378 - Miscellanies. 
Metres, 
He found the mean height at nineteen, - - - 1.6648 
Bini EG Yul ES “6 twenty five, - - 1.6750 
66 66 66 66 66 3 thirty, ss = - 1.6841 
The result according to his table is uniform, that is, it is the same 
on a comparison of one hundred of each age, as of three hundred. 
It thus appears that the growth of men does not always stop at the 
age of twenty five. It is not even proved that it stops at thirty, but 
it may be inferred from the author’s observations, that in a majority 
of cases it ceases at nineteen, twenty five or thirty, but that a small 
number, still more tardy, continue to increase the mean height. 
The author obtained from the schools and public establishments of 
Brussels, documents of the height of children of different ages and 
sexes. He has represented the mean growth of men by a curve 
which is very nearly a hyperbola, and is represented by the equation of 
tae: y : 
, nh ieee in which, y and & 
are co-ordinates, expressing the height and age, ¢ and 'T, two con- 
stants, the height of the individual at his birth, and at his entire devel- 
opment. It is quite a singular circumstance that this formula, cal- 
culated upon the height observed at birth and nineteen years.of age, 
answers also for the increase observed by physiologists in the five 
months which precede birth. 
M. Quetelet terminates his work by the following summary : 
Ist. The limits of growth in the two sexes are unequal, because 
women are born smaller than men, and sooner attain their full devel- 
opment, and their annual growth is less than that of men. 
Qd. The height of the inhabitants of cities surpasses, by two to 
three centimetres, that of the inhabitants of the country, at the age 
of nineteen. 
3d. It does not appear that the growth of men is entirely finished 
at the age of twenty five. 
4th. Youth who belong to families in easy circumstances, and 
who devote themselves to study, generally surpass the mean height. 
5th. The growth of the child, even from several months before 
‘birth, until its completion, follows a law of continuity such that the 
increments diminish successively with the age. 
6th. Between five and sixteen the growth is nearly regular; and 
is the twelfth of the increase of the foetus in the months which pre- 
cede birth— Bib. Univ. Sept. 1831. 
the third degree, y+ aon cea 
