The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-06-12

only, and then only through
his column.
familiar that it has lost its magic
and wonder for US. But nothing
more beautiful and intricate and
delicate could be imagined. II
the finest engineer in the world
with all the best technical experts
he could choose we're to go at it
with the materials Nature has at
hand | guarantee he would make
a botch of it of monumental pro-
portions. Yet old Mother Nature
accomplishes it time after time
with very few mistakes and all
too often for the sake of the emo
tons of her audience with aston
ishingly gratifying results.
Oh, the engineer could hack
out the rough models of arms,
legs and torso and put a cloth
ing dummy together we'll enough.
But suppose he had to do it little
cell by little cell, and with the
chemical supply for new material
being delivered just SO much
every day and each day every
part grew just so much proper
tionately to the others-this arm
grew a little and the other arm
exactly as much and both grew
in proportion to the growth of
the legs and the skin grew to
cover it all, and the hair and
teeth sprouted to make it look
presentable. Yes, quite a build
ing job Mother Nature does.
Growth of Body
Let US consider some Of the
features of it. We start out with
a little roly-poly ball of human
flesh with its arms and legs very
short and its head and abdomen
very big. The bones begin to
grow and the form begins to
mould, the chest grows faster
than the abdomen and both grow
faster than the head. Then at
adolescence it shoots up with
great speed and looks as il it
were going to be all out of pro-
portion and then the bones ossify
and when the process is all fin
ished it is seen that kind of plan
has been carried out.
Consider how exact certain
proportions are. The span of the
adult is exactly the same as his
height. In other words the dis
lance between your finger tips
with the arms stretched straight
out from the body is the same as
the distance between your heels
on the floor and the top Of your
head. You are divided into two
equal halves from the floor up,
the distance between your heels
and the meeting Of the pelvic
bone in the center Of your body
being exactly the same as the
distance between the pelvic bone
and the top of your head. A tape
measure put around your head,
chest and abdomen should show
proportions of about TIP, 11/12,
and 9/12 respectively.
Mother Natures job is a god
send to the ready-made clothing
merchants.
The Ductless Glands
The engineering firm in charge
of this operation is Ductless
Glands, Incorporated. They do
all the planning and compose all
the labor trouble between the
body cells who are the brickma-
sons and carpenters and painters
and decorators. The members Of
the firm are actually Messrs.
Thyroid, Pituitary and Gonads.
They don't always agree.
Old man Pituitary is an i'm
petuous gink and he likes the
arms and legs long and wants
big tall people. Little Mr.. Thy
roid has refined tastes and he
likes people with short delicate
arms and legs and fingers. Gonad
is a roughneck and all he wants
is plenty of hair and heavy bones
and a deep voice. Between them
pulling this way and that they
equalize each other and achieve
teamwork usually and the result
turns out all right. Sometimes
one Of them gets the bit in his
teeth and in that case the sample
is out Of proportion.
If you want to test out how
things are going in your own off,
spring the average figures for
boys are:
At 4 years-span 1914 in;
upper half body % in; lower half
l7l3 in.
At 10 years-span SO in; upper
half body 26k in; lower half
26A in.
At is years-span 81 in; upper
half body Box in; lower half
31a in.
At 20 years-span 6Si5 in;
upper half body 33% in; lower