Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-09-11
STATURE.

One of the most scientific and pracacaiiy
valuabl t~reatises read before the American
National Academy of Sciences is on the
stature of American soldiers, presented q
few weeks ago a, Northampton, Massa-
ehusc,,s. The statistics related to a mil
lion of soldiers, and were obtained princi-
pally through the Sanitary Commission
from the Adjutant Generals OF the differ
en-, States. The whole shows hat while
/, does not seem that by taking thought
we have learned the secret Of adding a
cubi. 10 the average stature, yet that with
out thought we are actually adding to it
BY inches. The hardy labor OF clearing
the forest seems to produce tho tallest
men, the best averages furnished being
those of Iowa, 60 inches Michigan, 6S.S;
Indiana. 6S.7; Maine, 6S.6; Missouri, 6S.5;
while that Of our amt was only 66.S,
or two full inches less. From this it seems
clear that the sea followed in early life
c~ur,ails growth. Whether this is through
some peculiar electric condition produced
by the vast bodies of water underneath
and around, or whether it arises from the
muscular development being chiefly Of the
arms and shoulders, without much pedes-
,rian exercise, in the growing period Of
life, may be considered an open question.
Riding on horseback, long tramps and
the labors of Northern and Western farm
ing and clearing develop the tallest men,
bu, those of very greatest hight are not on
the whole the most enduring for a cam
paign.
The men Of American birth are consid-
erably taller than those born in foreign
lands. But the hight seems to depend far
more on where they were reared than
where they were born. A Massachusetts,
lad brought up in Iowa gains on the aver
age an inch in consequence Of the re-
moval. So that according to the proverb,
"a Western man is an Eastern man en-
larged"-that is lengthwise. But it is
said that in Kentucky we find the greatest
| breath across the chest. The extraordi-
nary amoun of lime impregnating all the
Western rivers may, in part, account fol
the superior bone, il not muscle, of those
i~nhabiting that region. The late Profes.
sor Tourney, an excellent geologist in the
State University Of Alabama, used to ex'
hibit, side by side, shell, fishes, Of TIT
same species taken from the rivers flowing
directly into the Atlantic, and those flow
ing into the Mississippi and Gulf Of Mex
leo. These latter were so much large
and thicker than the former that one o
them would weigh three or four times al
much; perhaps, therefore, drinking lime
water may have no little effect on growing
boys.
The average hight of Pennsylvania
troops on the three calls, was 67.63 inches
New York about the same /; Connecticut
67.5; Rhode Island. the same; Massa
chusetts, 67.36; while that of Ohio mel
was 6S.4. Manufactures and seafaring d.
not develop tall mel so well as Western
farming. Perhaps the most valuable les
son Of the whole is to show to what a de
gree-say a full average inch-on thi
continent. the difference Of water and oc
cupa,ion has, in a single generation
changed the hight Of the men.
Another unexpected result is the aver
age age for attaining the full hight, which
was found to be twen,y-eight years. A
thirty-fve, even, it is not found so grea
as q, t~wenty-nine or thirty. In thos'
States where the average hight is greatest
the age at which the maximum is reached
is earliest,