The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1904-10-06
ANCIENT AND MODERN STATURE
J.. OF MAN.

There were giants in those days, is a
statement made by one Of the Biblical
writer's. and the belief which it express
IS, the belief that the human race has
degenerated and that men and women
were far taller and larger and stronger
in the early ages of the worlds history
than they are to-day, is still widely en-
tertained by people who would feel in
suited if they were charged with not
being well informed.
Yet it is belief which is without any
basis Of fact. 1t is not true that the
human race has undergone physical
degeneration since the dawn of history
or during the thousands Of unrecorded
years which have elapsed since its APP
pearance on this earth. The idea that
IN their physical characteristics our
forefathers were superior to ourselves is
due to the inveterate tendency of the
human mind to idealize the past and to
assume that everything was better than
it is now In the good old days, and it is
no more justified in this particular re-
spect than it is in any other. There
were giants in those days just as there
are giants now, a few of them, individ-
uals whose abnormal development is
the result of a disease which morbid pa
thology has recognized and classified,
but that there ever was race of giants
there is no reason whatever to suppose.
The writer of an article upon the sub
ject appearing in late issue Of well
known French review sums up in an IL
luminative and entertaining way the
conclusions at which scientific research
in this connection has arrived, and II
may be Interesting to glance at some Of
the facts which he presents. The most
remote ancestor OF man Of which any
thing is known is the famous pifecan-
thropus erectus, discovered in Java, in
1892, and by some regarded as the miss
ing link between man and monkey.
Exact measurements have determined
the stature a little over five feet, or just
about the European average. That was
in what biologists call the tertiary pc
Rod. The quarternary period Is repre-
sented by the skeleton of Neanderthal
the troglodyte Of Chancelade, and three
other fossil specimens. These five ex-
amples differ slightly, but the average
stature of the five Is almost identical
with that of the Java gentleman. Those
were human beings who lived In caves
| and hunted the mammoth, but 1t will
be seen that they were far from being
gigantic.
The next age was the so-called age Of
stone, when such an extensive use was
made of instruments Of flint. More
than four hundred male skeletons and
! nearly two hundred skeletons of womer
/ belonging, to this period have been ex,
\ arnined. They show wide variations
but not wider than would be found
among the some number of persons b
\ the present day. The so-called man b
Mention appears to have been six fee
two In height. but he was an exception
n the average the four hundred ant
! twenty-nine male skeletons of the qua
4 ternary period show a stature of 1.64
i meters, or a very little over five feet
\ Coming down to historic, but still an
4 Gent times, an examination Of the re
II mains found In Gallo and Gailo-R Roman
cemeteries gives average stature Of iv
feet six inches for men and Ave fee
two inches for women. Other invest
4 cations have been made in the cemeter.
Of st. Marcel, where burials took plac
in the fifth and sixth centuries, and il
the cemetery of st. Germain-de Pres
which was used in the tent and elev
i enth. They show remarkable coinci
dence OF results, The Parisians VIII
/ lived In that remote epoch were jus
about the same height as the Partisan
4 of to-day.
I, The conclusion Of the matter is tina
4 the human stature has not undergon
any appreciable change throughout tn
ages. 1t ranges from the Malays an
Japanese at the foot Of the scale, wit
their less than five feet, up to the Pat
n agonians, who are the tallest people
with their five feet ten, but the averag
remains what it has been from the be
ginning, and the idea that there wer
giants in those days is a Pigment of tn
imagination. Philadelphia Inquirer.