IN THE course of our interest in the whistling face syndrome1 it became evident that a paucity of published data on normal labial intercommissural distance, ie, the distance between the corners of the mouth, was available. Keiter2 studied German children of both sexes, aged 6 to 15 years. Seckel's study3 was extremely modest in scope but covered children aged 7 to 17 years.
If a comparison were to be made between the reduced oral aperture of the child with the whistling face syndrome and that of the normal individual, it became evident that norms must be established in our two countries (Czechoslovakia and United States). It was, therefore, agreed to carry out independent studies and to compare results.
One of the present authors (R.J.G.) measured 380 randomly selected, white Minnesota children ranging in age from birth to 15 years. They were divided according to age at nearest