z8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The differences in stature which, are traceable to this influence of 

 city life are considerable. The town population of Glasgow and 

 Edinburgh offers an extreme example wherein the average stature 

 has been found to be four inches less than the average for the 

 suburban districts. The people, at the same time, are on the 

 average thirty- six pounds lighter. Dr. Beddoe, the great author- 

 ity upon this subject, concludes his investigation of the population 

 of Great Britain by this statement : " It may therefore be taken 

 as proved that the stature of men in the large towns of Britain 

 is lowered considerably below the standard of the nation, and as 

 probable that such degradation is hereditary and progressive." 



On the other hand, it must be confessed that this unfavorable 

 influence of city life is often obscured by the great social selection 

 which is at work, as we shall hope to show later, in the deter- 

 mination of the physical type of the population of great cities. 

 While the course of the town type by itself is downward, often- 

 times the city attracts another class which is markedly superior, 

 in the same way that the immigrants of the United States have 

 been distinguished in this respect. Taking London as a whole, 

 the stature of its people is apparently above the level of the 

 surrounding districts, despite the unfavorable influences of urban 

 life. At the same time the suburban counties about London are 

 marked by a standard below the average. This follows, probably, 

 from the great selective process by which all of the better types 

 of the rural population are continually being drawn off into the 

 vortex of city life. The effect of it is, of course, to increase the 

 average stature of the town population, taken as a whole. 



It would be interesting to inquire in how far the relative 

 height of the sexes is due to a similar selective process. Certain 

 it is that among us, in civilization, women average from three to 

 four inches below men in stature, a disparity which is consider- 

 ably less among primitive peoples. Dr. Brinton has invoked as a 

 partial explanation, at least, for this, the influence of the law of 

 sexual division of labor which obtains among us. This law com- 

 mands, in theory, that the men should perform the arduous phys- 

 ical labor of life, leaving the more sedentary portion of it to the 

 women. If the conscious choice of mates had followed this tend- 

 ency, its effect would certainly be unfavorable to the development 

 of an increasing stature among women, while it might operate to 

 better the endowment of men in that respect. It is impossible, 

 in the time at our command, to follow this out. Probably this 

 difference of stature between the sexes is partially due to some 

 other cause which stops growth in the woman earlier than in the 

 man. The problem is too complex to follow out in this place. 



From the preceding array of facts it will appear that in stature 

 we have rather an irresponsible witness in the matter of race. A 



