Deniker, in summing up the principal authorities, assigns the following limits:
| Statures less than 1.25 m. | Normal statures, range of oscillations among the races | Statures from 2 m. upward | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowest individual extreme | Exceptionally low individual stature | Extreme low racial average | Extreme high racial average | Exceptionally high individual stature | Highest individual extreme | ||
| Nanism | 1.25 m. | 1.35 m. | Akkas 1.387 m. | Scotchmen of Galloway 1.792 m. | 1.90 m. | 1.99 m. | Gigantism |
The pathological extremes that would seem to indicate the limits of stature compatible with human life would seem to be on the one hand the little female dwarf, Hilany Agyba of Sinai, described by Jaest and cited by Deniker,[13] 15 inches high (0.38 m.—the average length of the Italian child at birth is 0.50 m. = 19½ in.), and on the other, the giant Finlander, Caianus, cited by Topinard[14], 9 ft. 3½ in. in height (2.83); the two extremes of human stature would accordingly bear a ratio of 1:7. On the other hand, Quétélet[15] gives the two extremes as being relatively 1:6—namely, the Swedish giant who was one of the guardsmen of Frederick the Great, and was 2.523 m. tall (8 ft. 3 in.); and the dwarf cited by Buffon, 0.43 m. in height (16¾ in.).
When there is occasion for applying the terms tall or low stature to individuals of our own race, it is necessary at the same time to establish limits that will determine the precise meaning of such terms. Livi[16] gives as the average stature for Italians 1.65 m. (5 ft. 5 in.), and speaking authoritatively as the leading statistician in Anthropology, establishes the following limits:
STATURE OF ITALIANS (LIVI)
Averages Determining The Terminology of Stature
| 1.60 m. and below, low statures. | 1.65 m. and all between 1.60-1.70, mean statures | 1.70 m. and above, tall statures. |
The individual extremes among the low statures tend to approach the average stature of the Japanese race (1.55 m.), and those among the high statures approach the Anglo-Saxon average (the Scotch = 1.79 m.)
There is much to interest us in studying the distribution of statures in Italy.
In Livi's great charts, he has marked in blue those regions where the prevailing percentage of stature is high (1.70 m. and upward), and in red those where the low statures prevail (1.60 m. and below); and the varying intensity of colouration indicates the greater or lesser prevalence of the high or low statures.