16 STATURE IIKIGHT OF FOREIGNERS. 



however, a degree of confusion is to be found in the works of statisticians. The result 

 of the measurement of a very few men, jjerhaps of a special class, has been too often pub- 

 lished as determining- the mean national stature. Thus, a French surgeon in charge 

 of a prison having measured two thousand convicts of difterent ages, announced there- 

 from the mean height of the people of France. A prolific source of error is to be 

 found in the use made of statistics of recruiting. These data have a specious appearance 

 of availaljility from the large numbers involved and their ostensible precision, that is 

 well calculated t(j mislead. The existence of a miiiinnmi limit of stature vitiates the 

 result for comparison even with the soldiers of another nation, unless, indeed, the latter 

 should employ the identical limit ; much more so when a general result is sought ' It 

 is evident that, 'to ascertain the mean stature or other dimensions of the inhabitants of 

 a country, it is, in the first place, necessary to discover at what age full growth is 

 attained by them. Now, this differs greatly, and hence arises another source of error, 

 'when recruiting statistics are made use of without discrimination upon this point 

 Such records, however, are of the highest value in determining the age of completed 

 gi'owth. 



Another fallacy arises from the employment of records in which the dimensions of 

 rejected men are not included, so that the results proffered as showing the mean stature 

 of the male population in reality display only the mean stature of a certain class of 

 picked men, fi-om whose number have been carefully excluded all below a certain 

 height, and all who were subjects of certain diseases, or were marked by any departure 

 from the highest bodily perfection.- 



A striking peculiarity will be noticed in the height of foreigners in the following 

 tables. In every instance, this height will be found greater than the mean stature 

 ascribed to the nation represented. In like manner, emigrants from the Eastern to 

 the Western States exhibit a stature superior to that of the residents of their native 

 States. Mr. Gould observes that men born in New England, but enlisting from the 

 West, were found to have a mean height varying from O.bSO inch to 0.340 inch, accord- 

 ing to age, in excess of the mean height of the volunteers from New England itself.^ 



The cause of this superior height in those who have left their native country has 

 been much debated. Mr. Gould suggests, in the case of men removing at an early age 

 from the East to the West, that the greater abundance of food might have produced 

 this excess. It is true thnt the fertile lands of the West produce more abundant harvests, 

 but it is not lilcely that the supply of sufficient food to the young varies in any im- 

 portant degree in the United States. Besides, the same peculiar difference is observed 

 to exist in the cases of men who have migrated from one Avestern State to another, so 



'Au illustration of this erroneous proceeding is to be found iu tbo work of Inspkctok-Gexkual Maisshali. of the 

 Britisli army, ( l/iVifan/ J7isct'//aH^,Svo, Loudon, 184(5.) Ho gives sonio tables illustrating the comparative mean heightof 

 English and French soldiers, iu which the sniieriority is greatly with th(^ I'ormcr. The minininni limit of height in the 

 British army appi'ars to liave been, at that time, Ti feet C inclies, or 1.07(i metres, only four men being recorded as below 

 that height ; but in the Fri'iich army the limit was below .5 feet 2 inches, or 1.575 metres, as the large nundjor of S"' ,020 out 

 of 100,000 men were I>elo\v Unit height. Tlic absurdity aud mischicvonsness of such comparisons, when iiretcnding to 

 show mean results, well nigh justify Bischoti"'s severe condenmation of military statistics. {Utiier die nriiffcutHclildi 

 rcsullate dcs recrutiniiigs-gcHchaftes, 8vo, Miincben, 18G7.) 



" In France, this defect, in the Compten Ucndiis dv Vnrmci; has been long since adujitted. Baron Ilippolytc Larrey 

 and Moricl:cau-Bcanpr<S Ijavc recently made formal request to the government for the preservation of tie records of 

 condition of rejected conscripts. (Itfi'iiwirc mir !e choir dm liommrs jirniircs an acrcici' dc Varmcc dc tcirc.) 

 ■ fnrrsli'taliniifi, .?■''.. p. 1'3(>. 



