Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1900-01-04
FACTS ABOUT HUMAN GROWTH
Stature After All Merely a Matter OF
Legs.

| do not think it is possible 10 add
more than an inch or so to the human
stature. said a well known physician III
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 condl-
lions would it be possible to raise
race of giants. Nature is always at
work correcting any tendency to eX-
tremes, though here and there some
one escapes her notice and grows into
a giant or dwindles into a dwarf.
You might think that tall parents
would have taller children than them
selves, but little observation will
prove that this is not so. Nature al
ways seems to be striving to reach and
maintain a medium height; so that as
rule tall parents have children
shorter than 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. Practi-
|
cally man does all his growing be-
fore he is Is, and woman before she
is 16; although l have known cases
where a man has grown perceptibly in
stature until long past 30.
| After ALL stature is largely ques-
ton of length of legs. If you take
three men, one of six feet, another Of
five feet six inches and 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 sc per cent. more than in the body.
and $50 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.
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.
III you could devise any means of pre-
venting this unison or delaying it for
few years, there is 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 helm
growth very substantially especially
In the very early years. | think Won
VIII nnd that most men and women
VINO 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 royal
road to stature and symmetry is in the
direction of fresh air, nourishing food
and Judicious exercises. You see what
the emancipation of our daughters has
already done for their stature. In the
from almost every form of outdoor
exercise, 1t was unusual to see one
hlgher than five feet six inches Now
Chat they cycle and swim. and nlav
golI and tennis as unrestrainedlv as
their brothers, they shoot I'M like
young saplings to five feet nine inches
anu even six feet. l quite believe that
III another generation the average
helght OF women will be quite two
lnches more than in the last genera
ton.
IL is curious to observe how the aver
age helght of men varies with the class
10 winch they belong. The wealthy
ana professional classes are quite three
10 TOUR inches taller than the moor
working classes; and the intermedia+o
stages are marked by the degree of
prosperity of the class to which
man belongs; so that while an AVERAGE
factory worker is about feet 5 inches
IaDorer feet z inches, a tradesman
leet inches, and a lawyer or doc
tor feet 9 inches.
Briefly, then, my advice is. if Won
want your children to be tall-that is
10 attain their full natural growth
guard against illness of all kinds LOT
them be in the fresh air and snnsh;no
as much as possible, encourage every
Kind of open air exercise in modera-
cion' with a course of gymnastics to
make them straight and supple. feed
'nem on plain and nourishing food.
ana send them to bed early.
human science can do nothing NOR.
IMAM this to make them tall; although
elevators" may add fraudulent inch
or two.-Tit Bits.