Correlations between measurements in preschool children living on a former island.

At the ages of 0.5 and 5 years correlation coefficients between measurements of the head and the whole body of children living on the former island of Marken have been calculated. The correlation coefficients between the size of the body and the size of the head are about 0.5; the correlation coefficients between the different dimensions of the head are low. The sex-differences at the age of 0.5 years suggest that the growth pattern of girls is less fixed than that of boys during the first years after birth. It is discussed whether this could be ascribed to the well known better adaptation of growth in girls than in boys or to the absence of harmful environmental conditions. No effect of inbreeding or endogamy could be demonstrated.