218 THE AN-QLO-SAXOK AXD THE WOULD's FUTURE. 



even the best observers. During the War of the Con- 

 federacy, the Medical Department of the Provost Mar- 

 shal General's Bureau gathered statistics from the ex- 

 amination of over half a million of men, native and 

 foreign, young and old, sick and sound, drawn from 

 every rank and condition of life, and, hence, fairly rep- 

 resenting the whole people. Dr. Baxter's Ofl&cial Re- 

 port shows that our native whites were over an inch 

 taller than the English, and nearly two-thirds of an 

 inch taller than the Scotch, who, in height, were supe- 

 rior to all other foreigners. At the age of completed 

 growth, the Irish, who were the stoutest of the for- 

 eigners, surpassed the native whites, in girth of chest, 

 less than a quarter of an inch. Statistics as to weight 

 are meager, but Dr. Baxter remarks that it is perhaps 

 not too much to say that the war statistics show " that 

 the mean weight of the white native of the United 

 States is not disproportionate to his stature." Ameri- 

 cans were found to be superior to Englishmen not only 

 in height, but also in chest measurement and weight. 

 ' ' Dealers in ready-made clothing in the United States 

 assert that they have been obliged to adopt a larger 

 scale of sizes, in width as well as length, to meet the 

 demands of the average American man, than were 

 required ten years ago." ^ Such facts afford more than 

 a hint that the higher civilization of the future will not 

 lack an adequate physical basis in the people of the 

 United States. 



Mr. Darwin is not only disposed to see, in the supe- 

 rior vigor of our people, an illustration of his favorite 

 theory of natural selection, but even intimates that the 

 world's history thus far has been simply preparatory for 

 our future, and tributary to it. He says : ^ " There is 

 apparently much truth in the belief that the wonderful 

 progress of the United States, as well as the character of 

 the people, are the results of natural selection ; for the 



1 Recent Economic Changes, by David A. Wells (1889). 



2 Descent of Man, Part I., p. 142. 



