VARIATIONS IN HUMAN STATURE. 321 



cessive mental labors, anxieties about examinations, all causes that 

 have an influence on growth, there are children whose growth is 

 more accentuated than the mean at some period of their existence; 

 and others, tardy ones, who grow till twenty-five or thirty years old, 

 or even longer. "With very many youth, growth does not stop at 

 twenty-one years. 



The rate of growth of children varies according to sex. Thus, at 

 the age of eleven and twelve years, boys are larger and heavier than 

 girls ; but from that age on the evolution of the girls is more rapid, 

 and they soon overtake the boys and pass them, till the age of fifteen 

 years is reached, when the boys regain the ascendency, while the girls 

 remain nearly stationary. A curious relation has been discovered 

 between the growth of children in stature and in weight. M. Malling- 

 Hansen, Director of the Deaf and Dumb Institution at Copenhagen, 

 has for three years weighed and measured his pupils daily ; and he 

 has observed that their growth does not take place regularly and pro- 

 gressively, but by stages separated by intervals of rest. Weight also 

 increases by periods after intervals of equilibrium. While the weight 

 is increasing, the stature remains nearly stationary, and vice versa. 

 The maximum of increase of stature corresponds with a minimum 

 period of augmentation of weight. The vital forces appear not to work 

 on both sides at once. These variations are subject to the influence of 

 the seasons. During autumn and early winter, according to M. 

 Malling-Hansen, the child accumulates weight, while his stature in- 

 creases slowly ; but during spring, stature receives a veritable push, 

 while weight increases but little. Some local habits have an influence 

 on the stature. Stendhal remarked that many Roman girls had de- 

 formed vertebral columns, or were a little humpbacked, and found that 

 it was the result of a popular belief prevailing in Rome that parents 

 could promote the growth of their children by punching them in the 

 back ! A popular custom in some of the towns of Switzerland also 

 affects the development of the children. Mothers are accustomed 

 to give them brandied lumps of sugar to keep them from crying. It 

 has been learned from experiments on animals that alcohol tends to 

 stunt the growth of the young. The habit of some women of the 

 lower classes of drinking brandy during pregnancy in order to give 

 their children fair complexions must likewise have a bad influence on 

 the development of the children. On the other hand, growth is fa- 

 vored by strong food, rich in nitrogen and phosphates, by good hy- 

 giene, by play and gymnastic exercises, by plenty of air, and by all the 

 causes that contribute to make children strong and vigorous. 



One of the less recognized agencies affecting stature is fatigue, 

 under the influence of which the height diminishes. A soldier, for 

 instance, is perceptibly taller before than after a forced march ; when 

 the body is fatigued it gives way, the cartilages lose their elasticity 

 and become thinner, and the fatty and fibrous cushions, which give 



VOL. XXXI. 21 



