Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 70.djvu/486

482 We know, first of all, from our common observation, that the very old grow shorter in stature. We see that they are not so tall as in the prime of life. The figures which have been compiled upon this subject are instructive, for they show that at the age of some thirty years the average height of men—these figures refer to Germans—is 174

centimeters. It remains at that, however, only for a short period; then it decreases and at forty it is already less; at fifty decidedly less; and at sixty the change has become more marked; until at seventy years we find that the height has shrunk from 174 to 161. There it