Miscellanies. . 357 
ble matter, beside the odor which often accompanies these phenom- 
meme. Univ. Decém. 1831 
12, Stature of the Human Race. Istwore Georrroy Sait Hi- 
LarrE.+-Contrary to what occurs among domestic animals, variations 
of stature in the human race are included in much narrower limits 
than individual variations. 
The size of women is less variable than that ol men. They 
much smaller than men among people of large stature, while the 
difference in size between the sexes is very small among people of 
low stature. « 
The posples who are the most remarkable for their great height, gen~ 
erally inhabi uthern hemisphere ;_ and, as has long been known, 
those who are distingsiahad: for lowness of stature almost all reside in 
the northern hemisphere. 
‘Among the people of the greatest height some live on the south- 
ern part of the American continents, others, in various archipelagos 
of the Southern Ocean, and it may even be remarked that they thus 
form in the southern hemisphere two series, one continental, the oth- 
er insular, both irregular and often interrupted, but commencing in 
each, at eight or ten degrees a south latitude and terminating at 
There exist Liadece: in the sakes hemisphere, people whose 
height is below the mean, and reciprocally, in the Fede those 
whose height surpasses the mean. Now, in comparing the geo-~ 
graphical position of these people sith those who are sto bc tall 
or extremely short, we ‘arrive at the result apparently ——— 
and yet in part of easy explanation, that the short race 
every where near the tallest nations, and reciprocally, the sali peo~ 
ple near those nations who are the most remarkable for their low 
stature. 
The diversity of stature in the human race may be explained, 
(but in part only) by the influence of climate, of dietetic regimen 
and mode of life. 
It-is at least extremely probable that the size of the race, notwith~ 
standing some local variations, has not sensibly diminished ; and this, 
not only, from the concurrence of so many kinds of pect as are 
derivable from historical evidence from the earliest known periods; 
ut from considerations of science, in the absence of all monuments, 
Vol. XXII.—No. 2. 46 
