Official Height Discrepancies

[The Old LefHook]

That is an interesting thought. Kind of early 'body fat' measurement. That should work.

I have a different theory as to why they did it. The US early penal systems had no way to ID prisoners, so incoming convicts were measured and these measurements were recorded and used to confirm identify if necessary. The logic being if six out of six match perfectly they probably got the right guy.

Certain measurements change, while others don't. Wrist, ankle, or reach won't change with weight loss/gain, (in theory, I really don't know if that is correct, but once believed).

I think once boxing decided to measure fighters they just applied the existing prison protocol and it took several decades for them to realize identying ankle and wrist size wasn't information necessary for evaluating a fighter and eventually dropped the measurement.

If you have ever seen the film Chicago there is a scence where the main character is being processed into prison and they are measuring her reach.*

But I can see the logic to your point. It would serve that purpose. Like we use to say as kids, watch out for fat ankles, or you'll end up with a fat wife.

Yea, yea, I know I'm a misogynistic ass hole.

* Which may be why they measured reach in that manner for so long and have, as of late, changed the process to measuring from one shoulder straight out to the fist on one arm, instead of across the shoulders. It's better information to know.

By buggery, wrist size DOES change if you gain or lose weight. When I am heavy I cannot touch my thumb and middle finger around my wrist. Whenever I go on a diet I can just touch them. I don't think reach could change even if you were starving. Of course the example is anecdotal. Height could change, depending on how long ago you were lying down. The prison could easily thwart that one however. I don't know about ankles. The distance between your eyes is not going to change. Measuring that distance accurately in the old days might have been a problem. Finger lengths might not change. Beware of toes which get stubbed plenty, considering prisoners' toggery.

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P.S. I never heard of kankles denoting a future fat woman. We had one in my high school class who was otherwise beautiful and a cheerleader. Today she is a fat 'un all right. During the hippie era she grew hairy legs, trying to hide those Godzilla kankles, but all she did was cover her calves. The poor girl's kankles would not grow hair.

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Ankles and fingers can both develop arthritis. Several of my own fingers have big knots which would change certain measurements. Come to think of it, reach might change with arthritis too. Distance between the eyes and skull measurements seem to be the only ones completely reliable. Not a sophisticated system with great accuracy, was it? It probably worked most of the time, until they let the wrong man out.