The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-09-04
ABOUT WHARFAGE.
interesting Notes on the Order and LnSy
OF Growth in Different Races.

arreSteu at some early stage. That
the human body has a definite law of
proportion from birth to death has
been long known. The most ancient
ant OF the Egyptians and that of all
nations, barbarian and civilized. in
GLIDING especially the Greeks, have
shown evidences of their several OBJ
servatlons of the general facts. A
German OF the name of Liharvik has
worked out the details of the growth,
and SO demonstrated the law of human
| proportions more extensively than,
perhaps, any one else. He exhibited
series of statuettes in the London
Great Exhibition of 1862, showing the
| order OF growth in both male and fe-
male, which had met with the appro-
baton of Humboldt. Joseph Benomi
| also worked out series of calcula-
tions tending to show the order and
law of growth, which appears to be
from the proportion of three to seven.
Taking the head as a standard, the
child at both measures, say three
| circles, of which the head to
shoulder is one, to the bottom of
the spine another, and to the feet
| the third. The period of each three
years appears to add another circle to
height, upto twenty-one or twenty
four yeafS;T varying according to favor
able or adverse conditions. The sizes
at birth nay vary, but the proportions
are the same over all the world. Thus,
II the heaqof a newly-born child meas
ures ninetinches, its height will be
tWenty-seyel; if the head be ten inches,
its height is5hirty. From this normal
proportion itgrows up to seven heads
high among he average European or
Aryan races. The average standard is,
however, lowe in the Semitic races,
and lower stillamong the Turan types.
These very Primitive, rude and bar
barian types appear to stand at four
heads in heighl while the Semitic
grows up to fivepr six heads, and the
average of sevenls reached only by the
lndo-European, Aryan, or Teutonic
races. Within tbs general law there
are many notifications tending to
favor or retard tlr growths-of from
ohl00 w o0'oh -sts the proportion OF
form determines tie possibility of &C
tons thus dependent; so notifications
affect the actions and results of pro-
portion OF both boly and mind. In
the law of growth We have law of
arrestment, by, in, or, through which
the proportions may be stayed at any
stage of growth. Arresment may be
artificially worked out -as was done
in the case of the Aztec children ey-
hibted in Leeds some years ago-or it
may be by excess of cold, heat, lack of
food, improper treatment, ETC., ETC., all
not being designed or purposed This
law of arrestment is very little known,
and we may have figure stayed at the
proportion of six, five, four or even
three heads high, without being able to
account for it. The lower proportion
is the dwarfage to which would direct
the readers attention. In Derbyshire
L have found many people of stunted
proportions. In Leeds we have now
man who is not more than four heads
high; and | saw woman of full age at
Millhill recently of even lower proper
tons. But the most perfect instance
of the three-headed proportions that |
have seen is a dwarf man and woman
in the Cingalese troupe. His form and
proportions are exactly similar to the
figure of the God Ptah, or evil Typhon,
as given in Bunsen's "Egypt's Place
and History" In my collection are
similar three-headed figures from art
works (not caricaturcd) from North to
South scandinavian, African, New
Zealand, Mexican, American and
Hindoo. The fact is that all children
and undeveloped intellected people of
all ages draw the human figures always
too short Taking the head as stand
ard, the tendency is to make figures
three heads high. 1t would appear
that the same law of proportion rules
the evolution of human art that rules
the growth of the human body. So
the same phenomena of arrest
ment obtains in art, some indi-
viduals, like some nations, stand
ing at a certain imperfect stage.
The subject of dwarfing in both
body and mind has many singular and
important features to the study of
humanity. Thus there is a general CO.
relation of inferioror childish intellects
with dwarfish figures, and hence dwarfs
were kept as play-things to make sport
of in the courts of the Middle Ages.
They are so seen in the paintings of
Velasquez, Paulo Veronese and others.
In some-in fact, in many cases-we
have normal growth of body and ar
rested development of mind and per-
ceptions; in this way we may explain
and account for most, if not all, the
varieties of human actions. in art, re-
ligion and association. To ethnologists
these Buddhist natives of Ceylon, to-
gether with their elephants, arts,
dresses, decorations and habits are
extremely interesting. Their whole
physical and social condition is the re-
suit of arrested development of mind,
as real as in the stunted and abnormal
figures of several in the troupe, both
male and female The male dwarf in
the company is thirty-seven inches in
height; from head to shoulder the
measurement is ten inches; hand, four
inches, and foot, four and half inches.
Name, Caralic. The woman's height
is thirty-nine inches; head to shoulder,
ten inches; hand, four inches; foot, six
and half inches. There is a slight
distortion from knee to foot in both
eases.-Leeds Mercury.