The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-12-12
telegraph
MONDAY, DECEMBER u, 1884.
FAT PEOPLE.

Il
glow much heavier are men than women What
would be the weight ot fat people; and what Of
reyy iat people"
NJ. QuclcIct, Of Brussels, some years ago.
etmed such questions quite within the scope
OF his extensive series OF researches on man
lSur IHOmWc, ct le Development dc scs
tacu, cs). He gOt hold Of everybody he could
every where, and weighed them all. lie weighed
Inc ba.ics, De weighed Tho boys and girls he
weighed The yuutu, aud maIdeus, DE weighed men
ana women, be weighed COliegiaus, soldiers, fac
gtoTy people, pensioners; and us hu hu ri, plrtiCu-
! lar theory to disturb bis facts, h1 honestly SIT
8uoWn such results as he met with. Al the infants
1n The Founding Hospital at Brussels for 3 con.
siderable period were weighed; and the results
4 were compared with those obtained nc similar
Embellishments in Paris and Moscow The
average returns show that R citizen or the world
on the nrst day of his appearance in public
weighs about six pounds ana half; a boy-baby
a little more, girl-OaOy Little less. Some very
modest babies hardly turn the scale with two
pounds and half, While other preteutOus
8yOungsters boast Of ten or eleven pounds.
#Wben Shylock asked for his "pDund Of flesh"
whe asked iOI an equivalent % a little less than
sixth of Daoy. How the Tiny ones grow
: luflng childhood we need not trace here; but
~ may be interesting to know that girls and
r9oys at twelve years OF age are nearly euual i'm
8teight; after which limit males are heavier
Eh6n females Of the same ages NJ Ouetelet
grouped his thousands Of people according 70
&ges, and found that the young men of twenty
averaged hundred and tOrty-thrcg pounds
~aCh, while the young women OF twenty gave an
yerage of hundred aud twenty pounds. His
= pen reached their heaviest bulk at about thirty
Il I'VE, when their average weight was hundred
nd hity-twO pounds; but the women slowly
'attened on until fifty, when their average was
+ ne hundred and twenty-niue pounds. Men and
Women together, the weight az full growth
y averaged almost exactly ten stones, o. q hundred
nd forty pounds. As NJ Quetelei wished to be
#cCuratc, and as he naturally had not many Oppor-
unilies of weighing people without their clothes,
q p1g Vl.
&s with the people; and he came 10 q conclusion
hat the clothing of Belgiaus Of all classes may
e averaged at about one-eighteenth ofthe total
Height of man, and one tweuty. fourth of tue
ptAl weight OF a woman. Whether these ratios
&Ould apply 10 English men and women az the
w. Sresent day is rather q nice question of tailor
pig and dress making; but, so far as concerns
III. Quetelet and his Bclgians, the figures give
T. ieht or nine pounds weight for mans dress,
n nd five or six for q wOmau's. With these de-
|Wuclions for dress the inquiries show that
&9lllgrown men and women are about twenty
mes as heavy as they were on the first day Of
heir existence. OF course averages are here
nly meant. The averages were formed from
H ben ranging from hundred and eight 10 two
Wundred and twenty pounds, and women from
u ghty eight to two hundred and seven pounds.
nj. Quetelet tried TO estimate what was the
actual weight Of human nature over which Leo
Did was king. He found tn2t, taking all ages
conditions-nobles, clergy, u2kers, tailors,
lives, maidens, boys girls, and babies, all in
xuded-the average weight was almost exactly
he hundred English pounds ayoirdupois for each
imam being: aquantity easy TO remember, at
&y rate. BritonS are tribe more massive than
III lgians but setting this minor difference aside
fiud that the whole body of us here, in the
hit ii. Kingdom, weigh about three thousand
III haOounds-not very spiritual or senti-
cnt estimate, certainly, but one that we cen
entally realize by finding that 1t is just about
ual to the weight of four months consumption
Goals in the metropolis. As chemists tell US
|IX D tHaa fuYn nil final tBa
Malogy is not so remote, after all. OF course, any
Wncusions derived from average results must
Wpend for their accuracy on the number of in
ncss which supply the average; and 1t might
that M. Quetelet'5 differences would need to
III modified q little when applied to the natives
u other countries. All the recorded weighings
Mwever, agree tolerably in average results.
Mveral years ago, eighty young collegians were
Wighed at Cambridge; they ranged from
u hteen to twenty-three years of age, and their
Werage weight was q hundred and fifty ono
&ldds, or ten stones eleven pounds. This tells
F. God tale of the batsmen and Oarsmeu of the
Nm for Frenchmen and Belgians of those ages
ID nld not reach quite to such an average. Fac
NY life lessons the weight below the level of
Pn-air life. A few years back, Mr.. Cowell
y sed fifteen hundred children and young per-
AIS in Manchester and Stockport, some em-
Myed in cotton factories. and some leading an
of door life, TO be weighed; he found that, at
age Of eighteen, the average weights were AS
N R0ws factory youths, hundred and six
Il
pounds; factory girls, hundred and six
Mlnds outdoor girls, a hundred and tWenty-O
lnds. This seems TO denote that youths are rela-
lily more stunted than girls by factory life. Pro-
sOr J. ID. Forbes, avaliug himself of the tacili-
III afforded by his scientific position ut Edn-
Wgh, weighed no fewer than eight hundred
lths and young men who attended the Uni
lsity in that city. He divided them into ma
Xhalities and into ages he found that at fifteen
krs old, the average for each of the three king
ns was about hundred and fourteen pounds
that at the age OF twenty-five, the English
n averaged q hundred and fifty -One pounds,
ScOtchmen a hundred and fifty-two, and the
hmen a hundred and tifty-hye. The Belgian
rage for that age is about hundred and fifty
nds, and the French average few pounds
et us say, then, that full-grown man in
stern Europe averages about eleven stones
hundred and ttty-tOur pounds) in weight, at
ty or thirty five years of age. We cannot be
#Wrong in this, and it will serve us as q standard
Comparison for estimating the ileshy virtues of
ably fat people. We say feshy in popular
Re, leaving TO Psychologists TO determine how
ch is flesh and how much fat, in q bulky
son.
is observable that very thin people do not
NOunce their thinness abroad. We speak,
Nh 10 tell, somewhat cOntemptuously Of them.
call such q man Lanky Laurence, or Pill
Mic, or Thread Paper, or Skin-and- Grief, or
fkkin, or Lath. Scarcely any man, except
Living Skeleton, ever exhibited himself
'WaCcount of his thinness. What poor OBJ
y that same Claude Ambrose SeuTRt was
En in TrOyes in 1898, he was a baby of or
Rary size, but began gradually to waste, until,
De age of twenty one he had less flesh and
upon him than any full grown person ever
wn. At the age of twenty seven he was
uibited in. London as the Living Skeleton.
Etomists and medical men were greatly in
Nsted In HIM other spectators were shocked.
circumference of his arm was only five
les and a half at the largest part and Of his
H. twenty three inches below the ribs; his
Fcles were too weak TO enable him 20 hold
his arms horizontally; andhis attempts at
sking were Ike those Of a person whose "foot
hsleep;" his skin was like dry parchment,
his ribs were as clearly defined as bundle
Nanas Thin DaODla have said seldom