THE STATURE OF MAN AT VARIOUS EPOCHS." 



By A. Dastre. 



An idea which has gained iwpidar credence, and still hazily lingers 

 in many cultivated minds, is that man of the present day is descended 

 from a handsomer, stronger, and more superb ancestral race. In the 

 course of time, it is said, the po>Yerful sap that nourished the mighty 

 bodies of our ancestors has, little by little, become corrupted or 

 exhausted, until (habilitated, feeble, and nervous generations have suc- 

 ceeded the productive, rich-blooded, and exuberant generations of old. 



Without going to such an extreme, some students, more positive 

 and more scientific, think nothing more than that the human body 

 has undergone a sort of evolution of decline, manifesting itself in a 

 progressive diminution in size. These ideas, which appear in various 

 forms, becoming more and more veiled, are nothing else than rem- 

 nants of an ancient superstition, the belief in giants. 



What is a giant ? Does it exist? Can a race of giants exist? Has 

 such a race existed? These are questions that in all times have 

 excited a lively interest. The imagination of the ancients was fed on 

 stories in ^^hich the heroes were either giants or else mere pygmies. 

 Even to-day tales about giants enliven our infancy. The reality of 

 their existence excites such universal curiosity that it should not be 

 cause for wonder that it has given rise to interminable and fruitless 

 discussions among savants. 



Of all these writings — of these innumerable fabulous stories of 

 combats between giants and gods and the discussions about giants — 

 nothing worthy of consideration remains. Recent works upon the 

 subject are of more value. The problem now presents itself in a 

 more practical aspect than it did to our predecessors. We have 

 more records than they had; we are in a position to know whether 

 man's size has varied in prehistoric and historic times, and whether 

 there ever existed aggregations of colossal men meriting the appel- 

 lation '' race of giants." Since it is incontestable that individuals 



"Translated froiu Revue des Deux Mondes. Paris, September 1. 1904. 



517 



