22 STATURE AGK OF Fl'LL GROWTH. 



competent height in 1868. These men, when exempted as below the minimum hmit 

 of height, were twenty years of age.' 



Some observations made by M. Robert, a French mihtary surgeon, are interesting 

 as furnishing additional proof on this point.'^ He measured 287 soldiers, grenadiers 

 and voltigeurs chiefly, and found a mean difference of 0.023 metre (0.905 inch) 

 between their actual height and that recorded in their livrets, or descriptive lists, made 

 up at the time of their entry into the service. As this occurred ninety-eight times in 

 the hundred, it was evidently from continued growth that the discrepancy jn'oceeded. 

 The mean age of the men at the period of his experiments was nearly twenty-six 

 years. 



It is obvious from these considerations how inaccurate must be the conclusions 

 drawn by some writers fi'om the Comptes Rendus of the army, purporting to show 

 the mean height of the French people, when it is remembered that the measurements 

 taken are those of men newly conscripted at twenty years of age. All that these 

 figures really demonstrate is the mean height of a certain number of healthy young- 

 Frenchmen of the age of twenty years, not yet fully grown, and from whose number 

 all below the height of 1.56 metres have been carefully excluded.' 



Mr. Gould, in the statistical work of the Sanitar}^ Commission, states that " the 

 successive counts for different States indicate a decided tendency to diminution of the 

 average stature as the war went on;" and he proceeds to express his regret that all his 

 measurements were not obtained from the early volunteers, on account of the superior 

 height which he believed them to possess. There is no doubt that successive drafts 

 are likely to residt in a lower mean stature in the men obtained. As war continues, 

 and "many a good tall fellow is destroyed," recruiting-officers become less exacting as 

 to inches. After Napoleon's return fi-om the fatal invasion of Russia, all limitations 

 oi the height of conscripts were j^ractically abolished, so sore was the need of men. 

 Hut as regards the comparison of volunteers with drafted men, there can be no question 

 that the result does and should show a less stature in the latter. The reason for this 

 expectation is easily given. The minimum limit of height authorized by the War 

 Department nt the outbreak of the rebellion was 5 feet 3 inches, and it continued to 

 be the regulation-height until 1864. The fact that there teas a limit undoubtedly kept 

 up the standard of stature, no matter how carelessly the measurements were actually 

 made. On the other hand, the enrollment-law expressly declared that no exemption 

 shoidd be made on account of height; and, as the draft fell upon men of all conditions, 

 the mean stature was inevitably lower. 



In connection with this part of the subject, it is desirable to point out the different 

 results obtained according as the man is iu the erect or horizontal position when his 

 height is determined. M. Robert, the author recently referred to, took pains to measure 

 the 287 soldiers in question while lying upon a graduated bench, fitted with foot-board 



' jSfurfc sur le ri^nloiqiemtvl de la laille et de la comliliition (luiw hi popiiJation civile el da)7s Varviee en France. Reciieil 

 do ni6in. lie med., cbir. et pbanii. niilitaires, t. xxii, pi). ^4',) ct 26:i, Paris, 1869. 



■Notice eur la Inillc el le jwieh tin faiilaxiiiii fraiifais. Rcciieil tie mem. (le nied., cbir. ef. pliarm. militaires, t. x, p. 

 171, Paris, 186:5. 



'The height named was the limit of stature from Mareli 11, 18:12, until February, 1868 ; at the latter date it was 

 reduced to I'lf) metres, and in .Inlv, 1873, to l.r>4 metres. 



