THE PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT OF MAN. 
When individuals of tlie Negro races are removed to more temperate 
climates than Africa, such as Europe or North America, tliey arrive al 
pul>erty sooner than tlic White races, tlie difference in this respect com- 
moidy amounting to a year. Tliis serves to indicate tliat tlieir races are 
naturallv more precocious ilian ours. The same remark is also applicable 
to the Mogul races. On the authority of several travellers, the females of 
Siam, Golconda, China, and .lapau, are marriageable at eleven or twelve 
years ; but even in climates much colder than our own, individuals of 
the same races still continue to be more precocious, A Calmuck, or a 
Mogul woman of Siberia, in a climate as cold tis that of Sweden, is mar- 
riage,able at thirteen, while a Swedish woman would not be so under 
fifteen or sixteen. The Samoiede and Lapland women present the 
usual f appearances of puberty at the age of eleven or twelve, and the 
males at twelve or thirteen, while the English, German, .and French, be- 
come marri.ageable only at. a much later period. We thus see that each hu- 
man race possesses a peculiar aptitude in this respect, that the individuals 
of one race naturally become formed at an earlier period than those of 
another, and this they do notwithstanding the various differences of 
climate, food, and temperament. 
Females who become marriageable at an early age soon lose their 
powers of conception. From the ages of thirty to thirty-five years, the 
women of India are accounted old, according to Paxman The Javanese 
women do not conceive beyond thirty years, and even in Persia, accord- 
ing to Chardin, many women do not produce after twenty-seven years. 
The Siamese women are apparent exceptions to this observation, for 
they are said to have children at the age of forty, although they attain to 
puberty at a very e.arly period. Upon the whole, it may bo stitted gene- 
rally, that the usual period for the commencement of puberty in females 
varies, under the burning sun of the Tropics, from tune to twelve years, 
and terminates about thirty, though sometimes extending as late as forty 
years. On the other hand, the Samoiede women, though marriageable 
at an early age, continue their powers unimpaired to forty-one. In our 
own country, its termination may be stated at the ages of forty to forty- 
five years. 
Puberty is represented by external signs. Tliese appetir (in 
France) from tlie ages of ten to twelve in girls, and from twelve to 
sixteen in boys. In warm countries they are sooner observable; 
and either sex is rarely capable of procreation before that period. 
Among other well-known .signs of puberty, the deepening of the voice 
in the male, and the expansion of the breast in the female, are the most 
obvious and constant. 
MATURITY. 
After attaining the age of puberty, the body soon acquires its maximum 
of lieiglit. Some young nicii do not grow after fourteen or fifteen years 
of age ; while otliers continue as long as twenty-two or twenty-three 
years. Nearly al! of them, during this time, are of a slender make, tlieir 
thighs and legs sm.all, with the muscular parts not so perfectly developed 
as they ultimately become. 
At the age of eighteen years the youth usiiall 3 ' ceases to grow. 
The adult man rarely exceeds the height of six feet, and is seldom 
found below five feet. Women are usually some inches less. 
The stature of individuals is subject to great v.ariatioiis. Dwarfs have 
been known scarcely more tlian two feet high, while we are not without au- 
thentic accounts of giants nearly nine feet in height. Contrary to what is 
observed among the domestic animals, the medium height of one liumaii 
race is but little difl'erciit from that of another. The height of women is 
less variable than tliat of men. Among all nations of great stature, tliey 
are very considerably smaller than the men, while the diff'ercuce in tlie 
relative height of the sexes varies but slightly among the races of diminu- 
tive stature. The height of the smallest dwarf bears to that of tlie largest 
giant the ratio of I to 4 very nearly: and, supposing them to be equally 
well-proportioned, tiicir ratio of bulk will therefore be as 1 to 64. On 
the other baud, tlie medium height of tlie sinalle.st races is to that of tlie 
largest only as 1 to 1 consequently, their ratio of bulk will be very 
nearly as 1 to 3J. 
Tile following tables, deduced by M. Isidore Geoffrey- St-IIilairc, from 
a number of scattered oh.servations, published by different authors, serve 
to exhibit tlie average amount of the hereditary variations of height. 
NATION.S RF.MAnKARLE FOR THEIR GREAT STATURE. 
INHABITING 
CLIMATE. 1 HEIGHT. 
AUTHORITIES. 
Patagonians, 
Do 
Inhabitants of the Navigators' ) 
Islands j 
Carrihees, 
Patagonians, 
Mliayas, 
New ZeaUuiders 
Otiiheitaii Chiefs 
Marquesas 
Patagonians 
45° to 50° S. hit. 
do. 
14° S. lat. 
8° to 10° S. lat. 
45° to 50° S. lat 
110° to 21° S. lat. 
35° to 45° S. lat. 
17° S. lat. 
10° S. lat. 
45° to 50° S. lat. 
Rather cold, 
do. 
Warm. 
Very warm. 
Rather cold. 
Warm. 
Rather warm. 
Very warm, 
do. 
Riither cold. 
I'EtT. IN. 
0 4.7 
6 2.6 
6 2.6 
6 15 
6 0.5 
6 0.5 
5 1 l.'l 
5 103 
5 10.3 
5 9. 
La Giraudais, Malaspina. 
Commerson, De Genues. 
La Perouse. 
Humboldt. 
Bougiiinvillo. 
Azura. 
Garnot & Lesson, 
do. 
Marchaiid. 
Cook, Wallis. 
NATIONS REMARKABLE FOR THEIR SMALL STATURE. 
INHABITING 
CLIMATE. 
HEIGHT. 
AUTHORITIES. 
New Holland 
35° S. lat. 
Warm. 
FEET. 
5 
IN. 
2.9 
Quoy & Gaiinard. 
Inhcibitant-s of Vanikoro, 
12° S. lat. 
do. 
5 
2.3 
do. 
Orotchys Tartars 
51° N. lat. 
do. 
5 
1.8 
La Perouse. 
Kamtscliatskadales, 
50° to 60° N. lat. 
Very cold. 
5 
1.8 
do. 
Papous of Ofi'ack, 
0° to 1° S. lat. 
Very warm. 
4 
10.6 
Garnot & Lesson. 
Difercnt European and Asi- 1 
atic Nations near the Arc- > 
tic Circle ) 
60° to 75° N. lat. 
Very cold. 
(4 9.6) 
( Krusenstern, La Perouse, 
( Regnard, Depaw. 
Esquimaux 
70° N. lat. 
do. 
4 
3.2 
Hearn, Depaw. 
lioschismaiis 
30° S. lat. 
Rather warm. 
4 
3. 
Barrow. Peron. 
The differences in the statements regarding tlie average height of the 
Patagonians may partly be explained by tlie circumstance, that tliese tribes 
are of migratory lialiits, and partly through the observers paying too much 
attention to tlie individual variations of stature. 
It has long been remarked, that the nations of smallest stature abound 
more especially in the northern tiemisphere. and towards its most north- 
ern extremity. The second of tlie preceding tables shows this fact clearly ; 
but it also exhibits some exceptions. On the other hand, tlie tallest na- 
tions are almost confined to the Southern Hemisphere, where tliey form 
two series, the one continental, from the Carribces to the Straits of Ma- 
gellan, and the other insular, extending from the Marquesas to New Zea- 
land, tlirouglioiit the islands of the Southern Ocean. 1 his peculiarity, 
though often interrupted, commences about 8° 10' of S. latitude, and ter- 
minates towards the 50th degree. In the Southern Hemisphere we meet, 
however, with many nations, whose medium height, without being very 
30 
small, is still above the average ; and reciprocally, there are many in tlie 
Northern Heiiiispliere of very considerable height. 
Upon comparing the geugrapliical position of nations, whose stature is 
verj’ great, with that of the very diminutive races, we are led to notice a 
very curious, and apparently paradoxical result. Nations of very small 
stature are .always found in the immediate vicinity of the very tallest in- 
liabitantsofthe whole globe; and, reciprocally, there are nations of consider- 
able stature dwelling in the iieigliboiirliood of the veiy smallest. Thus, in 
the Southern Hemisphere, the island of Terra del Fuego, though separated 
from Patagonia merely by the Straits of Magellan, and only at a short 
distance from the Navigators’ Islands, is inhabited by a very diminutive 
and. ill-made race of men. It is the same in tlie Nortlierii Hemisphere, 
where the inhabitants of Sweden and Finland, tliough bordering upon 
Lapland, are rather above the middle stature. Thus the influence of 
climate upon the heiglit of the human races appears unquestionable, al- 
