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Biomedical subjects

R H Steckel

Publications and source records attributed to R H Steckel.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Birth weights and stillbirths in historical perspective.

Data on birth weights and the percentage of stillborn babies during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, taken from hospitals records in Edinburgh, Vienna, Dublin, Boston, Montreal and Philadelphia reflect the social class and living standard of their patients as well as socio-economic developments in these cities. To the extent that these hospital records also contained information on the mother's age, parity, occupation, ethnic and religious background, marital status and gender of the child, some inferences can be made on influences on intrauterine growth and birth outcome.

Birth Weight↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Heights and economic history: the Swedish case.

Measurements of Swedish soldiers were recorded in muster rolls as early as the 1760s. Results of a sample of these measurements over the period up to 1880 are used as an index of living standards in comparison with perceptions formed from other sources. The most striking contrast concerns the period of the mid-nineteenth century. Among economic historians, those who hold the optimistic view that living standards continuously improved during the mid-1800s predominated, but our results combined with other evidence point, on the contrary, to a mild subsistence crisis in western Sweden at that period.

Body Height↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Growth depression and recovery: the remarkable case of American slaves.

Legislation designed to prevent slave smuggling after 1807 created an extra-ordinary set of documents identifying slaves transported in the coastwise trade by name, age, sex height and colour. Slaves fell below the first or second centile of modern height standards as children but recovered during and after adolescence to exceed the 25th centile as adults. This profile differs remarkably from other populations. Poor pre-natal care, early weaning, food supplements that were nutritionally poor and often contaminated, and a heavy disease load thwarted growth during childhood, but the diet improved substantially when young adolescents entered the labour force. The results show that humans have remarkable capacity for catch-up growth.

Adolescent↗