274 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Decembeb 1, 1894. 



slain David ; better known than both these was Goliath, 

 whose stature, we are told, was ten or eleven feet. 



Nor were the Greeks of a parsimonious disposition when 

 they described the strength and stature of their heroes. 

 Homer grieved over the gradual levelling down of the men 

 of his day. Hesiodus bewailed that his contemporaries had 

 declined in stature compared with the men of the good old 

 times. Herodotus, Pliny, Pausanias, and Plutarch have 

 aU given expression to a similar idea, the latter complaining 

 that the rising generation resembled new-born babes. 

 Virgil's opinion is well known . In one passage he says : 

 " When the cultivator upturns with his plough the weapons 

 and bones of his ancestors, he is dumbfounded, lost in 

 admiration of their gigantic stature." 



The results of recent scientific investigation neither tally 

 with the ancient theory of stature degenerating, nor yet 

 with the more modern one of a constant upward tendency. 

 Dr. Eahon, a French scientist of considerable repute, has 

 recently collected statistics on human stature, while 

 working at the Musee Broca under Dr. Manouvrier, a 

 well-known professor of anthropology. Yet, in estimating 

 the value of the conclusions to which M. Eahon has 

 come, it ought to be remembered that his investigations 

 have been limited to one country — France. His master. 

 Dr. Manouvrier, is the introducer of many corrections in 

 the study of bones, both in the methods employed and 

 in the co-ordination of calculations made, in scientific 

 parlance, "the co-efficients of reconstitution." M. Eahon 

 has based his calculations on some millions of prehistoric 

 bones collected from all parts of France, and now preserved 

 in the Paris anthropological museums. 



To establish a term of comparison between men of 

 former times and men living now, it was indispensably 

 necessary to have precise knowledge of the height of the 

 latter. Dr. Manouvrier, therefore, measured the bones of 

 two himdred and five men and one hundred and nineteen 

 women who had imdergone dissection in the Pans School 

 of Medicine. The average height thus obtained was 1-650 

 metres for men, and 1-528 for women. 



On the other hand, the average height of adult men 

 measured in the French criminal identification department 

 by M. Bertillon is 1-648 metres, which is, moreover, the 

 average French height, as ascertained in military recruiting. 

 The criminal identification department gives 1-545 metres 

 as the average height of adult women. 



Dr. Eahon's measurement of the bones of various 

 prehistoric and ancient peoples supphes an interesting 

 comparison. He studied, in succession, bones of the 

 quaternary, neolithic, proto-historic periods, and of the 

 Middle Ages, with the following results : — 



1. — Qu.^TEKNARY PeEIOD. 



5 male cases, average height l-629m. 



2. — Neolithic Period. 

 429 male cases, average height l-625m. 

 189 female cases „ „ l-506m. 



3. — PnoTO-HisTOEic, 

 215 male cases, average height l-662m. 

 39 female cases ,, ,, l-539m. 



4. — Parisians of the Middle Ages. 

 (Cemetery of Saint Marcel.) 

 294 men, average height l-657m. 

 101 women „ ,, l-555m. 



(Cemetery of Saint Germain-des-Pres.) 

 140 men, average height l-656m. 

 46 women ,, ,, l-555m. 



What conclusion, therefore, can be drawn from these 

 figures based on serious and methodical investigation ? 

 Undoubtedly, we may conclude that all those who hold the 



opinion that our stature is appreciably smaller than that 

 of our ancestors, labour under a delusion. 



As a result of Dr. Eahon's investigations it may be 

 definitely stated : — 



(1) That the skeletons attributed to the most ancient 

 representatives of the human race belonged to individuals 

 of stature at most normal, if not small. 



(2) That neolithic peoples — of the polished flint period, 

 dating back more than three thousand years — constantly 

 show us medium stature, lower than our present average 

 height. 



(3) That the various proto-historic peoples, Gaul, Frank, 

 Burgundian, Merovingian, present an average stature 

 superior to that of French people of to-day, but not so 

 great as we have been led to expect ; as a matter of fact, 

 not exceeding 0-015 metre. 



In short, in spite of the armour of the Middle Ages, we 

 must come to the conclusion, if we may trust to Dr. 

 Eahon's statistics, that height has almost inappreciably 

 diminished by 0-007 metre. We have, therefore, no 

 cause for discouragement ; we need hardly cry out 

 " degeneration " yet. If we diminish no more than this 

 in the centuries, we have no reason to fear that our great- 

 grandchildren will be dwarfs. 



So far as women are concerned, the figures seem to point 

 to an appreciable diminution in the difference of the stature 

 of the sexes. The difference between neolithic man and 

 woman is calculated at 0-119 metre; proto-historic, 

 0-123; Middle Ages, 0-102; modern times (dissection), 

 0-122 ; ditto (criminal investigation), 0-103. 



M 



MECHANICAL FLIGHT. 



By Thomas Moy. 



E. MAXIM having had his little joke, which was 

 proof against bullets, and his hii/ joke, which was 

 proof against soaring, and the excitement anent 

 both performances having now subsided, it may 

 be opportune to take a calm bird's-eye view of 

 the latter subject as it stands. 



The two greatest obstacles in the way of the accomplish- 

 ment of mechanical flight have been the balloon and the 

 screw propeller. 



The "life" of a balloon depends upon the quantity of 

 ballast which it can carry, in addition to its live load. 

 Gas must be lost with every variation of height and change 

 of temperature ; and this waste must he counteracted by 

 throwing away ballast. For want of this knowledge, 

 novices have sometimes gone up like a rocket and come 

 down like a stick. A free balloon is integral with the air 

 in which it is suspended. If a candle were lighted in the 

 car, in a wind of fifty miles an hour, the candle would burn 

 as steadily as in a room, so completely is it at the mercy 

 of the wind. 



The attempts to stifl'en balloons and other gas bags, to 

 fit them for propulsion, have all been failures. When I 

 was in Vienna in 1873 — exhibition year — I attended 

 meetings of the Aeronautical Society there, and found 

 several ingenious attempts had been made to stiffen 

 the fabric, to enable balloons to retain their shape, 

 under propulsion, but the extra weight was always too 

 great. 



Dupuy de Lome's expensive experiment in 1872 stands 

 out as a warning. The hydrogen gas alone, to fiU it once, 

 is reported to have cost £360, and although the gas bag 

 was pointed at each end, and was driven by a screw, it was 

 only able to deviate five degrees from the direction of the 



