532 THE STATURE OF MAN AT VARIOUS EPOCHS. 



diaiis indicate that they were a tall-bodied race. Their stature is IR 

 millimeters, or nearly 2 centimeters more than that of the average 

 Frenchman of to-day. And such a diiference is not a negligible 

 quantity. It makes an impression upon the eye, gratifying in its 

 certainty, and it corresponds to the difference of judgment expressed 

 when we say of a man that he is middle-sized, or of another that he 

 is tall. For example, we call the Sardinians short and the Belgians 

 tall; yet the average height of the Sardinians is only 2 centimeters 

 less, and of the Belgians only 2 centimeters more, than that of the 

 French. 



The general conclusion of the studies sketched in brief in the pres- 

 ent article can be nothing but a repetition of the conclusions reached 

 at the end of each special study. The bones of i:)rimitive man, of pre- 

 historic man, and, finally, of historic man, when submitted to exam- 

 ination, show that man's stature has experienced no appreciable 

 changes in the course of time, has shown no traces of an evolutionary 

 degeneration. We are not a stunted posterity, and we have the right 

 to spurn the insult of the poet who says that " we are dwarfs beside 

 our fathers." 



