466 



MAN. 



men, because in some processes so much ex- 

 ertion and endurance of heat are required that 

 none but strong youths adopt that branch of 

 industry. In some counties, where the agri- 

 cultural laborer is ill paid, the tall young men 

 enlist, and so reduce the average height of 

 those left on the soil ; and in the neighbor- 

 hood of the metropolis there is a special open- 

 ing for strong tall men from the surrounding 

 districts as railway porters, draymen, excava- 

 tors, etc. 



The lunatic and criminal returns show the 

 curious fact that lunatics and criminals are on 

 the average shorter than sane and honest men ; 

 also that dark eyes and black or very dark hair 

 are more common among lunatics than in the 

 general population. Scottish criminals are 

 taller than Scottish lunatics and English crim- 

 inals; and these last are below the average 

 lunatic in stature and weight. Town-bred 

 criminals are strikingly inferior to country- 

 born criminals. 



The private returns are, however, of a more 

 pleasant interest ; and the unravellings of the 

 respective influences of race, soil, climate, and 

 mode of life, are very suggestive. Eoughly 

 speaking, the natives of Scotland, and of the 

 north and northeast of England, exceed in 

 stature those of Wales and of the south and 

 west of England ; exceptions existing, notably, 

 in the people of some of the large towns, and 

 of some of the Hebrides in the northern divis- 

 ion, and in those of Cornwall and the Scilly 

 Islands in the southern. The Highlanders are 

 tall and bulky. The Lowlanders of the ancient 

 Norse district of Caithness, considered by for- 

 mer observers as the finest peasantry in Brit- 

 ain, come out in this scrutiny as no bigger 

 than their neighbors. The Edinburgh and 

 Glasgow townsmen are considerably smaller. 

 The tallest men in Britain are found in Gal- 

 loway, and the heaviest in Berwickshire. The 

 borderers equal or surpass the average both in 

 Scotland and England in both respects. The 

 Danish counties, Lincolnshire, Nottingham- 

 shire, Derbyshire, and Leicestershire, exclud- 

 ing the manufacturing towns, produce men 

 rather high in stature. Norfolk can boast of 

 both stature and weight, especially in the 

 Danish settlement of Flegg. Suffolk can boast 

 of weight only. The Isle of Ely produces tall 

 men ; but the southern part of Cambridge, like 

 the south-midland counties generally, can show 

 but an undersized population. The native Lon- 

 doner stands very low in the scale of stature. 

 In. the matter of weight, too, there is some 

 peculiar information. Some Irish statistics 

 show a remarkable uniformity in the several 

 classes of returns relating to the weight of 

 Irish peasants and laborers, which uniformity 

 can only be attributed to the absence of cor- 

 pulent persons. The average weight of an 

 Irish peasant may be estimated at 138 pounds. 

 The average weight of an Englishman is cal- 

 culated at 145 pounds ; and that of Scotsmen 

 at 10 pounds higher. 



Foreign observations brought to bear upon 

 these show that the 380 Gloucestershire men 

 examined by Dr. Beddoe and his friends aver- 

 age exactly the same height, and as nearly as 

 possible the same weight, as the average adult 

 inhabitants of Brussels. And the average 

 weight of 40 Frenchmen, ascertained by Tenon, 

 in 1783, is found to leave considerably less 

 difference in favor of the southern Englishman 

 than might be supposed from the popular be- 

 lief in the superiority of the latter. In France 

 only 77 per 1,000 are excluded by size from 

 enlisting, the standard being 5 feet for troops of 

 the line. In Northamptonshire 210 per 1,000 

 are excluded because they are less than the 

 regulation height of 5 feet 5 inches. In other 

 counties there is a larger proportion ; and in 

 Herefordshire 417 persons out of every 1,000 

 do not come up to the present regimental stand- 

 ard of a soldier. Twenty Icelanders, weighed 

 and measured for the purpose of this inquiry, 

 yielded an average stature of 5 feet 8.5 inch- 

 es and weight of 156 pounds. 



Looking at the facts in a comprehensive 

 light, Dr. Beddoe finds a certain degree of 

 conformity with the expectations a study of 

 the various races and their settlements would 

 naturally suggest. Wherever we know, from 

 historical, topographical, or linguistic evidence, 

 that the Scandinavian element is strong, we find 

 stature decidedly high. Where there are Teu- 

 tonic characteristics 'stature is low and weight 

 high in proportion. The tall stature in some 

 spots in Kent is accounted for by the presence 

 of Jutes and Frisians. The same tall, large, 

 red-haired people who occupied the Gram- 

 pians in Agricola's time do so at the present 

 day, the author finds, without appreciable 

 change. A remnant of the northern Kymri is 

 located to the west, of Clydesdale and in Upper 

 Galloway ; and the same race, with a cross of 

 the Teutonic element, abides still among the 

 Cheviots and in Allandale, in South Northum- 

 berland; a tall people, with light hair, dark 

 eyes, and moderate weight. The Cornish men 

 maintain the large stature for which they have 

 been celebrated for some centuries. The 

 average stature of fair-haired people, in Brit- 

 ain generally, is higher than that of dark- 

 haired men. Dark-haired men with light eyes 

 are taller than others in Mull, Kenmore, Mar, 

 and Lesmahagow. 



The supposition that climate influences stat- 

 ure is unsupported. Differences of elevation 

 seem to be also without consequences, except 

 in the matter of corpulence, -vvjiich does not 

 occur at high levels. 



But diet is found to have considerable con- 

 sequences. The absence of luxuries, such as 

 butcher's meat and fermented drinks, does not 

 exercise the least deleterious effect upon either 

 stature or bulk ; but absolute scantiness of food 

 does. Where the stature is greatest, milk and 

 meal appear to have furnished the staple food 

 of the district in other parts of the country ; 

 and where white bread is eaten, and there is 



