Miscellanies. ; 357 
ble matter, beside the odor which often accompanies these phenom- 
ena.— Bib. Univ. Decem. 1831. 
12. Stature of the Human Race. Istpore Georrroy Saint Hr- 
LATRE.—Contrary to what occurs among domestic animals, variations 
of stature in the human race are included in much narrower limits 
than individual variations. 
The size of women is less variable than that of men. They are 
much smaller than men among people of large stature, while the 
difference in size between the sexes is very small among people of 
_ Jow stature. 
- The people who are the most remarkable for their great height, gen- 
erally inhabit the southern hemisphere ; and, as has long been known, 
those who are distinguished for lowness of stature almost all reside in 
the northern hemisphere. 
Among the people of the greatest height some live on the south- 
ern part at the American continents, others, in various archipelagos 
of the Southern Ocean, and it may even be remarked that they thus 
form in the southern hemisphere two series, one continental, the oth- 
er insular, both irregular and often interrupted, but commencing in 
each, at eight or ten degrees of south latitude and terminating at 
about fifty degrees. 
There exist however, in the southern hemisphere, people whose 
height is below the mean, and reciprocally, in the northern, those 
whose height surpasses the mean. Now, in comparing the geo- 
graphical position of these people with those who are extremely tall 
or extremely short, we arrive at the result apparently paradoxical, 
and yet in part of easy explanation, that the short race live almost 
every where near the tallest nations, and reciprocally, the tallest peo- 
ple near those nations who are the most remarkable for their low 
stature. | 
The diversity of stature in the human race may be explained, 
(but in part only) by the influence of climate, of dietetic regimen 
and mode of life. 
It is at least extremely probable that the size of the race, notwith- 
standing some loval variations, has not sensibly diminished ; and this, 
not only, from the concurrence of so many kinds of proof as are 
derivable from historical evidence from the earliest known periods ; 
but from considerations of science, -in the absence of all monuments, 
Vol. XXIL—No. 2. 46 
