GENIUS AND STATURE.
(To vas EDITOZ or TEZ "Eirrommos."]
Bra,—Unlese we can discover how to make men and women either short or tall as we wish, the question whether tall or short people are, as a rule, the abler is not of much practical interest. But there is another question which is probably closely connected with it, and which has very great import- ance. It has been ascertained by the careful examination of school-children, first in Russia, and, later, in the United States and Germany, that there is a close connection between clever- ness in children and their height and weight—that the average height and average weight of those children of any given age in a school who are in the highest class in which there are children of that age are greater than those of children of the same age who are in the highest-but-one class, and that the rule that the heavier and taller children of each age have higher places holds good all through schools, so that the average height and weight of children of any given age are greatest in the highest class in which there are children of that age and least in the lowest class. The decision as to whether its children shall be well grown and of good weight, or short and light, rests in great measure with the Board of Education and our other educa- tional authorities. The growth of children and the gaining of weight are greatly promoted by an adequate supply of fresh air, light, exercise, sleep, and food, and by mental and moral training which are in accordance with children's real needs. The community, I think, may well be urged to do its utmost to insure that as many as possible of its children shall be tall and heavy, to guard as carefully as possible the health of young men and women, and not to trouble itself much with regard to the stature which they shall eventually attain.—I
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