The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1899-08-10

CurIous Facts About lit Is Possible
to Add to the Height. a

to Add to the Height.
I do not think it is possible to add
more than an inch or so to human
stature, said a well-known physician
in answer to a question of the writer.
This is one respect in which nature
insists On having her own way, and I
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 to be striving
to reach and maintain a medium
height, so that as a rule tall parents
have shorter children thar themselves,
and short parents raise taller children;
the two extremes meeting in a few
generations at the average height.
But something can certainly be done
If the attempt be made early. Prac-
tically a man does all his growing be-
fore he is eighteen and a woman be-
fore she is sixteen, although I have
known cases where a man has grown
~perceptibly in stature until long past
thirty.
After all, stature is largely a ques-
ton Of length of legs. If you take
three men, one of six feet, another OF
five feet six inches and a third Of five
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 a
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
a 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. l think you will
find that most men and ONE 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 ok
e%rcise, it was unusual to see one high
L Ihdh v CCL 01A 1LISACO v LAAb
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 si1
feet. l quite believe that in another
generation the average height of WON
en- will be quite two inches more thar
3 in the last generation.
It is curious to observe how the aver
e age height of men varies, with the
e class to which they belong The wealthy
r and professional classes are quite three
inches to four inches taller than thu
D poor, working classes, n 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
r age factory worker is about five fee
i've inches, a skilled artisan will b.
e five feet six inches; a laborer, five fee
a seven inches; a tradesman, five fee
eight inches; and a lawyer or doctor
five feet nine inches
Briefly, then, my advice is, if yoV
v want your children to be tall-that is
h 20 attain their full natural growth
e guard against illness of all kinds, lie
O them be in the fresh air and sunshin
II as much as possible. encourage ever,
: kind of open air exercise in modera
o ton, with a course OF gymnastics t.
make them straight and supple, fee
d them on plain and n~ourishing food
III N--I