142 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



showed quite a small difference between the heights of the two sexes, and 

 it may be that our Englishwomen of the future may reach an average 

 of 5 ft. 6 in. or 5 ft. 7 in. It is unlikely that the two sexes will ever be 

 equal in height, because we know that the stoppage of growth is determined 

 by the union of the caps or epiphyses at the ends of the long bones with 

 the shafts. We know, too, that this closure of the epiphysial lines, as 

 they are called, takes place earlier in women than it does in men. Other 

 things being equal, therefore, woman is handicapped and pays for her 

 well-known earlier maturity by a shortening of the time allotted to growth. 

 To follow this matter up would lead us into a discussion upon hormones 

 and endocrine glands, a discussion which would take us too far afield, 

 although I am fully alive to the importance of the subject. 



There is no reason to believe that the union of the epiphysial lines is 

 being delayed in modern Englishwomen, though there is good reason for 

 thinking that, during the period before they unite, growth is taking place 

 more quickly than in former days, since I am told that an increase of 

 height at definite ages is taking place in the children in our L.C.C. schools. 

 I am not sure that I have made myself quite clear in the matter of 

 heredity and environment. Both surely must be taken into account ; 

 and there is always the risk that one observer may try to account for 

 every change he notices by ascribing it to Mendelian influences, while 

 another may see the influence of environment, unchecked by heredity, 

 everywhere. In the present subject of stature we have seen environment, 

 in the shape of wise feeding and a full supply of fresh. air, increasing the 

 male height to 5 ft. 9 in. twenty years ago ; but at that height the 

 hereditary maximum of the Nordic race seems to have been reached, and 

 since then no improvements in surroundings have been able to increase 

 it. When I say that 5 ft. 9 in. seems the hereditary average maximum 

 of the Nordic race I do not mean that our Saxon forefathers were of that 

 height ; indeed I know that they only averaged 5 ft. 6 in. What I mean 

 is that 5 ft. 9 in. seems to be the highest possible score for Nordic peoples. 

 Now, leaving the question of stature for that of colour, I have two or 

 three points — small perhaps in themselves, but not without interest — to 

 lay before you. One so often hears that the English people are becoming 

 darker that one needs must pay some attention to this point. I was 

 especially struck by a statement made by Miss Fleming, a trained observer, 

 who said that she could find no series of fair children in the slums of 

 Liverpool with which to contrast the dark. Another statement which I 

 came across in the daily Press was made by a medical officer, who said 

 that most of the London poorer children had dark eyes. Before we 

 consider these statements it will be well to agree upon what we are to 

 regard as light and dark, and thus make sure that we are speaking the 

 same language. Rather more than sixty years ago Dr. Beddoe observed 

 and recorded the coloration of a very large number of people in these 

 islands ; and since a comparison of his results with those we may gain 

 to-day is our only chance of solving the question of whether we are 

 becoming fairer or darker, it is important to adopt a method of recording 

 colour which is comparable with his. Time will not allow me to explain 

 the details of Beddoe's tabulations, which, for my purposes, are needlessly 

 complicated, but it is easy from his statistics to find the percentage of the 



