Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1900-01-04
FACTS ABOUT HUMAN GROWTH
Stature After All Merely a Matter Of
Legs

| do not think it is possible to add
more than an inch or so TO the human
stature, said 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
! am quite sure that under no condi-
tons would it be possible to raise a
race of giants. Nature is always AZ
work correcting any tendency to ex-
tremes, though here and there some
one escapes her notice and grows into
a giant or dwindles into dwarf
You might think that tall parents
would have taller children than them
selves, but a little observation will
prove that this is not so. Nature al
ways seems to be striving 10 reach and
maintain medium height; so that as
I > rule tall parents have children
shorter than themselves, and short
parents raise taller children the two
! extremes meeting in few generations
at the average height
! But something can certainly be done
If the attempt be made early. Practi-
cally man does all his growing be-
fore he is Is, and woman before sba
is l6; although l have known cases
where a man has grown perceptibly in
stature until long past 30.
After all, stature is largely a uues-
ton of length of legs. If you take
nf ci W
I'VE feet six inches and a third of five
feet, there will be only the smallest
difference in 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 10
inches in length of leg over the short
man.
The margin for growth in the legs
Is 90 per cent. more than in the BODY
and 800 per cent. more than in the
head 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.
IL Is inns, 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
II you could devise any means of pre-
venting this unison or DELAYING il for
a Few years, there 3 no question that
you might aid materially to your stat
ure, although You would destroy the
proportion 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
VIII find that most men and women
who are dwarfs have suffered from re-
peated illnesses in the first few wears
OF their lives, and have been unable to
make up the leeway.
Anything which promotes health
promotes growth, and the ONLY roval
road TO stature and symmetry is in the
direction OF fresh air nourishing food
and 1udicious exercises. You see what
the emancipation OF our daughters has
already done for their stature. In the
oid days, when girls We're shut out
from almost every form of outdoor
exercise. 1t was unusual to see one
higher than five feet six inches Now
mat they cycle and swim, and play
golf and tennis as unrestrainedlv as
their brothers, they shoot ND like
young saplings 60 five feet nine inches
ana even six feet | quite believe that
IN another generation the average
height of women will be quite two
inches more than in the last genera
zion
III 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
TO four inches aller than the poor.
working classes; and the intermediate
stages are marked by the degree of
prosperity of the class to which a
man belongs; so that while an average
factory worker is about feet . inches.
laborer ) feet inches, a tradesman
fee1 inches, and a lawyer or doc
tor feet inches.
Briefly then, my advice is, if you
want your children to be tall-that is
to attain their full natural growth
guard against illness of all kinds, let
them be in the fresh air and sunshine
as much as possible. encourage every
Kind of open air exercise in modera-
ton. with a course of gymnastics to
make them straight and supple, feed
them on plain and nourishing food
and send them to bed early.
Human science can do nothing more
than this to make them TALL although
elevators may add fraudulent inch
or two.-Tit Bits.
4 IlIIR LI~JrIHN-