Body size

“ Each one of us has from the moment of his existence a certain stature allotted, as it were, to which he will attain. In this way some will be tall, others will be short, so that the height of the body is something quite beyond our control, as we know by the interrogation, "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?" But in contradistinction to height, we know that the muscles of the body can be developed and increased in size by use. ”

“ Various kinds of size are therefore selected for treatment, such as that of the skull, chiefly as regards its capacity and length-breadth index, stature, span, chest-girth, weight of body and of various internal organs, etc., all these, it is observed, being various aspects of the one factor of size. It is shown by careful treatment of the available data the so-called coefficient of variation being accepted as a possible or indeed probable measure of significant variation—that, as far as there is any difference at all, women are, on the whole, slightly more variable than men. ”

“ Most Systems of proportion, thus far issued, are projected on the breast-measure. It will be evident, on investigating the proportions of the human figure, that a System based only on one size of the body, and that its width, can never lead to the best results. ”

“ Not only has this comparative decrease in size been determined, but it has been ascertained that the female brain is relatively smaller than that of the male, as compared to the weight of her body, and researches on this subject have shown that, while the encephalon of the female is ten per cent, less in weight than that of the male, her total bodily weight is only eight per cent. ”

“ BODY DEVELOPMENT. As a child grows into womanhood
the body develops, the breasts fill out, changing the shape and con-
tour of her figure. This gradual development of the bust increases
its size over that of the waist, causing the body to measure more
around the bust than the waist. This increased size of bust over
waist is called "bust development." ”

“ Determine location of the waist line by placing a string about the waist at the smallest circum­ference as usual.
Waist Size is the waist measure without deduc­tion. Bust Size is a smooth measurement around the body taken over the fullest part of the bust, with or without deduction as the figure requires. ”

“ In size it varies in different people and is generally smaller in women than in [Pg 103] men. On the average it is five inches long, three and a half inches broad, and two inches thick. A man’s heart usually weighs about eleven ounces and that of a woman nine ounces. ”

“ There can be little doubt that the greater size and strength of man, in comparison with woman, together with his broader shoulders, more developed muscles, rugged outline of body, his greater courage and pugnacity, are all due in chief part to inheritance from his half-human male ancestors. These characters would, however, have been preserved or even augmented during the long ages of man’s savagery, by the success of the strongest and boldest men, both in the general struggle for life and in their contests for wives; ”

“ Height, bodily stature, offers a very good analogy for the case we have just been discussing, because it is obvious that it must depend on a large number of different factors, a man's size being due to the sum total of the sizes of a great number of bones, ligaments, tissues, etc. ”

“ The relation of the sexes in height and weight varies in degree in different countries, but is never changed. The average height and weight of American men and women is considerably above that of the average human being.
Men and Women Differ in Form.—The differences in form are so marked that it is possible for the skilled anatomist to determine the sex of a human being who has been dead for ages, by an examination of the skeleton alone. In man, the shoulders are broad, the hips narrow, and the limbs nearly straight with the body. ”

“ But if we were to take a girl of the same age and height, whose shoulders and hips measured the same, but who from childhood had been gradually accustomed to tight lacing, we should find that, with a waist of only sixteen inches, the vital functions were still being performed, although, as might be expected, health was feeble for not one organ of her body on which the pressure had been exerted would be in its right place. ”

“ We have already, in speaking of the types of stature, taken the bust under consideration in relation to the limbs, in order to judge the more or less favourable reciprocal development; but here we obtain an absolute datum of normality, independent of proportional relations to the body as a whole; in other words, there exists a physiological mass for the human body which is normal in itself. The individuals whose sitting stature corresponds to the [Pg 462] medial measure of the binomial curve, are precisely those who have the normal development of bust. ”

“ Tight Lacing.—"The waist of well-formed women, of the average height, varies in circumference from twenty-seven to twenty-nine inches; and there is scarcely any difference in its proportional size between male and female. But such is the power of fashion, that the waist is seldom permitted to expand to the dimensions of twenty-five inches; the majority are within twenty-four; thousands are compressed to twenty-two ”

“ Length of limb is also some equivalent for circumference.
To get these measurements, thousands of men, nude, have been measured since 1870.
The all-round man who exercises at all kinds of physical exercises and competes but little in any of them; who does his work daily for health and fun's sake, is sure in time to have the most shapely and enduring body. The person who aims to excel in some one thing, rarely has a well-shaped body. ”

“ Scale of Proportionate Measures.
That this scale will be useful we have no doubt, and by working from it much better results can be obtained than by any divisions of the breast measure, for it is based on what has long been an acknowledged fact, that at birth the head is nearly one-fourth the total height of the body, whilst at 7 or 8 it bears the relation of one-seventh, and at 16 it bears the same relative propotions as in the adult, which is differently computed at from 1 to 71⁄2 to 1 to 8. ”

“ From all that has been said, the reader must have been convinced of one fact—the importance of attending to the co-relative conditions in a recruit of—age, height, and weight. If eighteen years of age is to be the minimum fixed for the enlistment of growing lads, then the height should be as near as possible five feet four inches, and the weight 112 pounds. A height below this average will prove to have been as a rule the result of defective feeding in early life, tending to the diminution of the normal rate of increase of the body. ”

“ Even before I began to develop adipose tissue after twenty-five, I would float on fresh water without moving a muscle, my observation being that the slim normal boy must vibrate his hands. I am a curiosity in that form of skeleton and contour of body are mostly feminine, particularly the bust. ”

“ Now, is not a child with its waist larger than its breast, of normal proportion? Is not a man who measures 48 breast and 50 waist, of normal proportion? The present conception of a normal form, as being four inches less waist than breast, is wrong. This proportion is found in the medium sizes, as 36 breast and 32 waist but it can be called a normal form for that size only. We may find 44 breast and 40 waist, but they are exceptions, though I have found one 43 breast and 37 waist. The child of 24 breast and 20 waist is not to be found ”

“ In other words, it is of fundamental importance to determine the reciprocal relation, in the stature, between the bust and the lower limbs, that is, between the height of the bust and the total height of the body. ”

“ So the actual bulk and weight of blood scarcely ever varies in the same person, although it may be quite different in different individuals. For the average man it may be set down at from one-fourteenth to one-twelfth of the body weight—that is, between 103⁄4 and 121⁄2 lbs. Women and fat men have proportionately less.
The remainder of the body-weight is made up of the heavy liver, the light lungs, the heart, spleen, pancreas, kidneys, intestines, brain, nerves, skin, hair, nails. ”

“ If the circumference of the body, measured with an inch-tape just below the shoulders, be smaller than the circumference of the hips, the person will rock in walking, and plant his feet heavily upon the ground. If greater, so that the chief weight is above the limbs, the step will be light, as is familiarly seen in corpulent men, whose delicate mode of walking we witness with ever-recurring surprise. ”

“ I am below the average stature for a man, and unusually light for my volume, weighing only 110 pounds stripped from the age of nineteen to twenty-five, after I had attained my maximum height of five feet five inches. My back is much arched. Penis is below the average size, but entirely normal. Testicles were pronounced of normal appearance by the surgeon who castrated me at the age of twenty-eight. ”

“ Now, the body, being required to have—whether in length, reckoning from the point of the arm to the prominence of the buttock, or in height, reckoning from the summit of the withers to the ground—two heads and a half; whenever the head, by its geometrical length, shall give, in length or in height, to the body measured more than two and a half times its own length, it will be too short; and if it gives less, it will be too long.
‘In the case in which one of these faults exists there would be no further question of establishing by its geometrical length the proportions of the other parts. ”

“ Every man's chest enlarged decidedly, the smallest gain being a whole inch in the four months; the average being 27⁄8 inches, and one, though twenty-four years old, actually gaining 5 inches, or over an inch a month. Every upper arm increased 1 inch, most of them more than that, and one 13⁄4 inches. As the work was aimed to develop the whole body, there is little doubt that there was a proportional increase in the girth of hips and thigh and calf. ”

“ The stature, which varies remarkably throughout the continent, is, in the quarter of which we treat, generally above the middle size. This property, however, is confined to the men, the females being usually below that standard—a fact which may be confidently ascribed to the oppressive drudgery they are compelled to undergo. The limbs, in both sexes, are well proportioned, and few instances of deformity ever occur. ”

“ But the mere difference in size is not all; the female is scarcely in any normal case a mere miniature copy of the male. Her proportions differ; the head and the thorax are relatively smaller, the pelvis broader, the bones slighter, and the muscles less powerful. ”

“ Of dry flesh-substance, including a little skin and jelly, there are seventeen pounds, and that is the working part of the frame. It is by its means the ton-weight can be lifted one mile high in a single day, and that all the moving and acting, of whatever kind, are effected. Remember, then, that the acting part of the living body is flesh-substance, and that of that flesh-substance there are not more than seventeen pounds in a full-grown man. ”

“ When you look at any person you quickly discern whether fat, bone or muscle predominates in his construction. If fat predominates he leans toward the Alimentive, no matter what other types he may have in combination; if firm, well-defined muscles are conspicuous, he is largely Muscular; but if his bones are proportionately large for his body he has much of the Osseous type in his makeup. ”

“ But those arms which, as they ought, distribute an equal weight to all the parts of the body, that join upon the neck, the shoulders, the breast, the back, and the hips, may be said to be glued to the body, and to weigh nothing at all. ”

“ That the weight and measurements of any given organ fall within normal limits cannot be taken as evidence that the organ is normal. The judgment as to the size and weight of the organ must always be controlled by a consideration of the pathologic conditions present as to the exact factor in the increase or the loss of size or weight. ”

“ Take a tape-measure and get the girth of chest, upper and forearm, of waist, hips, thighs, and calves of these little fellows, likewise their heights and ages. Now send to England and get the statistics of the boys of the same age who are good at hares-and-hounds, at foot-ball, and see the difference. In every solitary measurement, save height, there is little doubt which would show the better figures. Even in height, it is more than probable that the article just quoted would find abundant foundation for calling our boys "undersized." ”

“ If we imagine an addition of dimensions to the head, we shall immediately conceive it would only deform—if to the hands or feet, we are sensible of something gross and ungenteel—if to the whole lengths of the arms, we feel they would be dangling and awkward—if, by an addition of length or breadth to the body, we know it would appear heavy and clumsy—there remains then only the neck, with the legs and thighs to speak of ”

“ At five months the length of the body, including head and feet, is from eight to ten inches, and weighs from eight to eleven ounces; at six months the weight is about one pound, and the length is eleven to twelve and a half inches. ”