- Miscellanies. 377 
The mean height of boys is, therefore, in metrical measurement 
0.4999, and that of girls 0.4896 ; these are inferior to the measure- 
ments observed in Paris as stated in the Dictionnaire des Sciences 
Medicales. 
Under the former government of the Low Countries the militia 
recruits took place at the age of nineteen. The following table, for 
Southern Brabant, during the years 1823 to 1827 inclusive, compre- 
hends the mean of 45,500 measurements of young men. 
Districts. Mean Height. 
Metres. 
1 arse - - - - 1.6633 
* The vicinity, - - - 1.6325 
2 nid - - - - 1.6393 
* d The vicinity, - =) eigen a 1.6177 
3 rhe ae - - - - 1.6428 
*? The vicinity, - - - 1.6323 
‘Towns, ~ - - - 1.6485 
Count, os 3 - - 1.6275 
Mean, 1.6380 
The inhabitants of the towns are, therefore, taller than those of the 
country, at least at the age of nineteen. ; 
Under the French empire, in the departments of Old France, the 
mean height of young men of twenty was 1.615 metres, while in 
Brabant, M. Quetelet found it, for young men of nineteen, to be 
1.638. Belgium, it may be observed, is a richer country than the 
medium of France. 
It thus appears that, by a general law, the mean of the human 
stature at nineteen and twenty is greater in proportion to the ease, 
comfort and freedom from excessive fatigue which the population 
generally enjoy. me 
But another question remains to be examined, viz. whether th 
growth is not simply more precocious in cities and rich countries. 
M. Quetelet has not decided that point, but he has made a curious 
observation with respect to the period at which the human growth 
ceases. He examined the results obtained during an extraordinary 
muster about fifteen years ago at Brussels, and made a comparison 
among nine hundred individuals, viz. three hundred at nineteen, three 
hundred at twenty five and three hundred at thirty years of age. 
