A CUBIC MILE OF HUMANITY.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2995, 20 September 1878, Page 3

A CUBIC MILE OF HUMANITY.

A fanciful genius, as we learn from the : Scientific American, suggests that it is now time to celebrate the completion of the first cubic mile of humanity, and gives a calculation to show that the bodies of all mankind; from the first Adam down to the Adams just born, if closely packed without diminution of volume, would exactly fill that space. Here are his figures, which our young mathematicians who have nothing else to do may, verify if they can. According to the orthodox chronology the world .has been inhabited about 6,000 years, or 170 generations. Its present population is about fifteen hundred millions \ but this density of population must have been slowly reached, since all are descended from an original pair. Consequently he takes half the number of the present seven hundred and fifty millions as the average population of the world from the beginning until now, making the' aggregate of human bodies during the 170 generations, 127,500 millions. Since' 1 many die in infancy, and half are women, the average weight of each body is taken as seventy-four pounds. The aggregate weight of all mankind to date must accordingly be 4,212 million tons, or a little more than the weight of a cubic mile of sea water. Since the human body, with the lungs not inflated, is a trifle heavier than sea water, our calculator assumes that his estimated 4,212 million tons of humanity WOUflTftU the same space as 4,205 million ton? of jiea water, or precisely one cubic mile. Taking the same figures and exercising''the same freedom in striking averages, the mathematically inclined may deduce any number of amusing results. For instance, assuming the average length of humanity to be a little under 4 feet, the bodies of all mankind, living and dead, placed end to end, would just make a bridge from the earth to the sun !