146 On Dwarfs and Giants. 



growth and development is very curious. If the first be preco- 

 cious, the second also begins too soon. Thus, we have seen the 

 appearance of teeth precede the birth in a large foetus ; we have 

 also seen an infant of eighteen months old, remarkable for its ap- 

 petite and rapidity of growth, afford at that age evident symp- 

 toms of puberty. If the latter development have commenced, 

 that of the genital organs rapidly advances, and soon becomes 

 complete ; all general increase ceases ; and the individual in which 

 it takes place may remain of ordinary stature, or even very small, 

 though not weak and impotent on that account. If, on the con- 

 trary, the development having begun, goes on slowly, and re- 

 mains unfinished, those circumstances may take place: either 

 the general increase stops, and the individual remains dwarfish 

 and impotent ; or this increase continues for a long time, and the 

 individual becomes a giant, and equally impotent ; or lastly, both 

 the development and growth terminate at an age much more ad- 

 vanced. What has been said of the respective weakness of 

 dwarfs and giants is quite in accordance with these considera- 

 tions. They also apply to what has been seen in children re- 

 markable for the precocity of their growth and of their puber- 

 ty; their manly exterior, deep voice, their squat and robust 

 forms, prove that the physical development is as complete in 

 them as in the adult. It is different as to the moral develop- 

 ment. These men of three, four, five, or six years of age, have 

 the tastes and dispositions of infancy. Here, then, it is shewn 

 that the general diminutions and augmentations of the stature 

 are merely phases, more or less long, of the hi d' alternative be- 

 tween the growth and the development of the organs. 



M. Geoffroy, to these considerations on the individual ano- 

 malies of stature, has given a sketch of the most striking facts 

 which study presents of the variations of stature in the human 

 race and in the lower animals. The normal stature of a race is 

 necessarily the medium height of the individuals which compose 

 it ; and the normal stature of the species is the average height 

 of the races which it comprehends. Races which are extremely 

 high or low may be considered as anomalies produced, by the ex- 

 cess or deficiency of their development, as gigantic and dwarfish 

 races. But we must now inquire, if the causes which have pro- 

 duced these races are of the same nature with those which pro- 



