GENIUS AND STATURE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1043, 4 February 1911, Page 15

GENIUS AND STATURE.

AN INVESTIGATION. x •' WAS LOJIBBOSO .MISTAKEN? "That greatness and loftiness of stature are rarely found together," says Dr. Charles lvassell in the "Popular .Science Monthly," "is one of t-lio leading statements of Lonibroso's 'Man of Genius,' and the eminent Italian, in support of, iiis assertion, arrays a respectable list of names. Nor does Loinbroso stand alone in this opinion. The notion is a common one —even a proverbial one —and now and again some voico rises from press or periodical with this boding message to the stalwart sons of men. "If the biographies, however, in the average American library alford a just test of its truth, this belief must be gathered to the limbo of popular errors and delusions. So far, indeed, from supporting the of the great 'criminologist, tho testimony of biography lixss the average stature of men of eminenco at a point above the middle height. "In default of statistical data ready to hand tho dearth of reliable material upon this question being quite marked—tho .writer has turned through the biographical section of a general public library situated-, in the city of his residence. Of tho lives of 230 distinguished men thus those of 103 supplied the ' information sought either in exact figures or by way ot' general statement, and of these person-ages'it-appears that 16 were of middle height, 58 above and 29 below. In many instances tho staturo was merely described as 'medium,' or above or below, and in ■ tabulating the result we have assumed tho correctness of this classification, although it is far from certain that in reality the terms bore tho same meaning to all writers. Where, however, tho stature was given in feet and inches, we havo adopted as tho standard of medium heiglit o feet 7 inches. ■ "This' is manifestly too low for America, and is likewise too low for England, since, as we are told by H. H. Donaldson in 'The Growth of the Brain,' 517 observations among all classes gave G7.7 inches as tho average staturo for men in England. For the civilised world, however, the averago .would probably bo so far lower than that of England and America as. to make tho figures we have mentioned a fair standard. Even, however, were 5 feet 8 inches to bo used for middle height, the result, so far as. the present paper is concerned, would not bo disturbed, since none of the statures given fall within this disputed margin. •It will be observed, moreover, that onr discussion is confined to the statures of men. Those' of women arc notoriously Eower, and the two cannot well bo treated together in an article of short compass.

"Towering above all ■ the historic characters thus gathered before the mind's eye is the immense form of Charles Sumner with his G feet 4 inches. Beside him, only an inch and a half less in height, stands Thomas Jefferson, while near theso two are' Charles Godfrey Leland and Andrew Jackson with statures of 6 feet 2} inches and 6 feet 1 inch. "Described as over 'six .feet' • are. Samuel Adams, Bismarck, Salmon P. Chase, ■ Captain Cook,' Jonathan Edwards, ■ Eugene'/ Field, Henry Fielding, and Walt Whitman, while Charles Darwin ('about six feet'), Alexander Dumas, the elder, James Monroe ('six .feet or more')i Bayard Taylor ('six feet at W.Qntcfn'.) J ><Alfred Tennyson, ; General' Thomas, and George Washington must bo ranged with celebrated men six i'cet in height. ■ ■ "Another group—still of., majestic presence—is referred to as 'slightly under', or 'a little below' six feet, and in this w'o find the names of Henry Ward Beecher, Itufus Chonte, Sidney Lanier, and Daniel O'Cohnell. The remainder are of loss impressive height—Benjamin Franklin, Albert Gallatin', .John Ruskin, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Daniel Webster, who could claim 5 feet 10 inches; General Charles George Gordon, whoso stature was 5 feet 9 inches, and Washington Irving,- who was 5 fent S.J to 9 inches; "In addition to these individuals there is a goodly company spoken of by the biographers as 'tall'—Matthew Arnold, Louis'Agassiz, William Cullen Bryant, Julius Caesar, ■ Charlemagne', Charles .XII of Sweden, Christopher Columbus, Stonewall Jackson; General Sam Houston, Leigh Hunt, Edward Fitzgerald, Ben' Jonson, Chief Justice Marshall, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Southev ('very tail'), Phillips Brooks ('of great height'), William M. Thackeray ('above medium height'), Patrick Henry, Lorenzo de . Medici, Francis Parkman, Coventry. Patmore, Peter the Great, Percy Byssehe Shelley, Sidney Smith ('of middle height, rather above than below'), Thaddcus Stevens, N. P. Willis, Richard Strauss, and John Bunyan. "Described as of 'medium height' are Robert Browning, John Adams, Sir Thomas More, William Hazliti, Julian, S. S. Prentiss, Lord Palmerston, Duke of Wellington, William the Silent, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Frederick the Great ('not' of imposing stature'—Carlyle), Admiral Nelson ('a little man of about medium height'), Schubert, ('moderately tall'), and as o 8 inches we have tho names of Grant, Theodore Parker, and Rossetti. "Under medium height were; according to their biographers, Admiral Farragut, who was 5 feet 6J inches; Oliver Wendell Holmes, Paul Jones, and General Phil Sheridan, each of whom was o feot 5 inches; Beethoven, who is described as 'scarcely over S feet 4 inches,' Vienna measure; John Keats ('little over 5 feet'), Stophon A. ' Douglas ('scarcely over 5 feet'), and Swinburne and Whistler, whose statures are given as 'five feet or so.' We should add, however, that the figures as to Swinburne and Whistler, liko those with reference to Edward Fitzgerald in an earlier paragraph, were derived not from authoritative biographies, as in tho case of all the other names, 'but from magazine articles which chanced to como under the writer's observation while pursuing theso investigations. "As 'short' or'under medium height' wo find John Qumcy Adams, Andrew Carnegie, William Ellerv Channing Chaucer, Alexander Hamilton ('much below'), Ibsen, Charles Lamb, Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas B. Macaulav, John Milton, Thomas Mcore, Alexander Pope Robespierre, Savonarola, William H Seward ('small'), Thoreau, Martin Van Biiren, Chopin, and Michael Angelo. "Tho materialist who believes life and personality are but the florescence of physical forces, and tho brain not tiho urn but tho creative agent of thought, may rejoice over tho fact that of those men of genius who were low in stature no few are expressly mentioned as having had large heads—namely, Stephen A. Douglas, Alexander Hamilton, Charles Lamb, Macaulay, Napoleon, ami Beethoven. On the other hand, ho will bo confronted by tho fact that a number of tall men of a high order of talent have possessed cranitims of. proportions not calculated to inspire respect—notably Chief Justice Marshall, Washington, Captain Cook, and, in a peculiar degree, the poet' Shelley, who shared this characteristic wjth his fellow minstrels Byron and Keats. "The circumstance is a curious one, if our catalogue of names may he relied upon as a basis lor deduction, tli.it' naval commanders have boon 'of i:>w stature. The fact that coast dwellers, unlike mountain peoples and forest folks, are usually short in body mav not be without a bearing upon this; since seafaring men arc apt to spring from coast dwelling races,

■The roll of'names and statures u'liic!i wo have given suffers in its usefulness because of the unduo predominenee of American names. 'H;o clfcet ol tiiis is plainly to heighten the average stature. The need of a tabic of names, sufficiently large to obviate errors from non-essential causes, and carefully sifted so as to exclude men of merely accidental distinction, is a condition which meets the inquirer at the threshold of the subject, ami oven this table of names would have to lie. grouped by races and 'regions, and separately studied, in order that comparisons within each region and nationality might be made."