GENIUS AND STATURE 579 



GENIUS AND STATUEE 



By CHARLES KASSEL 



FORT WORTH, TEXAS 



THAT greatness and loftiness of stature are rarely found together is 

 one of the leading statements of Lombroso's " Man of Genius," 

 and the eminent Italian, in support of his assertion, arrays a respectable 

 list of names. Nor does Lombroso stand alone in this opinion. The 

 notion is a common one — even a proverbial one — and now and again 

 some voice rises from press or periodical with this boding message to 

 the stalwart sons of men. 



If the biographies, however, in the average American library afford 

 a just test of its truth, this belief must be gathered to the limbo of 

 popular errors and delusions. So far, indeed, from supporting the 

 statement of the great criminologist, the testimony of biography fixes 

 the average stature of men of eminence at a point above the middle 

 height. 



In default of statistical data ready to hand — the dearth of reliable 

 material upon this question being quite marked — the writer has turned 

 through the biographical section of a general public library situated in 

 the city of his residence. Of the lives of two hundred and thirty dis- 

 tinguished men thus examined, those of one hundred and three sup- 

 plied the information sought either in exact figures or by way of general 

 statement; and of these personages it appears that sixteen were of 

 middle height, fifty-eight above and twenty-nine below. In many in- 

 stances the stature was merely described as "medium," or above or 

 below, and in tabulating the result we have assumed the correctness of 

 this classification, although it is far from certain that in reality the 

 terms bore the same meaning to all writers. "Where, however, the 

 stature was given in feet and inches, we have adopted as the standard 

 of medium height five feet seven inches. This is manifestly too low for 

 America, and is likewise too low for England, since, as we are told by 

 H. H. Donaldson in "The Growth of the Brain," five hundred and 

 seventeen observations among all classes gave 67.7 inches as the average 

 stature for men in England. For the civilized world, however, the 

 average would probably be so far lower than that of England and 

 America as to make the figures we have mentioned a fair standard. 

 Even, however, were 5 feet 8 inches to be used for middle height, the 

 result, so far as the present paper is concerned, would not be disturbed, 

 since none of the statures given fall within this disputed margin. It 



