18 STATURE PITRTOD OF FULL GROWTH. 



Period of full growth. — The age at which man attains his full stature is a 

 matter of great interest in itself and of special importance in its relation to the question 

 of mean national stature, inasmuch as the first must be determined before the latter can 

 be ascertained with any approach to accuracy. 



Those who follow Villermci in his views are prone to assert that wliile povert^•, 

 with its squalid suiTOundings of dirt, cold, impure air, and insufficient food, retard 

 growth ; "on the other hand, comfort and abundant nourishment hasten development and 

 increase the stature. They will observe with surprise the facts set forth in Table No. 4. 

 No one will suppose that the population of the United States suft'ers from want or 

 misery to any general extent ; it is probable that, with occasional exceptions in the 

 large cities, lack of food is unknown. Nevertheless, the white native of the Northern 

 States does not attain his full growth until he is between thirty and thirty-five years of 

 age. Mr. Gould's tables indicate the thirty-first to the thirty-fom*th year as the result 

 he arrives at. 



The age announced by other authorities as that of completed growth varies 

 considerably. In France, Bernard gives it as the thirty-second year;^ Champouillon, 

 from the twenty-third to the twenty-eighth;" Baron Larrey, the twenty-eighth;^ and 

 Allaire, from the thirty-first to the thirty-fifth year.** In Belgium, Quetelet decides for 

 the tliirtieth,^ and, in Switzerland, M. Dunant for the twenty-sixth year.^ Liharzik, in 

 Vienna,'' and, in England, Aitken," Danson," and Boyd,'" regard the twenty-fifth as the 

 year of matured growth. Dr. Beddoe selects the twenty-third year, though he admits 

 a slight increase after that age." 



Table No. 4, like the other tables relating to age, displays the results in groups 

 of five years, which is in accordance with the plan first laid down, by authority, for 

 the preparation of these statistics. The following table shows the result, also, year by 

 year, and is believed to be very nearly if not absolutely accurate. 



'■ £tudes siir la taille ei le poids dii soldat fratifais. Eecneil de m6m. de m6d., chlr. et pharm. mil., 3 s6r., t. xx. p. 

 371, 1868. 



- iStude sur le diveloppement de la taille et de la constitution dans la popnUition civile et dans Varmfy en France. Eecueil 

 de m6m. de m^d., etc., 3 sir., t. xxii, pp. 239-264, 1869. 



^ Bull, de la Sac. d'anthropologie, 2 s6r., t. iv, p. 585, 1869. 



■• Etudes sur la taille et le poids de I'homme dans le regiment des chausseurs a chrral di' la garde. Recueil de m^ui., do 

 chir., etc., 3 s6r., t. x, p. 161, 1863. 



^ Loc. cit. ^Loc.cit. '' Loc. vit. 'On the groiolli of ttic recruit and young soldter, l6&-i. ^ Loc. cit. 



'" Tables of the weight of the human bodg. Pbilos. Traus., 1861, pp. 241-26t!. " Loc. cit. 



