Abstract
As a means of indicating the general changes in rural people's physical capacityby age group, in men and women, I applied Shirai's correlation chart to the values of the six kinds of body measurements. In this way I obtained straight-lines representing their morphological correlations, which visualized the general tendencies existing in such changes.
Measurements were made in the two villages located in the south of Ibaraki Prefecture, in the summer of 1955 and in the autumn of 1958.
I have also obtained the standard values of the same subjects' basal metabolism, as well as the straight-lines by age group for the two sexes representiog the same persons' physiological functions calculated on the basis of Ohshima's assessment.
I have then transcribed these three kinds of lines prepared for the two sexes into so many index straight-lines, and compared them with one another.
Lines of basic metabolism and of physiological functions showed no particular difference between the two sexes. The morphological correlation line for the male ran almost parallel with the physiological line for the same sex. But, for the female, the former kept up well with the latter up to 49 years of age and made a sharp drop thereafter.
Considered from various angles, the above-mentioned fact has been interpreted as a proof for rural women's premature senility.
