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What happened to the growth spurt of nineteenth-century adolescents? An essay on the history of a scientific omission1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 July 2009
Synopsis
It is common knowledge that puberty is characterized, among other phenomena, by a striking growth spurt. An exploration of the medical literature from previous centuries shows, however, that this feature of adolescence has attracted surprisingly little attention. Although the pubertal growth spurt was known to eighteenth-century physicians, it was neglected for about a century. The influential Belgian scientist Quetelet demonstrated a remarkable scotoma towards the phenomenon. It was only after his death in 1874 that the relationship between puberty and growth spurt became a scientifically established and recognized fact.
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Footnotes
Adapted from a Dutch paper published in Kind en Adolescent, 1987, 8, 15–19.
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