FACTORS INFLUENCING APPEARANCE OF CENTERS OF OSSIFICATION DURING EARLY CHILDHOOD

Abstract

In 1939 standard tables showing the time and order of appearance of centers of ossification between birth and the age of 5 years were published,¹ and in the same year a study was presented showing how the orderly progress of ossification in individual children may be modified by illness.² It was pointed out that the epiphysial rating was a sensitive indicator of the physical health of the child. This paper presents the results of a group study of the effect on epiphysial ossification of disturbances of health during the first year of life and also of the effect of certain variations in diet during the same period. Epiphysial ossification is not to be confused with skeletal maturity as defined elsewhere.³ MATERIAL From the children enrolled in the research series of the Associated Foundations, 25 white boys and 25 white girls were selected who had been entirely or