Szekessy Vilmos (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 55. (Budapest 1963)

Bottyán, O., Dezső, Gy. , Eiben, O. , Farkas, Gy. , Rajkai, T. , Thoma, A.; Véli, Gy.: Age at menarche in Hungarian girls

ANNALES HISTORICO-NATURALES MUSEI NATIONALIS HUNGARICI Turnus 55. PARS ANTHROPOLOGICA 1963. Age at Menarche in Hungarian (iirls Ry O. BOTTYÁN, Budapest, GY. DEZSŐ, Budapest. O. EIBEN

, Szombathely, GY. FARKAS, Szeged, T. RAJKAI, Debrecen, A. THOMA, Budapest and GY. VÉLI, Kaposvár The age at which the first menstruation of human females appears is highly variable and proves a function of both hereditary and environmental factors (17). In contrast to the other signs of puberty, menarche begins in life on one day and is therefore the most suitable indicator for a comparative analysis of the otherwise continuous process of adolescence. It facilitates, for instance, the examination of the extremely actual problem of puberty acceleration (or, according to the conceptual system of LECOMTE DE NOÜY [9], of the prolongation of „physiological time"). Its knowledge is important, also from a practical point of view, to the physician, to the educator, to the psychologist and to the demographer. None the less, as far as Hungary is concerned, we dispose only of meagre and inexact data. Our team has undertaken to meet this want. Material and methods The geographical distribution of our data registered between 1959 and 1961 is shown by the map in Figure 1. Our material was gathered from the upper forms of the general schools (in the overwhelming majority of cases from the 6th, 7th and 8th forms), and it was grouped according to the location of the schools. In fact, the environment in which adolescence takes its course is — as regards the aims of our investigations — more important than the place of birth. Our collection of data may be considered a serial sampling representative of the various communities (with the exception of Debrecen), because the general school is compulsory. At Mezőtúr we have expressly selected the population of the border districts leading a peasant's life. For the collection of this latter material we are indebted to schoolmaster GELLÉRT TÍMÁR

. At Budapest we have taken two samples representing different walks of life; of these that of the 2nd district is the more favourable. It was not in our power to take a sampling representative of the whole country; both in respect of geographical distribution and demographic factors (e. g. ratio of urbanization) our sampling is more or less biased. In order to offset this source of error we have selected our material so that it should comprise the two opposed extremes of all Ihe important factors influencing menarche, and that it thus should — within limits — remain évaluable also on a national scale. Of the three pooled groups the 3 villages in the county of Nógrád represent primarily a mining population. In the county of Csongrád we have gathered data from 15 villages and market towns with an agricultural population. — In the county of Vas we have merged in a village group the data of 33 communities. The major provincial towns are represented by Debrecen, Szeged and Szombathely, from the opposite ends of the country, and Ihe smaller industrial and mining centres in the North by Salgótarján, in Transdanubia by Ajka. The lowland market towns are represented by Mezőtúr, and the small Transdanubian towns, of various size, in the South by Kaposvár, in the West by Körmend and Kőszeg. We have taken samples from both mountainous, hilly and flat parts, altogether from 61 communities of the country. No region inhabited by national minorities figures in our material. 36 Természettudományi Múzeum Évkönyve