Radiographs of the hand as an index of skeletal maturity in infants.

We are indebted to the late Professor Wingate Todd (1937) and his colleagues for the concept of skeletal maturation as a specific entity in the growth process. It has long been known that hypothyroidism is a potent cause of retardation in the maturation process. Francis (1939) and other authors in the Brush Foundation group have shown that any infection or feeding difficulty may hold back normal progress towards skeletal maturity. It is the purpose of this paper to review the histories of nine skeletally retarded 1-year-old children seen in the Oxford Child Health Survey.