beighth fliOt ^bpve thirty ioclies, or two fbat and 
a. half 5 and he fpeaks of othm ftiU fliorter, that were 
Mipedalesj but two foot. 
Now if natural caufes operate fo^, as to produce hu- 
mane Creatures, partaking of all properties common to 
th,eir kind, of fo fmall a model as to fall ftiort even of 
half the common ftandard of their fpecies, I cannot 
think it unreafonable, fuppofing we had no other au- 
thority for it, to imagin the fame natural caufes may 
fometimes aft in t other extreme likewife, and model 
Pvimane Bodies from a peculiar Energy in the feminai 
Principles, or a more perfeft and through concoSion in 
the Stomachy and other Vifiera^ whence may proceed 
^ peculiar and extraordinary nutritive faculty 
^ the humours 5 for the furthering augmen- 
tation 3 OP (till from fome other more latent Spring, 
orrfecret Influence,, to arife to fuch a growth as fully 
to. equal twice the heighth of f what we may then pro- 
perly callj a middling Jlaturey taking the word in the 
mqjt ftrid ifenfe. ^ 
' manifeft lAUi^Qie&and Congruity is obfervable in 
Nature, between) th^ fiature. oi mans body, and his age 
during the time of his growth ^ whence the GreeJ^j 
thought it not improper to exprefs both thefe by one 
and tiie fame word vihtnU , w^hich fignifies promifcu- 
oufly Statum 2iS well sis Age. and we find as thefe two 
agree in other refpefts, fo efpecially in thisy that as it 
is hard to. fay what precife number of years deter- 
mines the courfe of mans life, fo it is as difficult pofi-' 
txvely to alTign what determinate meafure does com- 
prehend the ftature, of ;his Body : 'tis eafy indeed to; 
pitch on a mean, or what ismoft common and ufual to- 
both cafes ^ and as I faid before, that about five foot 
and a half may well be efteemed the moft fettled and 
ordinary degree^^ of heighth in a man^ fo about feventy 
ypayS' in^y juftly bei adlotw^d the mc^ common period 
