VARIATIONS IN HUMAN STATURE. 



3*9 



that results from it that the Anglo-Saxon and Germanic races, and the 

 northern and eastern French, owe their size and strength. As the 

 climate grows warm, and the summer heat becomes excessive, nutri- 

 tion becomes less active and the mean stature of the population de- 

 creases: Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece are examples of this. The 

 influence of climate upon stature is therefore a question of faculty of 

 assimilation and of the quantity of available food. For this last rea- 

 son, the fertility of the soil has a considerable influence upon the size 

 of the population. A well-cultivated country, furnishing abundance 

 of food and cattle, permits its population to acquire a much greater size, 

 strength, and robustness than would be possible to a population living 

 on infertile lands insufficiently supporting its inhabitants. By the 

 same influences members of families in easy circumstances, and stand- 

 ing in the position of old proprietors, are usually heartier than poorer 

 families ; the inhabitants of towns than those of the surrounding rural 

 districts. 



<n > 



% *Zi&: 



2** 



:*~-o.--. 



"^E" 1 " """" 



2 I ' 



: a 3 



12 

 11 



10 

 9 

 8 



7 



6 

 5 

 4 



Rfll 



ip-r *. 

 ii-t aaui 

 rx.vBi 



vie* 







n^i 



r.im 



wn 



BE1I 



q - "2. 



ui i^ w m a 3 a, 



S ! S ' 



=11 



p CP- 



= * a 



s &&q,a : = i ^^s > ' 



a a = ?" a S & JS 3 a 



Fio. 3. Curve op the increase of height Tig. 4. Curve of the increase in height 



AND WEIGHT OF A LITTLE EOT (JEAN Lo- AND WEIGHT OF A LITTLE GIRL (JULIETTE 

 RAIN) DURING HIS 1IRST YEAR. (After Dr. R ), DURING HER FUS8T TWO TEARS. (After 



Lorain.) Dr. Lorain.) 



(In each of these figures the weight, is marked in kilogrammes outside of the diagram, and the 

 rate of growth in height is indicated in fractions of a metre within the first column.) 



Famines and frequent or prolonged dearths have the effect of re- 

 ducing the size of the peoples who are exposed to them. Wars induce 

 the same result, and this not only by the operation of the material 

 disasters and miseries which they occasion, but also through the loss 

 of a large number of the most vigorous and robust men of the nation, 



