a light boy was not necessarily rejected on account of his being light and small; consequently, many of just such boys are included in the averages obtained from the accepted ones.
The mental examination was to consist of both written and oral examinations, and include spelling and simple arithmetic, also decimals and the rule of three, 100 being considered perfect. All the boys had left school two years previously to this and engaged in various occupations since that time; they all belonged to the same class of people and lived in the closest vicinity of Charlestown.
The adjoining Table II is intended to show how the results of the combined examinations were finally calculated and to still further illustrate the simplicity of the method according to which a boy received his final mark.
Out of the seventy boys who had passed their physical examination only sixty-two presented themselves for the mental examination. One, however, being a colored boy, was omitted from my list on account of its being desirable to have the material homogeneous for the purpose of further comparison and this leaves sixty-one to be studied.
Both examinations having been completed in accordance with the above-described methods, all . the sixty-one boys were arranged in a table in the order of their relative merit so that the boy having received the highest mark stood first on the list, while the boy having received the lowest number, stood at the bottom of this list Dividing, now, the total number of sixty-one by ten, and finding the average of each section of ten, we would, of course, expect to find that the first ten presented the highest average, while the last ten would show the lowest average, at least so far as regards the column of totals.
This same result need not necessarily be expected from similar averages obtained from the column of physical marks. If, however, the physical composition of a boy has indeed any relation to his mental qualifications; if, in other words, there is such a thing as a psycho-physical relation in man, then we would expect to find, on comparing all these averages, that they all equally show a gradual decrease in values from first to last, and this, indeed, they do, as shown in Table III.
The oral was not included in this table because not amounting in value to a real examination.
The adjoining curves constructed from the table show the relation existing between the averages in a still clearer light (see Plate I).
In the marks from which the physical curve was constructed are contained increments of height, weight, chest-circumference and general health. It was, therefore, of some interest and importance to ascertain whether all these four items contributed alike or whether one or the other of them contributed more than any other toward the general result. With this end in view, each of these four items was arranged in the same order as were the totals with results seen in Table IV.
Table IV shows there is a difference· between the first ten and the last ten or eleven of 45 per cent in height, so per cent in weight, 38 per cent in chest-circumference and 25 per cent in general health. It will, therefore, be seen that all the items which entered the total physical mark contributed in a measure to the general result, in the order in which they are tabulated and in a manner that seems to leave no doubt with regard to their meaning and significance.
In addition to its being a new and most practical method of examining, an examination and comparison of its results have, unexpectedly, led us to discover a most important and significant relation existing between the physique and the mental performances of man.