Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/37

 They should likewise bear in mind that height depends chiefly on the length of the lower limbs and not on the body, so that when sitting tall and short persons present very little difference.

WANT OF SYMMETRY OF THE BODY.

It is a curious fact to consider that our body is formed of two entities united together. One side of us has nearly all the organs that the other has, and arranged in almost precisely the same manner. What is the use of two ears, two eyes, two nostrils, when one would, and at a pinch does answer the purpose quite as well? We do not know.

Still more curious is it to observe how the one side generally gets the better of the other, and becomes stronger, handsomer, and more adroit. Even the two halves of our body, twin brothers on ne peut pas plus, cannot live together without rivalry. Generally it is the right half that comes out winner. This is supposed to be because the great blood vessels, as they leave the heart, are so arranged as to carry that side more nourishment. More rarely it is the left, and only occasionally do we see a person who can control the muscles of either side with equal power. In most persons the difference between the development of the two sides is quite visible in every member.

Now if we examine the finest statues in this respect we shall find no such inequality. Indeed, one of the