Marshall County independent., 1899-06-16
HUMAN STATURE.
Clricus Facts About lit Is POssih,s
tn, In hn IIsiU

GO not tnlnh II Is possible 10 dOu
more than an ;nch or so to human
stature, said a weil-known physician
IN answer to a question of the writer.
This is one respect in which nature
insists on having her own way, and |
am quite sure that under no conditions
would it be possible to raise a race of
giants. Nature is always at work cor
recting any tendency to extremes.
though here and there someone es
capes her notice and grows into a giant
or dwindles into a dwarf You might
think the tall parents would have taller
children than themselves. but a little
observation will prove that this is not
so. Nature always seems 20 be striving
10 reach and maintain medium
height. so that as rule tall parents
have shorter children than themselves,
and short parents raise taller children;
the two extremes meeting in a fen
generations at the average height.
But something can certainly be done
II the attempt be made early Prac
tically man does all his growing be-
fore he is eighteen and a woman be-
fore she is sixteen, although | have
known cases where man has grown
perceptibly in stature until long pass
thirty
After all. stature is largely a ques-
tion of length of legs. If you take
three men, one of six feet, another Of
Cf inr ], irI Of Hx-a
feet, there will be only the smallest diff
ference in the length Of the body, and
in fact the short man may have the
longest body of the three. But the long
man will have an advantage of ten
inches in length of leg over the short
man.
The margin for growth in the legs is
Sc per cent more than in the body.
This means that the legs of an adult
are five times as long as when he was
born, his body three times, and his
head twice its original length.
1t is thus. YOU see. very largely {
question of legs, and to the legs we
must look for any great increase in
stature. As You may know, each leg
bone is in early youth in three distinct
pieces. which later unite into one bone.
If YOU could devise any means of pre-
venting this unison or delaying it for
few years. there is no question that
although you would destroy the pro-
| portion and symmetry of the body.
Nothing checks growth more than
| illness. and by avoiding it you help
growth very substantially, especially in
| the very early years. | think you will
| find that most men and women who
are dwarfs have suffered from repeated
| illnesses in the first few years of their
lives. and have been unable to make
up the leaway
Anything which promotes health
promotes growth, and the only royal
road to stature and symmetry is in the
| direction of fresh air nourishing food
and judicious exercise You see what
| the emancipation of our daughters had
| already done for their stature. In the
old days, when girls were shut out
| from almost every form of outdoor -
1
er than five feet six inches. Now that
they cycle and swim, and play golf and
| tennis as unrestrainedly as their broth
ers, they shoot up like young saplings
to five feet nine inches, and even sil
| feet. | quite believe that in another
| generation the average height of wom
en- will be quite two inches more thar
in the last generation.
1t is curious to observe how the aver
| age height of men varies. with the
! class to which they belong The wealthy
| and professional classes are quite three
| inches to four inches taller than tn,
| poor, working classes and the inter
mediate stages are marked by the de
| gree of prosperity of the class to which
a man belongs, so that while an aver
age factory worker is about five fee
| five inches, a skilled artisan will b'
| five feet six inches; laborer, five fee
seven inches; tradesman, five fee
eight inches; and a lawyer or doctor
five feet nine inches.
Briefly, then. my advice is, if yol
| WALTZ AOul Gil " DS ldli-ludI IL
to attain their full natural growth
| guard against illness of all kinds, le
them be in the fresh air and sunshin
as much as possible, encourage ever.
kind of open air exercise in modera
ton. with a course of gymnastics 4
make them straight and supple, fec
them on plain and nourishing food
| and send them to bed early
Human science can do nothing NOR
than this to make them tall, although
elevators may add a fraudulent incl
or two.-Tit-Bits