According to this table there would also be from the time of birth an inequality of stature of the two sexes; boys exceed girls by a figure which varies from 2 to 10 millim., that is to say on an average half a centim. (less than a quarter of an inch). The data relating to different races are insufficient; it may be remarked, however, that with people very low in stature, like the Annamese (1 m. 58, or 5 feet 2 inches), on the average the new-born are also shorter than those of people of greater stature, as, for instance, the English or the inhabitants of the United States. The French (average height 5 feet 5 inches) appear to be an exception to this rule.
We shall examine at greater length in [Chapter IV.] increase of stature in connection with all the phenomena of growth. Let me for the present say that as regards man, the age of 18 to 25 years, according to race, may be considered as the practical limit of this growth. In order to make a useful comparison of statures of different populations, we should only take, then, adults above these ages.
It must be said on this point that the greater part of the reliable information which we possess concerning stature relates solely to men, and among these, more especially to conscripts or soldiers. And it has often been objected that the figures in documents furnished in connection with the recruiting of armies do not represent the true height of any given population, for the conscripts, being in general from 20 to 21 years of age, have not yet reached the limit of growth.
This is true in certain cases; for example, when we have the measurements of all conscripts, who, in fact, grow from 1 to 2 centimetres during their military service; but when we have only the measurements of those enrolled, that is to say only of men above the standard height (and that is most frequently the case), the question presents a different aspect. The average height of this picked section of the population, higher by 1 to 2 centimetres than that of men of their age in general, may be considered (as I have elsewhere shown[24]) to represent the average stature of the whole number of adult males of any given population. We may then, while making certain reservations, take the height of those enrolled (but not that of all the conscripts) as representing the height of the adults of any given population.
The individual limits between which the height varies are very wide. It is admitted in general that the limits of height in the normal man may vary from 1 m. 25 (4 feet 1 inch) to 1 m. 99 (6 feet 6 ¾ inches). Below 1 m. 25 begins a certain abnormal state, often pathological, called Dwarfism. Above 2 m. we have another corresponding state called Giantism. Dwarfs may be 38 cent. high (15 inches), like the little feminine dwarf Hilany Agyba of Sinai (Joest), and giants as high as 2 m. 83 (9 feet 5 inches), like the Finn Caïanus (Topinard).[25]
Dwarfism may be the result of certain pathological states (microcephaly, rickets, etc.), as it may be equally the result of an exceeding slowness of growth.[26] In the same way giantism is often seen associated with a special disease called acromegaly, but most frequently it is produced by an excessive growth. In any case, exceptional statures, high or low, are abnormal phenomena, the acknowledged sterility of dwarfs and giants being alone sufficient to prove this.
Extreme statures which it is agreed to call normal, those of 1 m. 25 and 1 m. 99, are very rare. One might say that, in general, statures below 1 m. 35 and above 1 m. 90 are exceptions. Thus in the extensive American statistics,[27] based on more than 300,000 subjects, but one giant (above 2 m.) is met with out of 10,000 subjects examined, and hardly five individuals in 1000 taller than 1 m. 90 (75 inches). Again, in the statistics of the Committee of the British Association,[28] which embrace 8,585 subjects, only three individuals in a thousand have been found taller than 1 m. 90. Yet in these two cases, populations of a very high stature (1 m. 72 on an average) were being dealt with. If we turn to a population lower in stature, for instance the Italian, we find only one subject 1 m. 90 or above in height in 7000 examined, according to the statistics of Pagliani.[29] In the same way, low statures under 1 m. 35 (53 inches) are met with only once in every 100,000 cases among the subjects examined by the American Commission, and not once among 8,585 inhabitants of the United Kingdom; even in a population low in stature, like the Italians, only three such in every 1000 subjects examined are to be found. We do not possess a sufficient number of figures to be able to affirm that among all the populations of the globe the instances of all these extreme statures are exceptional, but what we know leads us to suppose that it is so, and that the limits of normal stature in man are between 1 m. 35 and 1 m. 90.
The figures of individual cases are much less interesting than the averages of the different populations, that is to say the height obtained by dividing the sum of the statures of individuals by the number of subjects measured. On comparing these averages it becomes possible to form a clear idea of the difference existing among the various peoples. But here there is an observation to make.
The data of this kind published up to the present in the majority of books may often lead to error. In fact, as a general rule they give only the average height without stating the number of subjects measured. Very often it is only the rough guess of a traveller who has not even measured at all the populations of which he speaks. In other cases we have averages drawn from the measurements of two, three, or four subjects, which are evidently insufficient for a standard which varies so much in one individual and another, and even in the same individual according to the hour of the day.