, 1888-02-04
THE DIFFERENCE OF HEIGHT.
Inhabitants of Limestone Regions Taller
Than Those. of Granite Districts.

inhabitants of Limestone Regions Taller
Than Those of Granite Districts.
When VIC see races of tall and well
developed negroes living close by the re-
gions occupied by such dwarfed races as
the Akkas and Obongos we perceive that
the difference of height must be due to
difference of race, not to peculiaritIes in
the place of abode But there are cases
where n marked difference of height is
certainly due to difference in the condi-
tons of life, for it shows itself in one
n the same race. DIR. Pritchard, for
example, long time since remarked on
the change which the race of short,
plump, round faced farmers of England
underwent when they settled in Virginia
and Carolina, the race becoming tall,
lank, gaunt and otherwise remarkable.
Still more striking is the evidence af-
forded within he comparatively narrow
limits of Switzerland and the Tyrol,
where it has been found that inhabitants
of limestone regions are m~easurably taller
than those living in granite or schistose
districts. NJ. Durand confirms the state
ment of DIR. Albespy that by lining the
lands in the non-calcareous portions of
the Aveyron the average height of the
inhabitants has been raised in some parts
by three-fourths of an inch, in others by
one and one-eighth inches, and in others
by more than an inch and a half.
In the limestone regions of Ireland, as
Pritchard long since noted, men of re-
markable stature are often seen, though
all the British isles derived their stock of
inhabitants from the same sources, de-
spite the ideas commonly entertained in
the Emerald Island respecting the racial
hiffnranpa hatxuaan thannooIunc orl GGthn
base, bloody and brutal Saxon" But
the evidence given by Kentucky in this
respect is perhaps moro striking than any
other. For there, over the whole lime
stone region, the average height of men
has increased until the size of Kentuck-
ians has become proverbial, and has
given rise to innumerable jokes-sufli.
Gent evidence, despite the absurdity of
some of them, of the superior height Of
the average Kentuckian. 1t was a Ken
tuckian who was afraid to walk abroad
at night in England lest he should fall off
the little island; the Kentuckian invari-
ably requires ut least five chairs to sit
upon, and so forth. Now, that the lime
has something to do with this exceptional
height flor these standing jokes are not
wholly lying ones) is proved by the cir
cumstance that cattle also partake in the
unusual development. What had been
noticed on n small scale in the well
known experiment of La Camarguc, in
which case a breed of horses was i'm
lneasurably increased in height through
careful feeding, is seen throughout Ken
lucky and in all kinds of cattle.
think we may fairly conclude from
the evidence, imperfect though it is, that
stature may be increased by judiciously
selected food, and probably that lime
should in N form or another be given
in increased quantity in the food where
growth is to be encouraged. Yet such
measures ought to be carefully guided by
medical experience; for the same evidence
which shows that special conditions may
encourage abnormal growth shows also
that they may cause abnormal growths-
which is u very different thing. For
instance, it has beer shown that goitre is
chiefly prevalent in regions where limo
prevails largely as a geological formation.
This il not only noticed in Switzerland,
which might almost be called the native
home of goitre, but in England, where
goitre cur spasmodically in Derbyshire
only, the most calcareous point OF the
island.-Professor Richard A. Proctor.