Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/34

26 result of his choice. If he chooses to take up the tailor's trade because he is physicalyphysically [sic] unfitted for other pursuits, all the influences of the trade tend to degenerate his physique still further. Among these we may count the cramped position in which he works, the long hours, the unsanitary surroundings, etc. An active life conduces to growth and vigor, especially an active life in the open air. Denied all these advantages, everything operates to exaggerate the peculiarities which were due to natural causes in the preceding generation alone. This direct influence of the nature of the employment is probably the second principal cause of the great differences in stature which we observe among the several social classes in any community. At the head stand the liberal professions, followed in order, as our table shows, by the farmers and the commercial group, then by the industrial

open-air classes, and finally by those who are engaged in indoor and sedentary occupations. The difference between these last two—namely, those who work in the open air and those who are confined within doors—amounts in Great Britain to upward of one half an inch upon the average, if we consider masons, carpenters, and day laborers as typical of the first class, and tailors and shoemakers of the second. As our table shows, the differences during the period of growth often amount to upward of two inches, greater among girls than among boys. As an extreme example of divergencies of this kind, we may instance a difference of seven inches between boys of fourteen in the well-to-do classes and those who are in the industrial schools in Great Britain. Later in life this disparity becomes less, as it appears that the