Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/25

Rh Despite these lamentable conditions, there is a leaven in the nation which may work for regeneration if the accursed and sterilizing effects of Chinese influence and dominion can be rooted out of the land. I have met Koreans of the highest character, noble, unselfish, possessing every lovable trait and animated by the highest patriotism, and these men may yet be heard from in the councils of the nation.



HE average stature of man, considered by racial groups or social classes, appears to lie between the limits of four feet four inches and five feet ten inches, giving, that is to say, a range of about one foot and a half. The physical elasticity of the species is not, however, as considerable as this makes it appear. The great majority of the human race is found restricted within much narrower limits. As a matter of fact, there are only three or four groups of really dwarfed men, less than five feet tall. Our map of the world shows a considerable area inhabited by the diminutive Bushmen in South Africa, and another large body of dwarfs occurs in New Guinea. The line of demarcation in the first case between the yellowish African Bushmen and the true negroes is very sharp; but in the East Indies the very tall and light Polynesians shade off almost imperceptibly in stature through Melanesia into the stunted Papuans. Other scattering representatives of true dwarf races occur sporadically throughout the Congo region and in Malaysia, but their total number is very small. On the whole, considerably more than ninety-nine per cent of the human species is above the average height of five feet and one inch; so that we may still further narrow our range of variation between that limit and five feet ten inches. We thereby reduce our racial differences of stature to about nine inches between extremes. These variations in size, it will be observed, are less than those which occur among the lower animals within the same species. Compare, for example, the dachshund, the St. Bernard, the Italian greyhound, and the smallest lapdog, and remember that they are all ascribed to the same species; or that the 