Variations Due to Adaptation in Connection with Causes of Various Kinds—Social, Physiological, Physical, Psychic, Pathological, Etc.
Physiology and Social Conditions.—Nutrition.—One of the effects of environment, of the highest importance in its relation to the development of stature, is nutrition. In order to attain the maximum development as biologically determined by heredity in a race, sufficient nutriment is the first necessity. It is a familiar fact that material or physiological life consists essentially in the exchange and renewal of matter, or in metabolism, which is also a renewal of vital force.
The living molecules are continually breaking up, thus expressing in an active form forces that had accumulated in a potential form, and eliminating the rejected matter; only to form again by means of new matter, containing potential forces. This breaking up and renewal constitutes the material of life, that never pauses in its molecular movement; the cessation of renewal of matter is death, that is, scission without reparation; consumption without renewal; and consequently a rapid disintegration of the body. Living matter consists in metabolism, and is consequently directly related to the nutritive substances which renew the elements necessary for continual redintegration.
We may disregard certain individual potentialities, of a purely biological nature, and that are capable of manifesting vital forces of varying degrees of intensity: but it may be asserted as beyond question that every living being, if he is to live according to his biological destiny, has need of sufficient nutrition. This is not the same as saving that the food determines the life of an individual in its final development, in the sense that by eating in excess one may attain the stature of a giant, or an imbecile become intelligent or a man of talent become a genius. We all bear within us, in that fertilised germ that constituted the first cell of our organism, predetermined biological conditions, on which depend the physical limits of our body, as well as those of our psychic individuality. But in order that this germ may develop in accordance with its potentiality, it is necessary that it shall obtain the requisite material from its environment. Because otherwise—and here the relation is direct—neither the volumetric development nor the morphological development can be accomplished, nor the psychic potentiality express itself; in other words, the stature will be undersized, in a body defrauded of the degree of beauty potential in the germ, and the muscular forces, in common with those of the brain, will remain at a level of development below that which nature had intended. Consequently, to deprive children of their requisite nutriment is stealing from life, it is a biological crime.
While we live, we must eat; and while we labour, that is, while we expend the vital forces, it is necessary to repair them. The schools should establish a system of luncheons for the pupils; this is a principle that has already been generally recognised and is already bearing fruit.
There was a time when a good appetite was regarded as a low material instinct; it was also the time when people sang the praises of spirituality, but actually indulged in banquets of Lucullian lavishness. The vice of the palate and the physiological need of nourishment were included under one and the same disdain.
To-day science has shed its light upon the true conception of nutrition and holds it to be the first necessity of life, and consequently the first social problem to be solved.
From this point of view, food is not a vulgar material thing, nor the dinner-table a place of debauchery. Indeed, there is nothing which affords better proof of immateriality than the act of eating. In fact, the necessity of eating is itself a proof that the matter of which our body is composed does not endure but passes like the fleeting moment. And if the substance of our bodies passes in this manner, if life itself is only a continual passing away of matter, what greater symbol of its immateriality and its spirituality is there than the dinner-table?
"... the bread is my flesh and the wine is my blood; do this in remembrance of what life really is."
Something similar to this is being accomplished to-day by science in regard to the sexual relations. We are accustomed to consider the sexual instincts as something contemptible, material and low, praising abstinence, and leaving these instincts wholly out of consideration in the course of education, as though they were something degrading, or even shameful. And undoubtedly our sexual abuses are shameful, and shameful also is the barbaric tolerance of the masses regarding prostitution, seduction, illegitimacy and the abandonment of new-born children. It is criminal abuse that makes us despise sexual relations, just as at one time excesses of the table made us despise nutrition. But the day will come when science will raise to the dignity of a new sexual morality the physiological function which to-day is considered material and shameful—and that comprehends the most sublime of human conceptions. In it are to be found the words which ancient races deposited in their religious tabernacles: creation, eternity, mystery. And in it are also to be found the most sublime conceptions of modern races: the destiny of humanity, the perfectionment of the human species.
Accordingly, we must to-day regard the serving of food in the schools as a necessity of the first order; but it is well, in introducing it into the schools, to surround it with that halo of gladness and of high moral significance that ought to accompany all manifestations of life. The hymn to bread, which is a human creation and a means of preserving the substance of the human body, ought to accompany the meals of our new generations of children. The child develops because the substance of his body passes away, and the meals that he eats symbolise all this: furthermore, they teach him to think of the vast labour accomplished by men who, unknown as individuals, cultivate the earth, reap the grain, grind the flour, and provide for all men and for all children. Where they are and who they are, we do not know; the bread bears neither their name nor their picture. Like an impersonal entity, like a god, humanity provides for all the needs of humanity: and this god is labour. If the child is destined some day to become himself a labourer, who produces and casts his products to humanity without knowing who is to receive his contribution toward providing for humanity, it is well that as he lifts his food to his lips he should realise that he is contracting a debt toward society at large, and that he must give because he takes; he must "forgive debts as his have been forgiven"; and since life is gladness, let him send forth a salutation to the universal producing power: "Our Father, give us our daily bread!"
The Providence of human labour rules over our entire life; it gives us everything that is necessary. The God of the Universe, in whose train come cataclysms, is not more terrible than the god, Humanity, that can give us War and Famine. While we give bread to the child, let us remember that man does not live by bread alone: because bread is only the material of his fleeting substance.
The system of furnishing meals in school constitutes a chapter of School Hygiene that cannot directly concern us. Nevertheless, there are three rules of this hygiene which should be borne in mind: Children should never, in any case, drink wine, alcoholic liquors, tea or coffee—in other words, stimulants, which are poisons to their childish organisms. On the other hand, children need sugar, because sugar has a great formative and plastic power; all young animals have sweetish flesh because their muscles, in the course of development, are extremely rich in sugar. The method of giving sugar to children should be as simple as possible, such, for instance, as is endorsed by the very successful English system of hygiene for children, which recommends freshly cooked fruits, sprinkled with sugar or served with a little syrup. But the substantial nourishment for young children should consist of soup or broth served hot, since heat is as essential as sugar for organisms in the course of evolution.
The English recommend soups made of cereals and gluten, in which it is never necessary to use soup stock, just as it is never necessary to use meat in children's diet.
That nutrition has a noteworthy influence upon growth, and therefore upon the definitive limits of stature, is exhaustively proved by statistics.
In his brilliant studies of the poorer classes, Niceforo has collected the following average statures:[21]
| Age | Stature (in centimetres) | |
|---|---|---|
| Children | ||
| Rich | Poor | |
| 7 years | 120 | 116 |
| 8 years | 126 | 122 |
| 9 years | 129 | 123 |
| 10 years | 134 | 128 |
| 11 years | 135 | 134 |
| 12 years | 140 | 138 |
| 13 years | 144 | 140 |
| 14 years | 150 | 146 |
from which it appears that, in spite of the strong biological impulse given by the attainment of puberty, the children of the poor continue to show a stature lower than that of the well-to-do. Alĕs Hrdlĭcka has compiled the following comparative table of the poor or orphaned children received into the asylums, and the pupils of the public schools in Boston:
| Stature of American children | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boys | ||||||||||||
| Age in years | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| In asylums | 971 | 1088 | 1172 | 1163 | 1234 | 1261 | 1315 | 1367 | 1424 | 1452 | 1518 | — |
| in Boston public schools | 1060 | 1120 | 1176 | 1223 | 1272 | 1326 | 1372 | 1417 | 1477 | 1551 | 1599 | 1665 |
| Girls | ||||||||||||
| In asylums | — | — | 1101 | 1158 | 1204 | 1289 | 1290 | — | — | 1398 | — | — |
| in Boston public schools | 1052 | 1109 | 1167 | 1221 | 1260 | 1315 | 1366 | 1452 | 1492 | 1532 | 1559 | 1567 |
Even after reaching the adult age these differences are maintained, as may be shown by the following statistics taken from various authorities:
| Average statures obtained from soldiers (in centimetres) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Italians | English | French | |||
| Students and professional men | 167 | Professional men | 175 | Students | 169 |
| Tradesmen | 165 | Merchants | 172 | Domestics | 166 |
| Peasants | 164 | Peasants | 171 | Day labourers | 165 |
| City employees | 169 | ||||
from which it appears that while in Italy the class of labourers having the lowest stature is the peasant class, which lives under the most deplorable economic conditions, in England on the contrary it is the workers in the cities who live under worse economic conditions than the peasantry, it being well known that the English peasant is the most prosperous in the agricultural world.
According to Livi, it is nutrition which causes the differences of average stature that are usually to be found between different social classes, and those between the inhabitants of mountains and of plains, or between the dwellers on the mainland and on the islands. In general the mountain-bred peasants have a lower stature than those of the plains; and this is because the means of procuring food are fewer and harder in mountainous regions.
Similarly, the islanders, because of less ready means of communication, have less likelihood than those on the mainland of obtaining adequate nutrition.
The same may be said regarding the differences found between the statures of cultured persons and of the illiterate, to the disadvantage of the latter (the poorer classes).
Students show the tallest stature of all, because they have in their favour the joint effect of the two chief factors of environment that influence this anthropological datum: mechanical causes and nutrition. A sedentary life, and above all a hearty diet both contribute to the tall stature of students, doctors, and members of the liberal professions. In this respect, the average figures of all the authorities agree, as appears from the following tables:[22]
LIVI: 256,166 ITALIAN SOLDIERS
| Professions and callings | Average stature in centimetres |
|---|---|
| Students and professional men | 166.9 |
| Small shopkeepers and the like | 165.0 |
| Peasants | 164.3 |
| Blacksmiths | 165.0 |
| Carpenters | 165.1 |
| Masons | 164.8 |
| Tailors and shoemakers | 164.5 |
| Barbers | 164.3 |
| Butchers | 165.7 |
| Carters | 164.4 |
| Bakers | 164.7 |
| Day labourers in general | 164.4 |
ROBERT AND RAWSON: 1935 ADULT ENGLISHMEN
| Professions and employments | Average stature in centimetres |
|---|---|
| Professional men | 175.6 |
| Merchants and tradesmen | 172.6 |
| Peasants and miners | 171.5 |
| City labourers | 169.2 |
| Sedentary workmen | 167.4 |
| Prisoners | 168.0 |
| Insane | 166.8 |
OLORIZ: 1798 CONSCRIPTS FROM THE CITY OF MADRID
| Professions and employments | Average stature in centimetres |
|---|---|
| Liberal professions | 163.9 |
| Including: | |
| Students | 164.0 |
| Other professions | 161.1 |
| Workmen employed in the open air | 160.7 |
| Workmen employed in closed rooms | 159.8 |
| Including: | |
| Tailors, hatters and the like | 159.0 |
| Shoemakers | 158.9 |
Conditions of nutrition, which are always accompanied by a combination of other hygienic conditions all tending toward the same effects, have also an influence upon the development of puberty.
Puberty is retarded by malnutrition. As a result of an inquiry made among the inmates of the Pia Barolo Society, which offers an asylum to reformed prostitutes, Marro[23] records that out of ninety rescued girls only those above the age of fourteen had begun to menstruate: notwithstanding that the normal period for the development of puberty in Italian women is between the years of twelve and thirteen. Furthermore, among the girls above the age of fourteen, menstruation had not yet begun in all cases; on the contrary, a large proportion of them still failed to show the phenomena of puberty:
| Age in years | Whole number | Number menstruating |
|---|---|---|
| 14-15 | 11 | 4 |
| 15-16 | 11 | 7 |
| 16-17 | 11 | 8 |
| 17-18 | 8 | 7 |
All the rest (thirty in number) menstruated for the first time after the age of eighteen.
Among those in whom menstruation had appeared earlier, the order of appearance was as follows:
| Years | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| Number | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 9 | 5 |
When we consider that we are dealing with rescued girls, we may conclude that direct sexual stimulus does not facilitate the normal development of puberty, but on the contrary, in conjunction with other causes, retards it. Accordingly, we must not confound the normal development of the organism with its disorders: whatever aids the natural development of life is useful and healthy. There may be conditions unfavourable to the development of puberty, which are favourable to the development of sexual vices (see, further on, the other causes influencing puberty, and moral conditions in colleges).
In his work above cited, Marro compares his figures obtained from the Pia Barolo Society with those of Dr. Bianco[24] taken from 78 young girls in city institutes representing young women in easy circumstances:
| Date of first menstruation. | Girls in the Pia Barolo Society. Percentage | Girls in city institutes for the wealthy classes. Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 10 years | 1.7 | —— |
| 11 years | 5.3 | 1.3 |
| 12 years | 7.1 | 13.3 |
| 13 years | 8.9 | 18.7 |
| 14 years | 21.4 | 29.3 |
| 15 years | 30.3 | 20.0 |
| 16 years | 16.0 | 8.0 |
| 17 years | 8.9 | 4.0 |
It should be noted that the cold climate of Turin retards puberty (see below): but the above table clearly shows the precocious puberty of young women in easy circumstances; in the great majority, in fact, it occurs between the ages of twelve and fourteen, with thirteen for the average; on the other hand, the majority for reformed prostitutes is between fourteen and sixteen, with fifteen for the average.
Besides labour and nutrition, there are other factors that contribute to the development of stature (which we regard as an index to the entire mass of the body). Such factors are: