James Mourilyan Tanner – författare

This two-day symposium in the annual Society for the Study of Human Biology Symposium Series covers a wide spectrum of growth physiology, and presents a state-of-the-art review of human auxology, from factors affecting cellular growth, through nutritional factors affecting the growth of the infant, to endocrine and other factors affecting the growth of the child before and after adolescence. Wiith contributions from some of the leading workers in the various fields, the book starts with a consideration of the effects of experimental removal of parts of mouse embryos on final body size and the part played by local tissue interactions in the specification of limb segments in insects. Discussion of the growth-promoting actions of the somatomedins in foetal, post-natal and brain growth follow, leading to two chapters on Man, dealing with energy requirements and body composition in infants, and the endocrine control of body size and sexual development during puberty.

First published in 1981, Professor Tanner's volume traces the history of studies of the physical growth of children from the time of the Ancient Greeks onwards. The author summarises the background to and the achievement of the surveys of child growth made in the course of social reform throughout the nineteenth century, and shows their relevance for social and economic history. These are studies to which the author himself made outstanding contributions and the text shows an intimate knowledge, both as to programmes and personalities. It is a unique historical record. The author not only follows the evolution of ideas that lies behind the gradual emergence of studies of growth, but also summarises the results of these studies, charting the growth of children during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This book will be of value for medical, social and economic historians as well as for paediatricians and biological anthropologists.