22 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Environment thus acts directly upon stature through the food 

 supply and economic prosperity. The second modifying influence 

 lies in so-called artificial selection a cause which is peculiarly 

 potent in modern social life. The efficiency of this force depends 

 upon the intimate relation which exists between bodily height 

 and physical vigor. Other things being equal, a goodly stature 

 in a youth implies a surplus of energy over and above the amount 

 requisite merely to sustain life.* Hence it follows that, more 

 often than otherwise, a tall population implies a relatively healthy 

 one. Our double map, covering the westernmost promontory of 

 French Brittany, shows this- most clearly. In the interior can- 

 tons, shorter on the average by an inch than in towns along the 

 seacoast, there is a corresponding increase of defective or degen- 



STATVRE AM* HEAL.TH 

 RN15TERRE 



AFTER CHASSAGNE 



erate constitutional types. The parallelism between the two maps 

 is broken in but three or four instances. The map, in fact, illus- 

 trates the truth of our assertion far better than words can ex- 

 press it. 



This relation between stature and health is brought to con- 

 crete expression in the armies of Europe through a rejection of 

 all recruits for service who fall below a certain minimum stand- 

 ard of height, generally about five feet. The result of this is to 

 preclude the possibility of marriage for all the fully developed 

 men, during their three years in barracks ; while the undersized 

 individuals, exempted from service on this account, are left free 

 to propagate the species meanwhile. Is it not apparent that the 

 effect of this artificial selection is to put a distinct premium upon 

 inferiority of stature, in so far as future generations are con- 

 cerned ? This enforced postponement of marriage for the normal 

 man, not required of the degenerate, is even more important than 

 at first sight appears. It implies not merely that the children of 



* The two maps by Chassagne on Brittany are given in Revue d'Anthropologie, series ii, 

 voL iv, p. 440. 



