The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-12-14
or parts of them, as may be found in the
folfnuino table of AVERAGES.

The variations are exceedingly slight,
except in the thigh and upper right arm.
We are told that when actual measure
ments of skeletons are made it is excep-
tional to find that in the same subject the
femur and tibia are identical in length.
DIR. Carson writes that sin 35.S per cent.
the right limb was longer than the left. !"
Mr.. j. F. Thornton, in his book on ..Train-
ing" writes "that it looks as If the left leg
generally is longer than the right one"
There is, he states, unequal development;
so if 200 pairs of mems shoes are carefully
measured 30 per cent. OF these shoes would
show that the foot was about the same size,
but in A per cent. the left foot would be
longer, and in n per cent. it would be the
right one" With women's shoes there is
a difference of relative size of feet, the left
foot being frequently the smaller. This
would arise from the fact that women are
not SO active as men.
subject, explains the reasons for the differ
ence in this manner: We are taught to be
right-handed, and so work more with the
right-hand side of our body than with our
left. If not for wise provision of nature
did We continue doing all our work in a
one-sided way we would become iopsided.
We unconsciously automatically use other
muscles. He calls them the ''antagonistic
ones" If this did not happen many of our
efforts would lose directncss or we might
be carried off our feet by an intense one
sided movement. 1t is the left side of the
man which steadies him, and he is uncon-
sciously working that all the time.
"In boxing" writes Mr.. Thornton, "we
reverse matters and lead off with the left
which is the true weapon of offense. The
right leg steadies us. The blacksmith
Yields his hammer with his right hand
and steadies himself width his left leg"
1t is not exactly the reverse with the
woman; but because she exerts rarely the
force of the right side of her body, by
means of her arm or leg, the left side of her
has less call for development, and so we
may account for the greater growth of the
right arm, or foot, or thigh, or calf than of
the left, and so she dances equally well
with both feet, whereas man cannot,
and she is, too, with her many admirable
traits, more ambidexter than is the clum-
sier man.
Such tables as these two ladies present
can only have been carried out at vast
expenditure of labor. Anthropometrical
measures are very slow of production, and
a simple average presents many months OF
hard work.
What is the use of these anthropometri-
cal tables? BY their study we will learn
what are the physical CONGREGATIONS of
health pr disease, and PLAT are the advan-
tages to be derived from physical culture.
BY comparisons when millions of such
measurements have been made, an average
will be struck Then the absolute normal
proportion will be found, for it will be OBJ
vious that nature constructs exactly that
connguration best adapted for human ex-
istence. At some future date the true
canon of female beauty may be formulated
in millimeters, inches, kilos or pounds.
Poetical conceptions will not be blunted,
and so forever the artist will idealize form
and color.
What will be the standard of perfectly
beautiful womanly shape? Shall we take
the tape line of the man mantuamaker,
whose product is the tailor-made girl, or
those glories of perfect womanhood, the
Demeter Of the Parthenon frieze and the
Venus of Milo?