Observations on the growth and maturation of Indian boys in Durban, South Africa.

Groups of children vary considerably in their growth and maturation. Such differences have been ascribed to nutritional, ethnic, climatic, and other factors. This study was carried out on Indian pupils at a day school in an extremely poor "slum" neighbourhood of Durban, the social conditions of which have been described by Kark and Chesler (1956) and Abramson (1959). The majority of the boys came from Hindustani or Tamil speaking Hindu homes; most were the descendants of 19th century settlers in South Africa (Palmer, 1957). There was a high prevalence of signs of malnutrition among the boys examined. Most boys had some degree of skin xerosis, and many showed evidence of phrynoderma, "permanent goose flesh" (Platt, 1945), glossitis, a "buccal frieze" (Corkill, 1934), lesions at the angles of the lips, a fatigue posture, or other abnormalities commonly associated with malnutrition. In 1954 a survey revealed a very high prevalence of worm infestation among the children at this school-roundworm in 83 per cent., whipworm in 86 per cent., and hookworm in 32 per cent. The ages of the children examined ranged from 7 to 17 years. The number of boys enrolled at the school, however, showed a sharp drop from the age of 15, the numbers aged 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 years respectively being 40, 42, 41, 26, and 12. Among Indian girls in Durban, an association.has been shown between commencing adolescence and school-leaving (Kark, 1953), and it was regarded as possible (though for other reasons) that the maturer boys might also be more likely to leave school than less mature boys of the same age. Accordingly, it was possible that from the age of 15 the sample was biased; the main analyses were therefore confined to boys aged 7 to 14 years.