20 



STATURE NATIVF:.S Ol' UNITED STATES. 



If comfort and plenty do not hasten growth, but, on the contrary, co-exist with 

 an unusually tardy and prolonged development of it, as is shown to be the case in 

 the United States, it is tairly to be inferred that they exert little if any influence in 

 increasing the stature. From the restless and migratory disposition of our countrymen, 

 it is more difficult to trace the influence of race than in the staid and long-settled 

 communities of Europe ; but the tables of this work, in most instances, confirm, and 

 in no sense contravene, Boudin's well-known law that height is always an affair of 



race.' 



The demonstration by Quetelet of the law of growth has been fuU}^ dwelt u])on 

 in a previous portion of this work. An important condition in the calculation is homo- 

 geneity of race ; and when the varied oi-igin of the population of the United States is 

 considered, it seemed hardly reasonable to expect satisfactory proof of the applicability 

 of the law in their case. The most successful result of our experiments in applying 

 the binomial theorem to statistics of height was when the table exliibiting the dimen- 

 sions of 315,620 white natives was subjected to the process. The resulting curve, 

 though not as symmetrical as in the case of purer races, is yet of great value as evi- 

 dencing obedience to the law. 



' "La taille ii'ost iiullcnieut, conime ou I'a i<?i)<5tiS, IVxpressiou du bien-etie ou de la luisere, inais avant tout, 

 celle de la race; eu d'autres terraes la taille est affaire d'li^rdditt^." BidJ. de \a Soc. d'unthioiiologic, t. iv, p. 250, Paris 

 1863. D'OuBiGNY, speaking of tbo Patagonians, {L'lwmme americaiii, t. 1, p. 100, Paris, 1839,) describes tbem as accus- 

 tomed to seuii-starvatiou from earliest eliildliood in tbeir bleak aud sterile land ; yet, as is well known, their statnre, 

 though much below that ascribed to them by early circumnavigators, is the highest mean stature recorded of any race. 

 Darwin decided upon 5 feet 11 inches (180.34 centimetres) as probably a fair statement of their mean height. ( rmjages 

 nf the Adventure and Beagle, vol. iil, p. 102, Loudon, 1839.) 



Perhaps the most convincing illustration of the dependence of .stature upon race is to bo seen in the charts and 

 tables produced by Lagneau in his discourse upon the geographical distribution of certain disqualifications exempting 

 from military service in France. The chart, which exhibits exemptions arising from deficient height, presents three 

 well-marked grand divisions. In the northeast of France, originally peopled by a race of Germanic origin, the I5elgi, 

 the mean height is uniformly and markedly highest. The southern departments, in which are found the descendants 

 of the Aqiiitani and Ligures, present a medium condition as to stature. In the central region, the descendants of the 

 Gallo-Celts, the least changed and the purest of French races, show the greatest number of exemptions. Mimitirts de 

 VAcad. inqi. de m4d., t. xxxix, pp. 293-317, 18ti9-'70.) Beoca had already pointed out the remarkable conformity in the 

 physical characteristics of the present races witli the descriptions given by Tacitus, Pliny, aud others of the tribes then 

 inhabiting the same region of country. {Ueeherches surl'ethnologie de la France.) Champouiixon fiuds a corresponding 

 difference in the mean age at which growth is completed in these ethnic divisions. The pure Celtic race attains full 

 stature at the aye of twenty-eight years, while' the Roiunmi-Celts and Kymri are full-grown at from the twenty-third 

 to the twenty-tifth year. (0/». <>!.. pp. 249, 2fi2.) 



