The Average Age of Menarche of Girls in 1877 Living in Boston and in Indianapolis

Dr. Henry P. Bowditch of Boston, Massachusetts, is usually credited as having published in 1877 the first study of the age of menarche in this country.1 But, as so often happens in medicine, a search of the literature will often turn up another similar and usually little known study published at about the same time as the one considered the forerunner. This is just what happened in regard to the age of menarche, because Dr. T. Parvin of Indianapolis, Indiana, published his data on the age of menarche of American girls the same year as did Dr. Bowditch. Apparently neitherinvestigator was aware of the other's study. Contemporary pediatricians will be interested in knowing that Bowditch in 1877 gave an average age of 14¾ years for the beginning of menstruation for girls living in Boston. Parvin-the same year-found that, for 100 Indiana girls, the average age for this biologic event was 13⅔ years.2