Erythrocytes and Hemoglobin of the Blood in Infancy and Childhood

This paper presents a summary of hematologic data collected during the years 1932 to 1942. Some have been published previously in reports dealing particularly with problems of iron-deficiency anemia.1-5At the time the studies were done plans were made for more complete statistical analysis of the assembled data, but various circumstances delayed the completion of that part of the project. The data are now presented in tables and charts designed to emphasize the sequence of changes in characteristics of the erythrocytes of infants and children at different ages and to demonstrate certain patterns of variability in those characteristics observed within different age groups. The data were derived from studies on 1735 samples of blood from infants and children selected at random, at ages from birth to 16 years. Of these, 1568 samples were from children born at full term, of single birth, and 167 samples were from twins, triplets,