gives a brilliant exposition of them in the course of his general
considerations regarding the macroscelous and brachyscelous types. A
brachyscelous ballet-dancer, all grace and endurance in her dancing,
thanks to the strength of her lungs, can never be imitated in her
movements by a macroscelous, angular woman, with legs ungracefully
long. The latter, on the contrary, wrapped in a mantle, may become the
incarnation of a stately matron, extending her long arms in majestic
gestures. Yet it often happens that the stately actress envies and
seeks to imitate the grace of the dancer, while the latter envies and
emulates the grave dignity of the actress.
In any private drawing-room the same thing occurs, in the shape of
different advantages distributed among persons of different types.
_There are some gestures that are inimitable because they_ _are
associated with a certain anthropologic personality._ Every one in the
world ought to do the things for which he is specially adapted. It is
the part of wisdom to recognise what each one of us is best fitted
for, and it is the part of education to _perfect_ and _utilise_ such
predispositions. Because education can _direct_ and _aid_ nature, but
can never transform her.
Manouvrier is constantly observing how the macroscelous and
brachyscelous types are adapted to _different kinds_ of social labour;
thus, for example, the macroscele will make an excellent reaper,
because of the wide sweep of his arms, and he is well adapted to be
a tiller of the soil; while the brachyscele, on the contrary, will
succeed admirably in employment that requires continuous and energetic
effort, such as lifting weights, hammering on an anvil, or tending the
work of a machine.
In the social evolution now taking place, the services of the
macrosceles are steadily becoming less necessary; intensive modern
labour requires the short, robust arm of the brachyscele. Such
considerations ought not to escape the notice of the teacher, who sees
in the boy the future man. He has the high mission of preparing the
duelists of life for victory, by now correcting and again aiding the
nature of each. And the first point of departure is undoubtedly to
learn to know, in each case _le physique du role_.
ABNORMAL TYPES OF STATURE AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGICAL ETHICS
Abnormal types of stature in their relation to moral
training.--Macroscelia and brachyscelia in pathologic
individuals (DE GIOVANNI'S hyposthenic and hypersthenic
types).--Types of stature in emotional criminals and in
parasites.--Extreme types of stature among the extra-social
classes: Nanism and gigantism.
Let us start from a picture traced in the course of the preceding
lessons; the types of stature as related to race. The Chinese, being
brachyscelous, ought to be hearty eaters; instead, they are the most
sparing people on earth. Such parsimony, equally with religion and
social morality, may be considered as a racial obligation. The whole
life of the Chinese is founded upon duty: fidelity to religion, to the
laws, to the spirit of discipline, to the spirit of _sacrifice_, which
always finds the Chinese citizen ready to die for his ethics and for
his country, are strong characteristics of these invincible men. Their
whole education rests solely upon a _mnemonic_ basis; and their laws,
which are highly democratic, make it possible for anyone to rise to the
highest circles, provided he can pass the competitive examinations.
In other words, the laws aid in the _natural_ selection of the really
strong, and regard favouritism as a crime against the State. On such
individual and national virtues is founded the survival of the race and
of the massive empire. If to-morrow the Chinese should renounce his
creed, become a _glutton_, a pleasure-seeker, and follow the instincts
of nature, he would be advancing in mighty strides on the path that
leads to death. Accordingly, what we call _virtue_ may have a biologic
basis, and represent the _active force_ that tends to correct the
defects of nature.
We can conceive of a _type_ of man, whose _life_ is associated with
sacrifice; and whose path of evolution is necessarily limited, first
because his personality is imperfect, secondly because a part of his
individual energy is necessarily expended in _conquering_, or if you
prefer, in _correcting_ his own nature. Evolution ought to be free;
but instead, such a type is necessarily in bondage to _duty_, which
stops its progress. Accordingly, the civilisation of China remains the
civilisation of China; it cannot invade the world.
The European on the contrary has no such racial virtues; whatever
virtues he has are associated with transitory forms of civilisation,
and are ready to succeed one another on the pathway of unlimited
progress. The race can permit itself the luxury of not being virtuous
on its own account; its biological conditions are so perfect, that
they have reached the _fullness of life_. If virtue is the goal of the
Chinese, happiness is the goal of the European. The _race_ may indulge
freely in the joys of living; and dedicate its efforts solely to the
_unlimited progress of social civilisation_, and to the conquest of the
entire earth.
The Tasmanian, on the other hand, sparing by nature, lacking sufficient
development of the organs of vegetative life, avoids every form of
civilisation, and precipitates himself, an unconscious victim, upon
the road to death. His natural parsimony, the scantiness of his needs,
have prevented him from ever feeling that _spur_ toward struggle and
conquest which has its basis in the necessities of life. Neither
virtue, nor felicity, nor civilisation, nor survival were possible
to that race, whose extermination began with the first contact with
European civilisation. Hence we may draw up a table that will serve to
make clear certain fundamental ideas that may prove useful guides along
our pedagogic path:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Biological types | Brachysceles | Mesatisceles | Macrosceles
------------------+---------------+-----------------+-----------------
Races and peoples | Chinese. | Europeans. | Tasmanians.
Civilisation | Stable | Changeable | Outside the
| civilisation,| civilisation, | pale of
| but limited. | with unlimited | civilisation.
| | powers of |
| | evolution. |
Psycho-moral types| High ideal of | Happiness. | Insensibility.
| virtue and | |
| sacrifice. | |
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We ought to strive for the supreme result of producing men who will
be _happy_; always keeping clearly before us the idea that the happy
man is the one who may be spared the effort of thinking of himself,
and dedicate _all_ his energies to the unlimited progress of human
society. The preoccupation of _virtue_, the _voluntary_ _sacrifice_ are
in any case forces turned back upon themselves, that expend upon the
individual energies that are lost to the world at large; nevertheless,
such _standards of virtue_ are necessary for certain inferior types.
There exist, besides, certain individuals in rebellion against society,
outcasts whose lives depend upon the succor of the strong, or may be
destroyed by their adverse intervention, but in any case have ceased to
depend upon the will of the individuals themselves.
Between two inferior types the one with the better chances is the
one with the larger chest development; apparently, in the case of
biological deviations, _melius est abundare quam deficere_.
Accordingly, let us draw up a chart. Human perfectionment tends toward
_harmony_. If we wish to represent this by some symbolic or intuitive
sign, we could not do so by a mere line; because perfection is not
reached by the quantitative increase of favourable parts; robustness,
for instance, cannot be indefinitely increased by augmenting the degree
of brachyscelia; nor can intelligence be increased by augmenting the
volume of the head; but perfection is approached, in the race and in
the individual, through a _central harmony_. It is accordingly in the
direction of this centre that progress is made; and whoever departs
furthest from this centre, departs furthest from perfection, becomes
more eccentric, more untypical, and at the same time also loses the
psycho-moral potentiality to attain the highest civic perfection.
In Fig. 17, we have a graphic representation in three concentric
circles.
[Illustration: FIG. 17]
Let us begin by considering the middle circle, that of the abnormals.
Here we have inscribed, as psycho-moral and physio-pathological
traits, abstemiousness, _anti-social tendency,_ _predisposition to
disease_. Abstemiousness represents a _corrective_, without which the
individual tends toward an anti-social line of action and contracts
diseases. Abstemiousness is present within the circle of abnormal
human beings, as a more or less attainable ideal; but it must be
regarded as the pedagogic goal, when the problem arises of educating
an untypical class of individuals. In other words, there are certain
abnormal individuals who, if they are not to turn out criminals, must
exercise a _violent corrective_ _influence over their psycho-physical
personality_, and they must be trained to do so; for it is an influence
unknown to the normal man, who not only has no inclination to commit
a crime, but recoils from doing so, and on the contrary may arise to
degrees of moral perfection that are inconceivable to the abnormal man.
Consequently, in order to maintain a relatively healthy condition,
certain abnormal individuals are constrained to submit themselves to a
_severe hygienic regime throughout their entire life_; a regime useless
to the normal man, who indulges naturally in all the pleasures which
are consistent with the full measure of physical health, and which
remain forever unknown, and unattainable, to the abnormal individual
organically predisposed to disease.
Such self-restraint we may call the _culte of virtue_, a necessity only
to certain categories of men; and we may also call it the _virtue of
inferior individuals_. It applies and is limited almost wholly to the
individual.
Meanwhile, there is the normal man's high standard of virtue, which is
an indefinite progress toward moral perfection; but the path it follows
lies wholly in the direction of society collectively, or toward the
biological perfectionment of the species. In life's attainment of such
a triumph, man both feels and is _happy_ rather than virtuous.
The separation between the circles, or rather between the different
categories of individuals, the normal and the abnormal, is not
clear-cut. There always exist certain imperceptibly transitional forms,
between normality and abnormality; and furthermore, since no one of us
is ideally normal, no one who is not abnormal in _some one thing_, it
follows that this "some one thing" must be corrected by the humbling
practice of self-discipline. At the same time it is rare for a man to
be abnormal in all parts of his personality; in such a case he would be
outside the social pale, a monstrosity; the high, collective virtues
can, therefore, even if in a limited degree, illuminate the moral life
of the abnormals. St. Paul felt that it "is hard to kick against the
pricks"; and the _picciotto_ of the Camorra feels that he is obeying a
society that protects the weak.
It is a question of _degree_. But such a conception must lead to
a separation in _school_ and in method of education, for the two
categories of individuals.
ABNORMAL TYPES ACCORDING TO DE GIOVANNI'S THEORY
Certain very important pathological types have been distinguished and
established in Italy by De Giovanni, the Paduan clinical professor
who introduced the anthropological method into clinical practice.
Through his interesting studies, he has to-day fortunately revived
the ancient theory of temperaments, explaining them on a basis of
physio-pathological anthropology.
De Giovanni distinguishes two _fundamental types_; the one
_hyposthenic_ (weak), the other _hypersthenic_ (over-excitable); these
two types obey the following rules: morphologically considered, the
hyposthenic type has a total spread of arms greater than the total
stature and a chest circumference of less than half the stature:
these data alone are enough to tell us that the type in question is
_macroscelous_; as a matter of fact, the chest is narrow and the
abdomen narrower still. De Giovanni says that, owing to the scant
pulmonary and abdominal capacity the organs of vegetative life are
inadequate; the heart is too small and unequal to its function of
general irrigator of the organism; the circulation is consequently
sluggish, as shown by the bluish network of veins, indicating some
obstacle to the flow of blood.
The type is predominantly lymphatic, the muscles flaccid, with a
tendency to develop fatty tissues, but very little muscular fibre;
there is a predisposition to bronchial catarrh, but above all to
pulmonary tuberculosis. This _hyposthenic type_, which corresponds
to the _lymphatic temperament_ of Greek medicine, is in reality a
macroscelous type somewhat exceeding normal limits and therefore
physiologically inefficient and feeble.
The following is De Giovanni's description:
_Morphologically._--Deficient chest capacity, deficient abdominal
capacity, disproportionate and excessive development of the limbs;
insufficient muscularity.
_Physiologically._--Insufficient _respiration_, and consequent
scanty supply of oxygen (a form of chronic asphyxia of internal
origin), insufficient _circulation_, because the small heart sends
the blood through the arteries at too low a pressure; and this blood,
insufficiently oxygenated, fails to furnish the tissues with their
normal interchange of matter, and therefore the assimilative functions
in general all suffer; finally, the venous blood is under an excessive
pressure in the veins, the return flow to the heart is rendered
difficult and there results a tendency to venous hyperemia (congestion
of the veins), even in the internal organs. This is accompanied by
what De Giovanni calls _nervous erethism_ (in contradistinction to
_torpor_), which amounts to an abnormal state of the central nervous
system, causing predisposition to insanity and to various forms of
neurasthenia (rapid exhaustion, irritability).
This type is especially predisposed to maladies of the respiratory
system, subject to bronchial catarrh recurring annually, liable to
attacks of bronchitis, pleurisy, and pneumonia, and easily falls victim
to _pulmonary tuberculosis_.
Here are a few cases recorded by De Giovanni.[9] (It must be borne in
mind that the total spread of the arms, _Ts_, ought to equal the total
stature, _St_. The measurements are given in centimetres.)
F. M.--_St_ 147; _Ts_ 151.--Extremely frail; frequent attacks of
hemorrhage of the nose; habitually pale and thin. Certain
disproportions of the skeleton, hands and feet greatly
enlarged; extreme development of the subcutaneous veins.
_Pulmonary tuberculosis_.
A. M.--_St_ 161; _Ts_ 193.--Nervous erethism; from the age of
twelve subject to laryngo-bronchial catarrh; every slight
illness accompanied by fever; habitually thin. _Pulmonary_
_tuberculosis_.
F. M.--_St_ 150; _Ts_ 150; _Ct_ 67.--Lymphatic, torpid, almost
chronic bloating of the abdomen. Enlargement of the glands;
scars from chilblains on hands and feet. _Primary tuberculosis
of_ _the glands, secondary tuberculosis of the lungs._
A. M.--_St_ 172; _Ts_ 179.--Extreme emaciation, heart singularly
small. _Chronic bronchial catarrh._
If it is important for us, as educators, to be acquainted with this
type in the adult state, it ought to interest us far more during its
_ontogenesis_, that is, during the course of its individual evolution.
Since, in the process of growth, man passes through different _stages_,
due to alteration in the relative proportions of the different organs
and parts, it follows that this hyposthenic type correspondingly alters
its _predisposition to disease_. Its final state, manifested by various
defects of development, gave unmistakable forewarnings at every period
of growth.
In early infancy symptoms of rickets presented themselves, and then
disappeared, like an unfulfilled threat: dentition was tardy or
irregular; the head was large and with persistent nodules. This class,
as a type, is weak, sickly, easily attacked by infectious diseases,
tracoma, purulent otitis.
When the first period of growth is passed, _glandular_ symptoms begin,
with liability to sluggishness of the lymphatic glands (scrofula) or
persistent swelling of the lymphatic ganglia of the neck. This is
supplemented by bronchial catarrh, recurring year after year; finally
intestinal catarrh follows, accompanied in most cases by loss of
appetite.
Such conditions are influenced very slightly or not at all by medical
treatment.
During the period of _puberty_, _cardiopalmus_ (palpitation of
the heart) is very likely to occur, often accompanied by frequent
and abundant epistasis, or by the occurrence of slight fever in
the evening, and by blood-stained expectorations, suggestive of
tuberculosis. The patient is pale (oligohaemic), very thin, and shoots
up rapidly (preponderant growth of the limbs); he is subject to
_muscular asthenia_ (weakness, exhaustibility of the muscles) and to
various forms of nervous excitability.
These symptoms also (some of them so serious as to arouse fears, at one
time of rickets and at another of tuberculosis), are all of them quite
beyond the reach of medical treatment (tonics, etc.).
Now, a fact of the highest importance, discovered by De Giovanni,
is that of _spontaneous corrections_, that is, the development of
_compensations_ within the organism, suited to mitigate the anomalous
conditions of this type, and hence the _possibility of_ _an artificial
intervention_ capable of calling forth such compensations. Such
intervention cannot be other then _pedagogic_; and it should consist
in a rational system of gymnastics, designed in one case to develop
the heart, in another the chest, in another to modify the intestinal
functions or to stimulate the material renewal of the body; while every
form of overexertion must be rigorously avoided.
"I think that we should regard as an error not without consequences
what may be seen any day in the gymnasiums of the public schools, where
pupils differing in bodily aptitude, and with different gymnastic
capacity and different needs are with little discernment subjected to
the same identical exercises, for the same length of time.
"And day by day we see the results: there are some children who rebel
outright against the required exercise which they fear and from which
they cannot hope to profit, because it demands an effort beyond their
strength. Some have even been greatly harmed; so that one after another
they abandon these bodily exercises, which if they had been more wisely
directed would assuredly have bettered their lot.
[Illustration: FIG. 18. FIG. 19.
Brachyscelous type (from Viola).]
[Illustration: FIG. 20. FIG. 21.
Macroscelous type (from Viola).]
"Experience also teaches that one pupil may be adapted to one kind
of exercise and another to another kind. Accordingly a really
physiological system of gymnastics requires that _those_ _movements and
those exercises which are least easily performed should_ _be practised
according to special methods, until they have strengthened_ _the less
developed functions_, without ever causing illness or producing harmful
reactions.[10]"
So that the final results are an improvement in the morphological
proportions of the organism, and consequently a correction and
improvement in the relative liability to disease.
The other fundamental pathological type described by De Giovanni is the
_hypersthenic_ (second morphological combination), corresponding in
part to the _sanguine_ temperament of Greek medicine, and in part to
the _bilious_ temperament. In this type the total spread of the arms is
generally less than the stature, and the perimeter of the chest notably
exceeds one-half the stature. Consequently we are dealing with the
_brachyscelous_ type.
This type has a greatly developed thorax, a _large heart_, an excessive
development of the intestines; hence he is a hearty eater, subject
to an over-abundance of blood; he is over-nourished, the ruddy skin
reveals an abundant circulation, there is an excess of adipose tissue
and a good development of the striped muscles. Such a constitution
accompanies an _excitable_, _impulsive_, _violent_ disposition, and
conduces to diseases of the heart. "This type is characterised in
general by robustness and a liability to disorders of the central
circulatory system."[11]
But there are still other forms of disease that await the individuals
of this class, such for example as disorders affecting the interchange
of organic matter (diabetes, gout, polysarcia = obesity) and attacks of
an apoplectic nature. In the case of acute illness individuals of this
class suffer from excess of blood and may be relieved by being bled.
They are readily liable to bloody excretions.
Here are a few cases illustrating this _morphological combination_,
which is characterised by an exorbitant chest development (it must be
borne in mind that the circumference of the thorax, _Ct_, should equal
one-half the stature, _St_).
P. A.--_St_ 156; _Ct_ 93.--Endocarditis; insufficient heart-action.
Z. C.--_St_ 168; _Ct_ 95.--Cerebral hyperemia of an apoplectic
nature. Hypertrophy of the left ventricle of the heart.
_Polysarcous_ (gluttonous) _eater_.
B. G--_St_ 166; _Ct_ 104.--Diabetic, obese, subject to diabetic
ischialgia (neuralgia), frequent recurrence of gravel in the
urine. _Tendency to excesses of the table._
D. G.--_St_ 160; _Ct_ 96.--Polysarcia, the first symptoms of which
appeared in early youth. At the age of sixteen, suffered
from all the discomforts of obesity. Shows atheroma (fatty
degeneration) of the aorta, irregular heart-action, hypertrophy
and enlargement of the heart.
In this brachyscelous type it may happen either that the whole trunk
(that is, both the thoracic and abdominal cavities) is in excess, or
else that the excessive development is confined to the abdomen. This
latter case is very frequent, and may easily be found even in early
childhood. Such children are hearty eaters, are very active and, for
this reason, the pride and joy of their parents. Nevertheless, there
are many signs that should give warning of constitutional defects;
constant digestive disturbances (diarrhoea), frequent headaches, pains
in the joints, apparently of a rheumatic character, tendency to pains
in the liver which is excessively enlarged; excess of adipose tissue;
a tendency to fall ill very easily, of maladies that are almost always
happily overcome (but the truly robust person is not the one who
recovers from illness, but the one who _does not become ill_), and
finally an excessively lively disposition, irritability and above all,
_impulsiveness_.
Such individuals ought, like the macrosceles, to live under the
necessary and perpetual tyranny of a hygienic regime, adapted to
correct or to diminish the morbid predispositions associated with the
organism. A special dietetic, a regular hydrotherapic treatment, a
moderate gymnastic exercise designed to _direct_ the child's motive
powers, and thus to prepare the _man_ for that form of existence to
which it is necessary for him to subject himself, if he does not wish
to shorten his own life, or at least his period of activity--all these
things are so many duties which the _school_ ought in great part to
assume.
In this way we have briefly considered the _abnormal_ types of
brachyscelia and macroscelia, which by their very constitution are
_predisposed_ to incur special and characteristic forms of disease,
which may be avoided only by subjecting the organism to a special
hygienic regimen. _Men cannot all live according to the same rules._
TYPES OF STATURE IN CRIMINALS
In these latter times, some very recent researches have been made
by applying De Giovanni's method to the anthropological study of
criminals, especially through the labours of Dr. Boxich. He has
found that the great majority of parasitic criminals, thieves for
example, are macrosceles. They exhibit the stigmata already revealed
by Lombroso: great length of the upper limbs, with elongated hands;
furthermore, a narrow chest and a small heart, insufficient for
its vital function; such individuals are singularly predisposed to
pulmonary tuberculosis, and hence in their physical constitution they
are already stamped as organisms of inferior biological value--having
little endurance and almost no ability as producers--consequently they
are forced to live as they can, that is like parasites, profiting by
the work of others. On the contrary, the great majority of criminals
of a violent character present the brachyscelous type: the thorax is
greatly developed, the heart hypertrophic, the arterial circulation
superabundant. This class of criminals, including a large proportion of
murderers, have a special tendency to _act from impulse_, corresponding
to their large heart which sends an excess of blood pulsing violently
to the brain, obscuring the psychic functions; or, in the speech of the
people, such a man has "lost his reason," "the light goes from the eyes
when the blood goes to the brain."
Here are some notes regarding these two different types: we will
select as measures of comparison the stature and the weight, bearing
in mind that in the macrosceles the weight is scanty and that the
opposite is true of the brachysceles, while normally there ought to be
a pretty close correspondence between the weight in kilograms and the
centimetres of stature over and above one metre.
TYPES OF NON-VIOLENT CRIMINALS (_Parasites_)
Case No. 24.--_St._ 168; _Wt._ 56. Farm steward, three years'
sentence for theft. Pallid complexion, visible veins, scant
muscles. Heart small and weak, pulse feeble and slow.
Case No. 34.--_St._ 175; _Wt._ 61. Baker, comfortable financial
circumstances, has received a number of sentences for theft,
amounting altogether to ten years. Is twenty-four years of age.
Cyanosis of the extremities (bluish tinge, due to excessive
venous circulation). Cardiac action feeble. Scant muscles.
Case No. 43.--_St._ 156; _Wt._ 51. Peasant. Straitened
circumstances. Four years' sentence for theft. Rejected by the
army board for defective chest measurement. Dark complexion.
Extensive acne. Scant muscles. Bronchial catarrh. Has had
hemoptysis (spitting of blood). Cardiac action weak. Pulse very
feeble.
Case No. 52.--_St._ 173; _Wt._ 66. Book-binder. Prosperous
circumstances. Four years' sentence or thereabouts, for theft;
age, twenty-four. Conjunctivitis and blepharitis from early
childhood. Frontal and parietal nodules prominent. Muscles
scant; cardiac action weak; lymphatic glands of the neck
enlarged.
The following is an example of the typical thief:[12]
_St._ 162; _Wt._ 46.--Exceedingly small heart, feeble cardiac
action. Suffers from chronic bronchial catarrh. Cranial nodules
very prominent. Began as a small child to steal in his own
home, and since then has received sentence after sentence for
theft, up to his present age of twenty-nine.
TYPES OF VIOLENT CRIMINALS (_Assault_, _Mayhem_, _Homicide_)
Case No. 54.--_St._ 157; _Wt._ 62. Peasant. Good financial
circumstances. Condemned to thirty years in prison for
homicide. Well-developed muscles. Blood vessels congested.
Strong heart action; the pulsation extends as far down as the
epigastrium. Ample pulse.
Case No. 60.--_St._ 156; _Wt._ 70. Shoemaker. Bad financial
circumstances. Condemned to fifteen years' imprisonment for
homicide, after having been previously convicted three times
for theft. The chest circumference exceeds one-half the stature
by 11 centimetres. Subject to frequent pains in the head. Good
muscles. Corpulent. Full pulse. (It should be noticed that the
florid complexion, accompanying this type of stature, persists
in spite of straitened circumstances!)
Case No. 85.--_St._ 168; _Wt._ 70. Turner in iron. Comfortable
circumstances. Sentenced to thirty years in prison after one
previous conviction for criminal assault. Ruddy complexion.
Veins not visible. Abdomen very prominent. Gastrectasia
(dilation of the stomach). Entire cardiac region protuberant.
Laboured breathing. Cardiac action abundant.
Hence we perceive, in the etiology of crime, the importance of the
organic factor, connected directly with the lack of harmony in the
viscera and their functions, and consequently accompanied by special
morbid predispositions.
As a result of this line of research, criminality and pathology are
coming to be studied more and more in conjunction. For that matter,
it was already observed by Lombroso that in addition to the various
external malformations found in criminals, there were also certain
anomalies of the internal organs, and a widespread and varied
predisposition to disease. In short, his statistics reveal a prevalence
of cardiac maladies and of tuberculosis in criminals, as well as a
great frequency of diseases of the liver and the intestines.
EXTREME OR INFANTILE TYPES, NANISM AND GIGANTISM, EXTRA-SOCIAL TYPES
Whenever the disproportion between the bust and the limbs surpasses
the extreme normal limits, the whole individual reveals a complex
departure from type. Thus, for example, in connection with extreme
_brachyscelia_, there exists a characteristic form of nanism
(dwarfishness), called _achondroplastic nanism_, in which, although
the bust is developed very nearly within normal limits, the limbs on
the contrary are arrested in their growth so as to remain permanently
nothing more than _little appendages_ of the trunk. This calls to mind
the foetal form of the new-born child, and the resulting type, because
of this morphological coincidence, is classed among the infantile types.
Achondroplastic nanism is associated with a _pathological_ deformity
due to foetal rickets. It is not only the child after birth, but
the foetus also which, during its intrauterine life, may be subject
to diseases. Rickets (always a localised disease, usually attacking
some part of the skeleton) in this case fastens upon the enchondral
cartilages of the long bones. As we know, the long bones are composed
of a body or _diaphysis_ and of extremities or articular heads, the
_epiphyses_. Now, these different parts, which form in the adult
a continuous whole, remain separate throughout the foetal and the
immediate post-natal period: so that the heads of the humerus and the
femur, for example, in the case of the new-born child, are found to
be joined to the _diaphysis_ by cartilages (destined to ossify later
on), which are the chief seat of growth of the bones in the direction
of length. Well, in these cases of pre-natal rickets, the union of the
bony segments takes place prematurely, and since the bones can hardly
grow at all in length, they develop in thickness, and the result is
that the limbs remain very short and stocky. Meanwhile the bust, the
bones of which have in no way lost their power of growth, develops
normally.
Now, these dwarfs, who have abundant intelligence, because they have
the essential parts of stature in their favour, constituted the famous
jesters of the mediaeval courts, whose misfortune served to solace the
leisure hours of royalty. Paolo Veronese went so far as to introduce a
dwarf buffoon, of the achondroplastic type, into his famous painting,
_The Wedding at Cana_.
Conversely, in connection with an exaggerated _macroscelia_, we have
gigantism.
Ordinarily, a giant has a bust that is not greatly in excess of normal
dimensions. The limbs, on the contrary, depart extremely from the
normal limits, in an exaggerated growth in the direction of length: so
much so that the bodies of giants present the appearance of small busts
moving around on stilts.
Nevertheless, many different forms of gigantism occur. The pathology
of this phenomenon is quite complex; but we can not concern ourselves
with it here. It is a scientific problem of no immediate utility to
our pedagogic problems. Dwarfs and giants, whatever their type and
their pathological etiology, constitute extra-social individuals, who
have been at all times excluded from any possibility of adaptation
to useful labour, and employed, whether in the middle ages or in the
twentieth century, to a greater or less extent as a source of amusement
to normal beings, because of their grotesque appearance, either at
court or in the theatres, or in moving pictures, or (in the case of
giants) as figures suited to adorn princely or imperial gateways. These
individuals are as completely independent of the social conditions of
the environment in which they were born as if they were extraneous to
humanity. In relation to the species, they are _sterile_.
From the biological side, a consideration of these types serves merely
as an illustration of an important law: _the essential part_ _of the
organism_ (the vertebral column) is _less variable_ than the accessory
parts (the limbs).
SUMMARY OF THE TYPES OF STATURE
According to the relative development of bust and limbs we have
distinguished three types, the macrosceles, the brachysceles and the
mesatisceles, within their respective limits of oscillation.
Since the type of stature gives us a proportion between the different
parts of an individual, it constitutes a fundamental criterion for
a morphological judgment of the personality. That is, it leads to a
diagnosis of the individual constitution, with which are associated not
only the "character" but also certain predispositions to disease.
A knowledge of these _types_ shows us the necessity we educators are
under of taking into consideration the individual pupils, each of whom
may have separate needs, tendencies and forms of development; and of
demanding separate _schools_, in which even the _methods_ _of moral
education_ must differ. Because men are not only not all adapted to
the same forms of work, but they are not even all adapted to the same
standards of _morality_. And since it is our duty to assume the task
of aiding the _biological development_ and the _social adaptation_ of
the new generations, it will also be part of our task to _correct_
defective organisms, and at the same time to correct the types of
mental and moral inferiority.
In the following chart we may summarise the points of view from which
we have studied the types of stature:
SYNOPTIC CHART
Types of { Macrosceles {long legs, short bust.
stature { Brachysceles {short legs, long bust.
{ { / Mongols (brachysceles).
{ { { Tasmanians (macrosceles).
{ { { Dark Mediterranean race
{ { { (mesatisceles tending
{ { Race { toward brachyscelia).
Variations in { { { Blond race (mesatisceles
types of { Normal { { tending toward macroscelia).
stature { { / Woman more brachyscelous.
{ { Sex \ Man more macroscelous.
{ { { Childhood brachyscelous.
{ { Age { Old age macroscelous.
{ / De Giovanni's { Macrosceles
{ { hyposthenic { predisposed to
{ Pathologically{ types { tuberculosis.
{ abnormal. { De Giovanni's { Brachysceles predisposed
Variations in { { hypersthenic { predisposed to
types of { { types. { diseases of
stature { { { the heart.
{ Criminals. / Macrosceles......parasites.
{ \ Brachysceles.....violent.
{ Infantile / Achondroplastic nanism.
{ types \ Gigantism.
SUMMARY OF THE SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES ILLUSTRATED IN THE COURSE OF OUR
DISCUSSION
_Biological Laws._--_a._ Growth is not only an augmentation in volume,
but also an evolution in form.
_b._ The more essential parts vary less than the accessory parts in the
course of their transformations.
_The Index._--The index is the mathematical relation between the
measurements belonging to the same individual, and as such it gives us
an idea of the _form_; since the form is determined by the relations
between the various parts constituting the whole.
THE STATURE
While the figure and the type of stature tend to delineate the
_individual_ considered by himself, the different measurements
considered separately may guide us in our study of individuals in their
relation to the race and the environment.
Among the measurements of the _form_, we will limit ourselves to
a study of the _stature_ and the _weight_, which serve to give us
respectively the linear index of development and the volumetric
estimate of the body taken as a whole. We shall reserve the study of
the other measurements, such as the total spread of the arms and the
perimeter of the thorax, until we come to the analytical investigation
of the separate parts of the body (limbs, thorax).
The _stature_ is expressed by a _linear measure_ determined by the
distance intervening in a vertical direction between the plane on which
the individual is standing in an erect position and the top of his head.
It follows that the _stature_ is a measurement determined by the _erect
position_; on the other hand, when a man is in a recumbent position,
what we could determine would be the _length_ of body, which is not
identical with the stature.
In fact, a man on foot, resting his weight upon articulations that are
elastic, and therefore compressible, is a little shorter than when he
is recumbent.
If we examine the skeleton (see Fig. 9), we discover that the single
synthetic measure that constitutes the stature results from a sum of
parts that differ greatly from one another. To be specific, it is
composed of the long and short bones of the lower limbs; of flat bones,
such as the pelvis and the skull; of little spongy bones, such as the
vertebrae; all of which bones and parts obey different laws in the
course of their growth. Furthermore, intervening between these various
bones are _soft_, elastic parts, known as the articulations, which,
starting from below, succeed each other in the following order:
1. _Calcaneo-astragaloid_, between the _calcaneus_ and the superimposed
_astragalus_.
2. _Tibio-astragaloid_, between the _astragalus_ and the superimposed
_tibia_.
3. Of the _knee_, between the _tibia_ and the _femur_.
4. Of the _hip_, between the _femur_ and the _os innominatum_.
5. _Sacro-iliac_, between the _os iliacum_ and the _sacrum_.
6. _Sacro-vertebral_, between the _sacrum_ and the _last lumbar
vertebra_.
7. Of the _vertebrae_, consisting of 23 intervertebral disks, that is to
say interposed between the vertebrae, which include the following: _5
lumbar,_ _12 thoracic, 7 cervical_.
8. _Occipito-atloid_, between the first cervical vertebra, called the
_atlas_ and the _os occipitale_ of the cranium.
Accordingly, there are _thirty_ articulations in all; and of these,
23 are the intervertebral disks, which constitute, taken together, a
fourth part of the complex height of the vertebral column.
Furthermore, the height of the body cannot be considered simply the
_sum_ of the component parts, since these are not superimposed in
a straight line. As a matter of fact, if we examine the vertebral
column, we see that it is not straight as in the case of animals, but
exhibits certain curves that are characteristic of the _human species_,
and must be taken into consideration in their relation to the _erect
position_. In fact, the vertebral column presents two curvatures, the
one _lumbar_, and the other _cervical_, which together give it the
form of an S. These curvatures are _acquired_ along with the _erect
position_, and are not innate; one of the points of difference between
the skeleton of the new-born child and that of the adult is precisely
this, that the former has a _straight_ vertebral column.
A fact of no small importance to note, since in the _course of_
_growth_ a certain _determined_ form of normal curve, and no other,
ought to establish itself; otherwise, _abnormal deviations_ in the
vertebral column will become established. And for the very reason that
it is _plastic_ and _destined_ to assume a _curve_, the vertebral
column may very easily be forced into exaggerating or departing from
its morphological destiny. In such a case, the resulting stature would
be _inferior_ to what it should normally have been.
Accordingly, the stature is the resultant of the sum of _anatomical_
_parts_ and of _morphological conditions_.
Hence it is a _linear index_ not only of _biological man_, that is,
of man considered in relation to his racial limitations; but also of
social man, that is, of man as he has developed in the struggle for
adaptation to his environment.
_The limits of stature, according to race._ Stature is an
anthropological datum of great _biological_ value, since it is a
definite _racial_ characteristic and is preserved from generation to
generation by _heredity_. The first distinguishing trait of a race is
the height of the body in its natural erect position. It is also the
first characteristic that strikes us when a stranger comes toward us
for the first time. And that is why we make it the leading descriptive
trait: a person of tall, or of low stature. If, for a moment, we should
picture to ourselves the legend of Noah's Ark--quite incredible,
because emigration and embarkation of all the known species would have
required more than a century of time (it is enough merely to think of
the embarkation of the tortoises and the sloths!), and the necessity of
an ark as big as a nation, what must inevitably have struck Noah and
his sons would have been the _stature_ of the individuals belonging to
each separate species.
The _stature_ is the linear index of the limit of mass.
Among the human races the variations in stature are included between
fairly wide oscillations: coming down to facts, the average stature
of the Akkas is 1.387 m. (4 ft. 6-1/2 in.) for the males; and that of
the Scotchmen of Galloway is 1.792 m. (5 ft. 10-1/2 in.). Accordingly
between the average heights of the two races that are considered as the
_extremes_, there is a difference of 40 cm. (15-3/4 in.); but since
the averages are obtained from a complex mass of normal measurements,
some of which are _above_ and others necessarily _below_ the average
itself, we may assert that the "_normal human individuals_" may differ
in stature to an extent of more than half a metre; the oscillations of
normal individuals on each side of the racial average being estimated
at about 10 cm. (3.937 in.).
If we should see a little Akka 4 ft. 4 in. (1.33 m.) in height
alongside of a Scotchman 6 ft. (1.83 m.) high we should say "a _dwarf_
beside a _giant_." But such terms are _pathological_ and should
never be employed to indicate _normal individualities_. As a matter
of fact dwarfs and giants are as a class extra-social and sterile;
normal individuals, on the contrary, represent the physiopsychic
characteristics of their respective races. Consequently we may say that
normal people have a _low stature_, or a _high stature_; or if it is a
question of extremely low stature (such as that of the Akkas) we may
make use of the term _pigmies_ or of the _pigmy race_, in speaking of
such individuals. Sergi has proved the existence, among the prehistoric
inhabitants of Europe, of various pigmy races.
In the field of anthropology the scientific terminology ought always
to be based upon certain determined limits. The authorities indicate
the normal extremes of individual stature, beyond which we pass over
the into realm of _pathology_, incompatible with the survival of the
species; and even in the pathological cases they determine the extreme
limits, obtained from the individual monstrosities that have actually
existed in the course of the centuries, and that seem to indicate the
furthest limits attained by the human race.
Deniker, in summing up the principal authorities, assigns the following
limits:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Normal statures, range of oscillations among the races|
|-------|----------------------------------------------|
Statures|Lowest |Exception-|Extreme|Extreme |Exception-|Highest|Statures
less |indi- |ally low |low |high |ally high | indi- |from
than |vidual |individual|racial |racial |individual|vidual |2 m.
1.25 m. | | stature |average|average | stature |extreme|upward
--------+-------+----------+-------+--------+----------+-------+---------
Nanism |1.25 m.| 1.35 m. | Akkas |Scotch- | 1.90 m. |1.99 m.|Gigantism
| | | 1.387 | men of | | |
| | | m. |Galloway| | |
| | | |1.792 m.| | |
----------------|--------------------------------------------------------
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. = 19-1/2 in.), and on the other,
the giant Finlander, Caianus, cited by Topinard[14], 9 ft. 3-1/2 in. in
height (2.83); the two extremes of human stature would accordingly bear
a ratio of 1:7. On the other hand, Quetelet[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 (16-3/4 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 | 1.65 m. and all between |1.70 m. and above,
statures. | 1.60-1.70, mean statures| 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.
Thus it becomes evident in one glance of the eye that tall statures
prevail in northern Italy and low statures in the south; while the
maximum of low stature (indicated by the most intense red) is found in
the islands, and especially in Sardinia.
In the vicinity of the central districts of Italy (the Marches, Umbria,
Latium) the two colours fade out; this indicates that here all notable
prevalence of stature, either tall or low, ceases; consequently we have
here, as the prevailing norm, the mean stature (1.65 m.).
Anyone wishing to analyse the natural distribution of stature, has
only to study these charts by Livi, which are worked out with great
minuteness. If a study of this sort, extending over the entire
peninsula, seems too great an undertaking, it is at least advisable
for a teacher to acquaint himself with the _local distribution_ of
stature; in order that when it becomes his duty to judge of the stature
of pupils in his school he will have the necessary idea regarding the
_biological_ (racial) _basis_ on which so important an anthropological
datum can oscillate.
Livi's charts, based upon the male stature, correspond almost perfectly
with my own regional charts based upon the _average_ _statures_ of the
women of Latium. Both Livi and I find that in the region of Latium
the tall statures prevail north of the Tiber, especially toward
the confines of Umbria; while the lowest statures are found in the
neighbourhood of the valley of the Tiber, toward the sea (Castelli
Romani). That is to say, the stature becomes lower from north to south,
and from the mountains toward the sea. Furthermore, there exist certain
nuclei of pure race, such as at Orte and in Castelli Romani, where we
may find the extremes of average stature, which for women are found to
be 1.61 m. at Orte, and 1.47 m. at Castelli Romani; while the extreme
individual statures, according to my figures, oscillate between 1.42
m. (Castelli) and 1.70 m. (Orte). It would be helpful to the teachers
of Rome and Latium, if they would acquire some idea regarding the
racial types of the district, by studying my work on the _Physical
Characteristics_ _of the young Women of Latium_, which is the only work
on regional anthropology taken directly from life that so far exists in
anthropologic literature.[17]
_The Stature in Relation to Sex._--It is sufficient to point out that
the stature varies normally between the sexes, so that the average
figures differ by about 10 centimetres (nearly 4 in.) in the direction
of a lower stature for woman.
VARIATIONS IN STATURE THROUGH THE DIFFERENT AGES
Notwithstanding that growth is an evolution, it manifests itself also
by an _absolute augmentation of mass_; and the linear index of such
augmentation is given by the _growth in stature_, or by its variations
at different ages.
This exceedingly important measurement ought to be taken in the case of
all pupils; and undoubtedly in the course of time anthropometry will
form a part of our school equipment; because, by following the increase
of stature in a child, we follow his physical development.
In Chapter VII, in which the technique of the stature is discussed,
there is a graphic representation of the annual increase of stature
in the two sexes; the upper parabolic line refers to the male sex,
and the lower one to the female. On the vertical line are marked the
measures of growth, from the base upward, and on the horizontal line
the ages. All the dotted vertical lines which rise from the horizontal,
each corresponding to a successive year of life, and stop at the
parabolic line, represent the relative proportion of stature from year
to year; while the parabola which unites the extremities of such lines
may be regarded as a line drawn tangent to the top of the head of an
individual through the successive periods of his life.
If we analyse this table, we find that the greatest increase in stature
takes place during the first year; in fact, a child which at birth has
an average length of body of 0.50 m. for males, and 0.48 m. for females
(the new-born child does not have _stature_, but only _length of body_,
since it has not yet acquired an erect position) has by the end of the
first year augmented the length of body by 20 centimetres, which gives
an average length of 0.70 m. In no other year of life will the stature
acquire so notable an increase; it is very important for mothers to
watch the growth of the child during this first year of its life; and
the following figures may be useful for comparison:
It will be seen that the maximum increase takes place during the first
four months--especially in the first month (4 cm. = 1.57 in.) the rate
diminishing from this point up to the fourth month (2 cm. = 0.78 in.),
after which the monthly increase remains steadily at one centimetre
(0.39 in.).
[Illustration: FIG. 22.--New-born child, seen from in front and from
behind. (Stratz.)]
[Illustration: 1 year. 8 months. 4 months. at birth.
FIG. 23--Skeleton of a child from birth to the age of one year.]
GROWTH IN LENGTH OF BODY DURING THE FIRST YEAR OF LIFE
(FROM FIGUEIRA)
--------------+-------------------+-----------------
Age in months | Length of body in | Monthly increase
| metres |
--------------+-------------------+-----------------
0 | 0.50 | 0
1 | 0.54 | 4
2 | 0.57 | 3
3 | 0.60 | 3
4 | 0.62 | 2
5 | 0.63 | 1
6 | 0.64 | 1
7 | 0.65 | 1
8 | 0.66 | 1
9 | 0.67 | 1
10 | 0.68 | 1
11 | 0.69 | 1
12 | 0.70 | 1
--------------+-------------------+-----------------
The same facts appear from the combination picture given by Stratz,
showing an infant's skeleton at four-month intervals from birth to the
end of the first year.
During the second year of life, the increase in stature is about
one-half that of the preceding year, that is, about 10 cm. (4 in.),
so that at the end of the second year the child attains a height of
about 80 cm. (31-1/2 in.). After this, the annual increase diminishes
in intensity (see "Figures of the increase of stature according to
Quetelet and other authors," in the technical part, Chapter VII), as is
shown by the horizontal dotted lines, which, starting from a vertical
line at points corresponding to the height of various statures,
represent by the intervals of space between them the successive growth
from year to year.
This increase is not regular, but proceeds by periodic impulses that in
early childhood seem to recur at intervals of three years.
Thus for example the increase
between 0- 3 years of age is successively 20, 10, 6 cm.
between 3- 6 years of age is successively 7, 6, 5 cm.
between 6- 9 years of age is successively 7, 6, 5 cm.
between 9-12 years of age is successively 6, 4, 3 cm.
Accordingly we have a _triennial rhythm_, decreasing throughout the
whole period of childhood; the maximum increase is in the first
triennium, the second and third periods of three years correspond
exactly, while the last period shows a lowered rate of increase.
At this point the period of approaching puberty begins (13 years for
boys), after which the rate of increase becomes more rapid than it had
been during the second or third period, attaining its maximum during
the years 13-15; to be specific, the rate from 13 to 18 is successively
4, 8, 7, 5, 6, 3 cm.
When the period of puberty is ended (18 years), the rate of growth is
much slower; in fact, during the two following years (18 to 20) it
hardly attains one centimetre.
Nevertheless, the stature continues to increase up to the twenty-fifth
year; according to Quetelet's figures, the average male stature at the
age of eighteen is 1.70 m. (in Belgium) and at twenty-one it is 1.72 m.
From twenty-five to thirty-five the stature remains stable; this is the
adult age, the full attainment of maturity; at the age of forty the
period of involution insensibly begins, and after fifty in the case of
women, and sixty in the case of men, the stature begins insensibly to
decrease; a decrease which becomes more marked with the advance of age,
corresponding to an anatomical diminution of the soft parts interposed
between the bones in the sum of parts that make up the stature; more
especially the intervertebral disks; and in connection with this
phenomenon the vertebral column tends to become more curved.
According to Quetelet's figures, at the age of eighty the average male
stature is 1.61 m. (5 ft. 3-2/5 in.), a stature corresponding to that
of the age of sixteen.
Accordingly, the variations in stature throughout the different periods
of life are neither a _growth_ nor an _evolution_, but a _parabolic_
_curve_, including _evolution and involution_. This curve represents
the true _human stature_; the measurements taken successively from year
to year representing nothing more than transitory _episodes_ in the
individual life.
_Man_, as he really is, we may represent by portraits taken
successively from time to time, from his birth until his death; the
occasional photograph which it is the custom to have taken represents
nothing; following no rule, it seizes a fugitive instant in the life
of an individual, who is never a fixed quantity but is constantly in
transition during the whole course of his existence. So that the habit
of taking a picture annually on a child's birthday is an excellent
one if we wish to preserve a true likeness; and this practice is
recommended in pedagogic anthropology, when it is desired to preserve
the biographic history of the pupil.
It is interesting to study, side by side with the growth of stature and
the marked rhythms and periods that constitute its laws, the phenomenon
of general mortality in its relation to age.
Lexis gives the following curve of general mortality: the horizontal
line marks the years and the vertical line the corresponding number
of deaths, while the curved line shows the _progress_ of mortality,
and the highest points in the curve indicate the maximum mortality. It
is highest of all during the first year and in general during early
childhood, and is steadily lowered to a point corresponding to the ages
from ten to thirteen, after which it rises again.
[Illustration: FIG. 24.--Curve of general mortality (Lexis).]
Let us examine the curve up to this point, since it has a bearing upon
our school work. We can prove that the _maximum mortality_ corresponds
to the maximum individual growth; in other words, an organism in _rapid
evolution_ is exposed to death, its powers of immunity to infective
diseases are weakened; it constitutes what in medical parlance is known
as a _locus minoris resistentiae_.
In that period of _calm_ in growth, which would seem to be a _repose_
preceding the evolution of puberty, mortality is at the lowest; only
to rise again rapidly _during the period of puberty_; while the rise
becomes less rapid after the eighteenth year, notwithstanding that
after that age mankind in general are exposed, in their struggle for
existence, to many causes of death that did not exist during the
preceding years. Toward the age of seventy the line of mortality
attains another apex, because the age of _normal death_ is reached;
after which it drops precipitously because of the lack of survivors.
From these facts we may deduce certain very important principles that
throw useful light upon pedagogy: there are certain _ages at which even
the strong are weak_; and their weakness is of such a nature that it
_exposes the individual to death_.
Now, whenever the phenomenon of _mortality_ occurs it is always an
indication of _impoverishment in the survivors_. For example, of every
one person that dies, many persons have been ill who have recovered
from their illness; but there are still many others who, although
they did not actually fall ill, were weakened even though they passed
through the peril unharmed.
In short, for each death, which represents a _final disaster_, there
are many victims. And whenever there is a rise in the phenomenon of
mortality in connection with any one age, it is our duty to give
special attention to those individuals who are not only weak in
themselves, but whom the _social causes affecting_ them tend to weaken
still more and push onward toward illness and death. Whenever there are
many deaths, there are undoubtedly also _many sufferers_.
Now, in pedagogy we have no criterion to guide us in this matter of
_respecting the weaknesses characteristic of the various ages_, as, for
example, that of early infancy and of the age of puberty.
With the most cruel blindness we punish and discourage the lad who,
having reached the age of puberty, no longer makes the progress in his
studies that rendered him the brilliant champion during the period of
physiological repose in his growth; and instead of regarding this as
a psychic indication of a great physiological transformation that it
is necessary to protect, we urge on the organism to _enforced effort_,
without even suspecting that, in proportion to the degree of resistance
of our pupil, we may be doing our share to induce in him a permanent
weakness, or an arrest of development, or disease and death.
Our responsibility as educators is great, because we have the _threads
of life_ entrusted to our care; man represents a continuous transition
through successive forms, and each following period has been prepared
for by the one preceding.
Whenever we have the misfortune to concur in _weakening a_ _child_, we
touch that parabolic line traced in the graphic chart of stature, and
standing as an index of the life of the body, and we give it a shock
throughout its whole length; it may either be shattered or be brought
down to a lower grade.
But the life of an individual does not contain merely that _individual
alone_; the cycle of the stature with its violent period of puberty and
the perfect physiological repose corresponding to the years from 25
to 36, or even 45, indicates the _eternity of the individual_ _in the
species_: his maturity for reproduction. Man in his progress through
the different levels of height, as indicated on the graphic chart
of stature, does not pass through them without reproducing himself,
save in exceptional cases; he commences the ascent alone, but in his
descent he attains the majesty of a creator who leaves behind him the
immortal works of his own creation. Well, even the capacity of _normal
reproduction_, and of begetting a strong species, is related to the
_normal cycle of life_: whoever weakens a child and puts a strain upon
the threads of its existence, starts a vibration that will be felt
throughout posterity.
The parabolic cycle of stature shows us which is the most favourable
period for the reproduction of the species; it is undoubtedly that
period that stands at the highest apex of the curve, and at which the
organism has reached an almost absolute peace, as if forgetful of
itself, in order to provide for its eternity. When it has completed its
period of _evolution_, during which the organism shows that it has not
yet matured; and before the commencement of involution, in which period
the organism is slowly preparing for departure--that is the moment when
man _may_ or rather _ought_ to procreate his species.
Careful forethought not to produce immature or feeble fruit, will
form part of the coming man's regard for his posterity. A new moral
era is maturing, that is giving birth to a _solidarity_, not only
between all living beings, but including also those future beings who
are as yet unborn; but for whose existence the living man of to-day
is preparing through his care of his own strength and his own virtue.
To have intentionally begotten a son better than himself will be a
proud victory for the man who has attained the higher sexual morality;
and such pride will be no less keen than that of the artist, who by
perfecting his marvelous talents has created a masterpiece.
The statistics collected by Quetelet demonstrate that "too precocious
marriages either occasion sterility or produce children that have a
smaller probability of living."
They prove furthermore that the number of children who die is largest
in marriages contracted at the age of sixteen or earlier, and becomes
lowest among the children born of marriages contracted between the
years of 29 and 32. During these years also the parents are most
fertile: as is shown by the following tables:
SANDLER'S FIGURES BASED ON THE FAMILIES OF ENGLISH PEERS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Percentage of | |
Age of parents |deaths of children| Average births to| Percentage of
at marriage | before attaining | each marriage |births to each
| marriageable age | | death
---------------+------------------+------------------+----------------
15 years | 35 | 4.40 | 0.283
16-19 years | 20 | 4.63 | 0.208
20-23 years | 19 | 5.21 | 0.188
24-27 years | 12 | 5.43 | 1.171
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Age at the time | Percentage of deaths | Average number of births
of child's birth | to each birth | in one year of marriage
-----------------+----------------------+-----------------------------
16 years | 0.44 | 0.46
17-20 years | 0.43 | 0.50
21-24 years | 0.42 | 0.52
25-28 years | 0.41 | 0.55
29-32 years | 0.40 | 0.59
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The results of a recent research show that famous men have hardly ever
been the first-born, and that the great majority were begotten of
parents who were at the time between the ages of 25 and 36 years.
_Variations of Stature with Age, According to the Sexes._--The general
laws of the growth and involution of stature are pretty nearly the same
for the two sexes. The female stature, beginning at birth, averages
throughout life somewhat less than the male.
But since the development of puberty takes place earlier in woman
than in man, the female child manifests the characteristic increase
in stature at an earlier age than the male; consequently at that age
(about eleven) she overtakes him, and for the time being both boy and
girl are equal in stature. But as soon as the boy enters upon the
period of puberty, he rapidly surpasses the girl, and his stature
henceforth steadily maintains a superiority of about ten centimetres
(nearly four inches), as is shown by the deviations between the two
parabolic curves, representing the variations of stature in the two
sexes. Even the involution of stature occurs precociously in women, as
compared with man.
VARIATIONS IN STATURE DUE TO MECHANICAL CAUSES OF ADAPTATION TO
ENVIRONMENT
_Variations due to Mechanical Causes. Transitory and Permanent_
_Variations. Deformations._--The individual stature is not a fixed
quantity at all hours of the day; but it varies by several millimetres
under the influence of mechanical causes connected with the habits of
daily life. In the morning we are slightly taller than at night (by a
fraction of a centimetre): in consequence of remaining on foot a good
deal of the time during the day, our stature is gradually lowered. This
is contrary to the popular belief that "while we stand up our stature
grows."
As a matter of fact, in the erect position the soft tissues that form
part of the total stature are under constant pressure; but being
elastic, they resume their previous proportions after prolonged rest in
a horizontal position.
Consequently at night, especially if we have taken a long walk,
or danced, we are shorter than in the morning after a long sleep;
the act of stretching the limbs in the morning completes the work
of restoring the articular cartilages to their proper limits of
elasticity. Nevertheless, according to the mechanical theory accepted
by Manouvrier, persons who are habituated from childhood to stand on
foot much of the time (labourers) interfere with the free growth of
the long bones in the direction of length and at the same time augment
the growth in thickness; hence the skeleton is rendered definitely
shorter in its segments as well as in its bones (_i.e._, a shallower
pelvis, shorter limbs, etc.). The result is a stocky type with robust
muscles: the _europlastic type_, which is found among labourers. On
the contrary, a person who spends much time reclining on sofas among
cushions, and taking abundant nutriment, is likely to tend toward the
opposite extreme; bones long and slender, the skeleton tall in all its
segments, the muscular system delicate; this is the _macroplastic_
or aristocratic type. According to Manouvrier, when a person has a
long, slow convalescence after a protracted infectious malady such
as typhoid, recumbent much of the time and subjected to a _highly
nutritive_ diet, it may happen, especially if he has reached the period
of puberty at which a rapid osteogenesis naturally takes place in the
cartilages of the long bones, that he will not only become notably
taller, but will even acquire the macroplastic type.
The macroplastic type is artistically more beautiful, but the
europlastic type is physiologically more useful.
It is not only the erect position that tends to reduce the stature,
but the sitting posture as well. In fact, whether the pelvis is
supported by the lower limbs or by a chair, the intervertebral disks
are in either case compressed by the weight of the bust as a whole.
If, for example, children are obliged, during the period of growth,
to remain long at a time in a sitting posture, the limbs may freely
lengthen, while the bust is impeded in its free growth, and the
result may be an artificial tendency toward macroscelia. This is why
children are more inclined than adults to throw themselves upon the
ground, to lie down, to cut capers, in other words to restore the
elasticity of their joints, and overcome the compression of bones and
cartilages. Accordingly, such variations of stature recur habitually
and are _transitory_, and since they are associated with the customary
attitudes of daily life, they are _physiological_.
But if special causes should aggravate such physiological conditions,
and should recur so often as not to permit the cartilages to return
completely to their original condition, in such a case _permanent_
_variations_ of stature might result, and even _morphological_
_deviations_ of the skeleton. For example, a porter who habitually
carries heavy weights on his head, may definitely lower his stature;
and in the case of a young boy, the interference with the growth of
the long bones through compression exerted from above downward, may
produce an actual arrest of development of the limbs and spinal column,
presenting all the symptoms of rickets. Witness certain consequences of
"child-labour" chief among which must be mentioned the deformities of
the _carusi_ [victims of child-labour, who from an early age toil up
the succession of ladders, bearing heavy burdens of sulphur from the
mines below.[18]] in the Sicilian sulphur mines.[19] As a general rule,
all _cramped positions that_ _are a necessary condition of labour, if
they surpass the limits of resistance_ _and elasticity of_ the human
frame, and especially if they operate during periods of life when the
skeleton is in process of formation, result in deformities, and when
the skeleton is deformed, the internal organs and hence the general
functional powers of the whole organism, suffer even greater alteration.
[Illustration: FIG. 25.--Vincenzo Militella of Lereata, a Sicilian
caruso.]
[Illustration: FIG. 26.--Aged field labourer.]
[Illustration: FIG. 27. FIG. 28.
Attitude of woman working in the rice fields as seen from the right and
left sides.]
[Illustration: FIG. 29.--A gang of eight workers in the rice fields.]
Consider the postures that miners must endure, or as Pieraccini phrases
it, their "disastrous attitudes."
The transport galleries are ordinarily too low to permit a man
of average height to walk erect; along these galleries little
transport-wagons are run by hand, excepting where the carrying is done
on the backs of the men themselves.
"Even in the front of the advance tunnels and in the galleries that are
being worked, miners are to be seen in the most incongruous attitudes.
These anomalous positions of the body maintained throughout long hours
of toil react upon the functional action of the heart and lungs,
upon the stomach and intestines in the proper performance of their
tasks, and result in producing hernia, varicose veins and eventually
deformities of the skeleton (vertebral column, thorax)."[20]
Field labourers also (Fig. 26) become permanently deformed, with
diminution of stature, from remaining too long bent over in the act of
hoeing or reaping. But a still more painful labour is that of the women
in the rice fields during the period when the weeding is done.
The position necessitated by this work requires a strained and
prolonged dorsal flexion of the vertebral column, accompanied by a
strain on the lower dorsal nerves; great _elasticity_ is required to
endure a position so painful and so apt to induce _lumbago_; only
young women can endure it, and even they become deformed, and suffer
seriously from anemia, intestinal maladies and diseases of the uterus,
which predispose them to abortion or sterility (Figs. 27, 28, 29).
Stone breakers also contract painful diseases and deformities from
their work. They are constantly bowed over their task, performing a
rhythmic, alternating movement of flexion, extension and torsion of the
trunk upon itself, while at the same time there is a slight undulation
in a backward and forward direction, accompanying the rising and
falling of the arm holding the hammer. These movements of extension
and flexion of the trunk involve the whole vertebral column, while the
pelvis remains practically motionless. "At the end of the day they rise
from their task bowed over and they walk home bowed over, holding the
vertebral column rigid; any attempt to force the trunk into an erect
position is extremely painful. In the morning they return to their work
with their loins still aching." And among these stone breakers there
are young men, some of them mere boys! And when we think that these
injurious _attitudes_ are coupled with malnutrition, we must realise
the extent of the organic disaster that accompanies diminution of
stature as a result of adaptation to labour.
We are naturally horrified at such conditions enforced upon a certain
portion of humanity; and we pray for a time to come when machinery
will have universally replaced human labour, in transportation, in
stone-breaking, and in reaping, and when children will be spared from
hard and deforming toil.
But how is it that while we are so sympathetic regarding conditions
at a distance from us, we remain unconscious of similar conditions,
that are close beside us, and of which we are the directors, the cruel
enforcers, the masters?
In the near future, I hope that people will tell with amazement, as if
citing a condition of inferior civilisation, how the school children,
up to the opening of the twentieth century represented one category
of those "deformed by prolonged and enforced labour in injurious
positions!"
Such studies in _school hygiene_ as deal with the type of school
benches, designed to minimise the danger of deformities of the
vertebral column in children--will, I hope, be regarded by the coming
generations with the most utter amazement! And the school benches
of to-day will find their place in _museums_, and people will go to
look at them as if they were relics of bygone barbarism, just as we
now visit the collections from old-time insane asylums, of series of
complicated instruments of wood and iron that in bygone centuries were
considered _necessary_ for maintaining discipline among the insane.
What in the world would we say, if somebody should propose, in order
to obviate the deformities and physiological injuries of labourers,
that certain mechanisms should be applied to them individually for the
purpose of diminishing the harm? Imagine a law being proposed, to the
effect that all miners should be obliged to wear trusses, to keep their
viscera from breaking loose, as a result of prolonged compression! What
would we think of such reforms and such a path toward an orthopedic
state of society?
Our way toward progress and higher civilisation is a very different
one. To remove man from torturing toil that twists the bones and
undermines the health--such is the goal that it is our duty to set
before us!
For the deformed vertebral column is the _extreme_ sign of a great
accumulation of evils; the internal organs are correspondingly affected
with disorders fatal to the entire organism; but even greater is the
corresponding harm done to the human soul! What we want is not only
that the bones shall not be thrown out of their eurhythmic harmony, but
that the souls of the labourers shall be freed from the inhuman yoke
of slavery (progress can consist solely in a radical alteration of the
_form of labour_).
So far as concerns the school, which is not limited to a few categories
of human beings, but is extended to _all_, _by requirements_ _of law_,
is it not possible for us to adopt a different attitude of mind?
The established fact that the pupils may even deform their skeletons in
the course of their work, goes to prove that this work contains some
_error in principle_ that is fatal to successive generations; and so
long as this principle is maintained, we may assert a priori that even
if, with the help of school benches as complicated and as costly as
orthopedic machines, we should succeed in checking the deformation of
the vertebral column, we should fail to check the deformation of the
soul. Because whoever is condemned to labour that deforms is a slave.
And as a matter of fact we employ coercive means, "rewards and
punishments," to enforce upon children a condition that in their eyes
amounts to serving their first sentence.
It is not the school bench, but the _method_ that needs reforming;
it is not the ligaments of the spinal column, but _human life in_
_evolution_ that we ought to respect, and _lead toward the attainment_
_of perfection_! Amid the many banners of liberty that have been
raised in these latter times, one is still missing--one which we ought
to seize upon as the standard of our cause: the liberty of the new
generation, which is groaning in the slavery of compulsory education,
upon iron-bound benches, emblematic of chains!
I foresee, in a radical reform of pedagogic methods, the practical
possibility of taking as guiding principles the _individual liberty_
_of the pupil_ and a _reverential regard for life_. And I affirm
this all the more loudly, because I have applied such a method with
indisputable success in the "Children's Houses," obtaining prodigious
results in the health and happiness of the children, perfect
discipline in the classes, marvelously rapid progress in studies, and
a surprising awakening of souls, a passionate love for the work.
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. Ales Hrdlicka
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: (1) In asylums;
(2) in Boston public schools
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Boys
-----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
Age | | | | | | | | | | | |
in | | | | | | | | | | | |
years| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16
-----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
(1) | 971|1088|1172|1163|1234|1261|1315|1367|1424|1452|1518| --
(2) |1060|1120|1176|1223|1272|1326|1372|1417|1477|1551|1599|1665
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Girls
-----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
(1) | -- | -- |1101|1158|1204|1289|1290| -- | -- |1398| -- | --
(2) |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 175 |Students 169
professional men 167 |Merchants 172 |Domestics 166
Tradesmen 165 |Peasants 171 |Day labourers 165
Peasants 164 |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
-------------------------------+---------------
-----------------------------------------------
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 |Girls in the Pia | Girls in city institutes
menstruation. | Barolo Society. | for the wealthy classes.
| Percentage | 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:
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS--HEAT, LIGHT, ELECTRICITY
_Thermic Conditions._--Among the physical conditions which may have an
influence upon the stature, the _thermic_ conditions ought to receive
first consideration.
It is a principle demonstrated by nature that organisms in the course
of evolution have need of heat. Even the invertebrates, as for
example the insects, develop during the heat of summer; and the eggs
of the higher vertebrates such as the birds, develop their embryo by
means of the maternal warmth. In placental animals the development
throughout the whole embryonic period takes place within the maternal
womb, in the full tide of animal heat. In order to preserve life in
premature babies, that is, in those born before the expiration of the
physiological term of nine months, _incubators_ have been constructed,
an oven-like arrangement in which the child may be maintained at a
temperature considerably higher than would be possible in the outside
air; the term is also specifically used of the structures in which
fertilised hens' eggs are kept during the required period of time until
the chickens are hatched.
Accordingly it is a principle taught us by nature that organisms in the
course of evolution have need of heat. The most luxuriant vegetation,
the most gigantic animals, the most variegated birds belong to the
fauna and flora of the tropics.
How is this physiological law, which nature expresses in such broad,
general lines, to be interpreted by us in the environment of the
school? It is well known that in this regard there are two conflicting
opinions. There are some who would go to excessive lengths in
protecting small children from the cold, by dressing them entirely in
woolen garments and keeping their apartments well heated; others on
the contrary assert that the _physiological_ _struggle of adaptation_
to the cold invigorates the infant organism, and they advise that the
child's body should never be completely protected, as for example that
the legs should always be left bare, that the child should be lightly
clad, that his apartments should not be heated, etc.
Furthermore, it used to be held in the pietistic schools, and still is
to some extent, that _warmth_ had a demoralising influence, inasmuch as
it tended to enervate both mind and body.
We educators cannot fail to be interested in such a discussion. As
often happens in physiological arguments, the two opposite contentions
each contain a part of the truth. In order to get at the truth of the
matter, it is necessary to distinguish two widely separated facts:
on the one hand, _physiological exercise in the form_ _of thermal
gymnastics_, and on the other, the _development of organisms_ _in a
constantly cold environment_.
To live constantly warm, protected either by clothes or by artificial
heat, so that the organism remains always at a constant temperature,
is not favourable to growth, because it deprives the organism of the
physiological exercise of adapting itself to variations in external
temperature, an exercise which stimulates useful functions. By
perspiring in summer, we cleanse our system of poisonous secretions,
and by shivering in winter we give tone to our striped muscles and to
our internal organs, as is proved by our gain in appetite. Anyone who
wishes to be kept on ice in summer and to transform his apartment into
a hot-house in winter, robs himself of these advantages and enfeebles
his system.
The apparent _comfort_ is not in this case a real physiological
enjoyment but a _weakness of habit_ that is accompanied by a loss of
physiological energy. What makes us robust is a rational exercise
of all our energies. _Thermal gymnastics_ is consequently useful.
It consists in exposing a healthy, resistant organism to changes in
temperature, trusting to our physiological resources for the means of
defense. Thus, for example, a child who is well fed and well protected
from the cold for many hours of the day in the well-heated family
apartment, can go out with bare legs into the snow; and doing so will
make him more robust. In the same way, the ancient Romans exposed
themselves in their hot baths to the steadily increasing temperature
of the _calidarium_, up to the point of 60 degrees (140 Fahrenheit),
and then still perspiring flung themselves into a cold plunge. And it
is a familiar fact that afterward they held lavish banquets in these
same baths. Such exercise which in classic times gave vigour to the
race that made itself master of the world may be summed up as follows:
"_Thermic_ _gymnastics_" of organisms "well nourished and strong."
Our own boatmen also throw themselves into the river in midwinter, half
nude, and half nude they ply their long poles. They expose themselves
to the cold, in the same way that they might raise a weight of many
pounds with their robust arms, for _gymnastic_ _exercise_.
But all this differs radically from living continually in a cold
temperature. It is a very different thing from the life of a child of
the lower classes, who goes bare-foot in winter, clad in a few scant
rags, half frozen in his wretched tenement, and unable to obtain
sufficient nourishment to develop the needed heat-units. He is already
deficient in bodily heat because of malnutrition, and the effects of
cold are cumulative. In this case it is not a question of _thermic
exercise_ but of a permanent _deprivation of heat_, in individuals
who are already suffering from an _insufficient development_ _of
heat-units_. Consequently the organism is enfeebled--it grows under
unfavorable conditions--and the result is a permanent diminution of
development. Whoever grows up, exposed to cold after this fashion, has,
in the average case, a lower stature than those who grow up in the
midst of warmth, or in the practice of that healthful exercise which
constitutes the ideal: _thermic_ _gymnastics_.
The contradictory ideas that are held as to the efficacy of heat in
regard to growth, are due to a large extent to a prejudice which
amounts to this: heat is effective in promoting the evolution of life
as a whole, and consequently the development of that part of life
that is centred in the organs of reproduction; from which comes the
wellnigh antiquated theory that artificial heat should be banished
from the schools, as one of the factors leading to immorality! It is
true that _warmth_ accelerates the development of puberty; but who is
there in this twentieth century who can still conceive the idea that
it is a moral act to silence the forces of nature? Good nourishment
also leads to a more precocious puberty; and the same is true of the
repeated psychic stimulus produced by various forms of intellectual
enjoyment, by conversation, and by social intercourse with individuals
of the opposite sex. Accordingly, if it were a moral act to retard
the development of puberty and to produce a general impoverishment of
sexual life, the moral measures to be taken in education would be cold,
malnutrition, and the isolation of the sexes in the schools, which,
as a matter of fact, form the stumbling-block of environment in our
colleges. But it is well known that all this leads on the contrary to
moral and physical degeneration! As has already been said, the normal
physiological development stands in counterdistinction to immoral
habits; consequently, whatever is an aid to physiological development
is in its very nature moral.
In warm climates the first manifestations of puberty occur precociously
in man as well as in woman; and with them come all the transformations
that are associated with puberty, among others the rapid increase of
stature. In cold climates, on the contrary, such manifestations are
more tardy. The women of Lapland are latest of all to develop. With
them, menstruation begins only at eighteen, and they are incapable of
conceiving under the age of twenty, while the period of the menopause
(involution of sexual life) is correspondingly early; in other words,
the entire period of sexual life is shortened. Furthermore, the
fertility of the women of Lapland is low; they cannot conceive more
than three children. But if these same women leave Lapland and make
their home in civilised countries, as for example in Sweden, they have
a more precocious sexual life, as well as longer and more fertile, and
altogether quite similar to that of the Swedish women.[25]
Cabanis[26] notes that even in cold climates, when young girls spend
much of their time in the vicinity of stoves, menstruation begins at
about the same age as in women who live on the banks of the Ganges--as
is the case with the daughters of wealthy Russians, whose development
is quite precocious. In Arabia, in Egypt, and in Abyssinia the women
are frequently mothers at the age of ten, menstruation having begun at
the eighth year. It is even said that Mahomed married Radeejah when
she was only five and that he took her to his bed at the age of eight.
The religious laws of India permit the marriage of girls when they are
eight years old.
Consequently it is true that _heat_ has an influence upon the
development of the organism independently of other influences; in fact,
heat acts both in the form of _climate_, that is, in a natural state,
and also in an artificially warmed environment. It is also one of the
causes of the different degrees of growth in _stature_ through the
successive seasons (see below).
In conclusion: it is enjoined upon us, as a hygienic necessity, to heat
the schools in winter, especially the schools for the poorer classes;
it means more than increased vigour, it may even mean giving _life_ to
some who otherwise would pine away from deprivation of heat-units, a
condition most unfavourable to organisms in the course of evolution.
_Photogenic Conditions._--Light also has a perceptible influence
upon growth: it is a great physiological stimulant. At the present
day, physical therapy employs _light baths_ for certain forms of
neurasthenia and partial enfeeblement of certain organs; and some
biological manifestations, such as the pigments--and similarly the
chlorophyl in plants and the variegated colouring of birds--receive a
creative stimulus from light.
Light contains in its spectrum many different colours, which act
quite differently upon living tissues; the ultra-violet rays, for
instance, kill the bacilli of tuberculosis and sometimes effect cures
in cases of cancer. Psychiatrists and neuropaths have demonstrated that
many colours of light have an exciting effect, while others, on the
contrary, are sedative.
Hence there has arisen in medicine a vast and most interesting chapter
of _phototherapy_.
In regard to the phenomena of growth, it has been noted that certain
coloured lights are favourable to it, while certain others, on the
contrary, diminish or arrest it, as the red and the green.
Phototherapy ought to concern us as educators, especially in regard to
schools for the _benefit_ of nervous children: a periodic sojourn in
a room lit by _calming colours_ might have a beneficent effect upon
epileptic, irritable, nervous children, in place of the debilitating
hot bath, or, worse yet, the administration of bromides; while
light-baths would be efficacious for weak and torpid children.
But for normal children we must consider the light of the sun as
the best stimulant for their growth. A sojourn at the sea-shore, so
favourable to the development of children, is now believed to owe its
beneficial effects to the fact that the child, playing half naked on
the sea-shore, bathes more in the sunlight than he does in the salt
water. Gymnastics in the sun, while the body is still only half dry, is
what the younger generations should practise on a large scale, if they
would bring about the triumph of physiological life.
We must not forget this great principle when, by planning home work
for the pupils, we practically keep them housed during the entire day,
keeping them for the most part employed in writing or reading; in other
words, using their sense of sight, which, if it is to be preserved
unharmed, demands a _moderate light_. The eye ought to rest its muscles
of accommodation, and the whole body be exposed to the full light of
the sun during the greater part of the day. Let us remember that often
the children of the poor live in a home so dark that even in full
mid-day they are obliged to light a lamp! Let us at least leave them
the light of the street, as a recompense for wretchedness that is a
disgrace to civilisation!
According to certain experiments conducted in Rome by Professor Gosio,
the light of the sun has an _intensive_ effect upon life. Living
creatures reared in the solar light grow and mature _earlier_, but at
the same time their life is shortened; that is, the cycle of life is
more intense and more precocious; conversely, in the shade the cycle of
life is slower, but of longer duration. A plant matures more quickly
in the sun, but its stature is lower than that of a plant in the dark,
which has grown far more slowly, but has become very tall and slender
and lacking in chlorophyl. Similarly, as is well known, the women in
tropical countries attain a precocious puberty, while conversely those
of the North attain it tardily; and this fact must be considered in
relation to the influence of the sun. A life passed wholly in the
sunlight would be too intense; an organism that is exposed a few hours
each day to the rays of the sun is invigorated; the interchange of
matter (metabolism) is augmented; all the tissues are beneficially
stimulated. For this reason sun baths are employed for paralytic
and idiot children, and consist in exposing the body of the child,
reclining upon its bed and with its head well protected, to the direct
rays of the sun for several hours a day; this treatment is found to
be most efficacious in giving _tone_ to the tissues and improving the
general condition of the system.
_Variations in the Growth of Stature According to the Seasons._--One
proof of the beneficent influence of heat and sunlight upon the growth
of the organism, is afforded by the variations in the rate of growth
according to the seasons. Every individual grows more in summer than in
winter. Daffner gives the following figures relative to the increase in
stature according to the seasons:
----------+-------+--------------------------+--------------------
| | Stature | Increase
Number of | Age in| in centimetres | in centimetres
subjects | years+--------+-------+---------+--------------------
| | October| April | October |Winter|Summer|Entire
| | | | | | | year
----------+-------+--------+-------+---------+------+------+------
12 | 11-12 | 139.4 | 141.0 | 143.3 | 1.6 | 2.3 | 3.9
80 | 12-13 | 143.0 | 144.5 | 147.4 | 1.5 | 2.9 | 4.4
146 | 13-14 | 147.5 | 149.5 | 152.5 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 5.0
162 | 14-15 | 152.5 | 155.0 | 158.5 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 6.0
162 | 15-16 | 158.5 | 160.8 | 163.8 | 2.3 | 3.0 | 5.3
150 | 16-17 | 163.5 | 165.4 | 167.7 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 4.2
82 | 17-18 | 167.7 | 168.9 | 170.4 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 2.7
22 | 18-19 | 169.8 | 170.6 | 171.5 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.7
6 | 19-20 | 170.7 | 171.1 | 171.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.8
----------+-------+--------+-------+---------+------+------+------
In the "Children's Houses," I require a record of stature to be made
month by month in the case of every child, the measurement being taken
on the day corresponding to the day on which he was born in the month
of his birth; in addition to which I keep a record of the total annual
increase.
The ages of these children vary between three and four years, and they
all belong to the poorer social classes.
MONTHLY AVERAGE INCREASE IN STATURE
IN THE "CHILDREN'S HOUSES"
(In millimetres)
------------------------------+-------------------------
Cold months | Warm months
---------+---------+----------+-----+------+------------
December | January | February | May | June | July
4 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 8
---------+---------+----------+-----+------+------------
Another factor of growth is
_Electricity._--One of the most interesting discoveries of recent date
is that of the influence of terrestrial electricity upon the growth of
living organisms.