74 



AGE. 



The evolution of the organs connected with this 

 function marks the age of puberty; and the 

 changes in which this evolution consists, both 

 in the male and in the female, are too well 

 known to require their specification here. The 

 influence of this development on the mental 

 and moral characters of either sex, is likewise 

 sufficiently familiar even to the most superficial 

 observer. 



The human being is related with the external 

 world passively and actively, independently of 

 those organic actions and reactions that are 

 constantly occurring in his system with regard 

 to outward agents. He derives perceptions 

 from objects about him, and he reacts on them 

 by his power of muscular motion. But in his 

 growth we mark that the perfection of those 

 organs, which are scarcely more than passive 

 in his relative life, advances much more ra- 

 pidly than those which enable him to take a 

 more active part. Thus the eye and the ear 

 attain a certain maturity of organization and 

 function, long before the bones and muscles, 

 which officiate in locomotion. The bones and 

 muscles connected with the organs of sensation, 

 and therefore partaking of the passive character, 

 are also equally forward in their development. 

 What is the probable final cause of this 

 arrangement? If all our voluntary motions 

 were the immediate consequences of our sen- 

 sations, as some of them undoubtedly are, 

 such as those which close the dazzled eyes, or 

 refuse the bitter food, or withdraw from pain- 

 ful contact; if all these followed directly on 

 sensations, it would indeed be a strange ano- 

 maly, if the systems that belong to each were 

 not precisely on the same level of development. 

 But this is not the case ; all the more impor- 

 tant motions, important as it regards that world 

 in which man exists, as an intelligent and 

 social creature, though less so as it respects his 

 individual being, are the results of a mental 

 condition, no less distinct from sensation than 

 from muscular motion. This state is desire, or 

 as it is commonly called when the antecedent 

 of action, will or volition. Probably no men- 

 tal state is more simple than this, and it may 

 follow any other. It is therefore the more 

 necessary that it should be preceded by such 

 intellectual changes as will give it a right 

 direction ; in other words, that it should come 

 under the dominion of certain faculties. But 

 in early life the faculties to which we allude , 

 are very imperfectly developed; those only 

 have attained any thing like maturity which 

 are in immediate relation with the senses; 

 such are perception, memory, association, and 

 imagination ; while the reflective faculties, 

 such as comparison, reasoning, abstraction, all 

 in fact that constitute man a judicious expe- 

 rienced agent, are rudimentary. The conse- 

 quence is that the desires or volitions are pro- 

 verbially vain and dangerous. Let us observe 

 a child of seven years old ; his senses are suffi- 

 ciently acute for all ordinary purposes, although 

 they are deficient in precision and delicacy; 

 he has seen many attractive objects, he has 

 heard many wouderful stories, and tasted many 

 exquisite delights ; he remembers them vividly, 



he associates them rapidly, and often in shapes 

 very different from those in which they were 

 formerly combined. Desires follow which 

 would prompt him to execute the most ridicu- 

 lous and mischievous schemes. But happily 

 the muscular system, by which alone he could 

 accomplish them, is too immature and feeble 

 for his puerile purposes. Here then is the 

 final cause that we were in search of; the active 

 corporeal functions of relation must not ad- 

 vance beyond the governing faculty of the 

 mind. 



But why, it might hastily be asked, should 

 not the senses, the mental faculties, and the 

 motive powers, all have been equally deve- 

 loped? The question is absurd, if we consider 

 but a moment the manner by which the mind 

 accomplishes its growth ; that its higher powers 

 result from the accumulation of innumerable 

 sensations, by which in fact the former are 

 nourished and exercised. 



We shall now introduce a brief account of 

 some researches upon the height, weight, and 

 strength of the human body, at different ages, 

 prosecuted by M. Quetelet, of Brussels. Not 

 having room for the numerical tables, or the 

 particular observations, from which his general 

 conclusions are derived, we must content our- 

 selves with a statement of the latter, and refer 

 those of our readers who may be desirous of 

 seeing the former, to the author himself. His 

 deductions as to the growth of human stature 

 are as follows: (1) the growth is most rapid 

 immediately after birth ; it amounts in the first 

 year of infancy to about two decimetres 

 (nearly eight inches.) (2) The growth dimi- 

 nishes as the child advances towards the 

 fourth or fifth year; thus, during the second 

 year his increase of height is only half what it 

 was the first year, and during the third year it 

 is not more than one-third. (3) After the 

 fourth or fifth year, the stature increases pretty 

 regularly until the age of sixteen, and the an- 

 nual growth is about fifty-six millim, (two inch.) 



(4) After puberty the stature still increases, 

 though slightly ; thus, from the sixteenth to the 

 seventeenth year, the increase is about four 

 centim. (If inch); and in the two following 

 years, only two centim, and a half (one inch.) 



(5) The stature does not appear to be quite 

 completed even at the age of twenty-five. 

 These observations refer only to absolute growth, 

 but if the annual increase of stature be com- 

 pared with the height which has been attained, 

 it will be found that the infant, after birth, 

 increases in the first year by two fifths of 

 his height; in the second by one-seventh; 

 in the third by one-eleventh; in the fourth 

 by one-fourteenth; in the fifth by one-fif- 

 teenth ; in the sixth by one-eighteenth ; &c. 

 so that the relative growth continually dimi- 

 nishes after birth. 



In addition to these statements M. Quetelet 

 has ascertained that the rules of growth are not 

 the same in both sexes; 1st, because the female 

 at birth is less than the male; 2dly, because 

 her development is completed earlier; 3dly, 

 because her annual growth falls short of that of 

 the male. It appears likewise that the stature 



