The physique of European armies / Walter Montagu Gattie.

  • Gattie, Walter Montagu.
Date:
[1890]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physique of European armies / Walter Montagu Gattie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    perhaps a more remarkable illustration of the physical effect of town life cannot be found anywhere than that of the Spitalfields weavers, whose average height is given by Dr. Beddoe as 5 feet 1-4 inches with shoes, while the naked weight is only about 100 pounds. No doubt their diminutive stature is, to some extent, due to their French descent and to insufficient nourishment; but they are shorter by far than their kinsmen of the Cevennes. It seems, too, that the difference in chest development between the townsman and the countryman is proportionately greater than the difference in stature. Henry Marshall has given statistics of the chest measurement of town and country recruits fifty years ago, tabulated according to height, and in every case the men born in the country were found to have better chests than men of the same stature who were natives of towns. ( Other in^ences, no doubt, have been at work in the same direc- tion, such as the prevalence of drunkenness and the practice of smoking in boyhood and early youth ; but these three—the better prospects abroad, the better prospects in towns, and the better wages everywhere—appear to be the principal factors in that physical deterioration of which our army statistics give evidence. It will be seen that these factors, so far from disappearing, are likely to operate with increasing force ; so that it may before very long become a press- ing question whether any remedial measures can be found. And, if there be a remedy at all, then, surely, the sooner it is applied, the better for the country. How IS it faring in the meantime with other European States ? How do their soldiers compare in physique with ours ? Are they, ffio, showing signs of decadence, or is there any tendency towari' improvement ? In the latter event can we obtain any useful hint for the management of our own case ? These are questions which, apart from their anthropological interest, have, as it seems to me' a special claim to discussion in this country in view of the facts 1 have cited. Before attempting to institute any comparison between men of different nationalities it is necessary to make due allowance for dif- ferences of breed, by which term I mean to signify the product of all the influences of race, climate, food, and employment, on the physical characteristics of mankind. The chances are that a short man who be- longs to a people of low stature will prove to be physically superior to a man of the same height whose countrymen are tall. For example. same number of men bom in the county of Somerset, and employed in the same place and maimer by the same firm, yielded averages of 5 feet 6'74 inches and 134 lbs • and that, of the men employed in the Netham Chemical Works, fifteen natives of Bristol averaged only 5 feet 5-76 inches and 135-70 lbs., and thirty of the suburban parish of bt. Georges 5 feet 6-24 inches and 138-13 lbs., while twenty-seven from the rural parishes of Bilton and Hanham rose to 5 feet 8 inches and 145-16 lbs. AU these fio-nres include shoes and clothes. °
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