Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 73.djvu/253

Rh of weight 10.3 pounds; and criminals of 2.06 inches and 17.8 pounds, indicating a deficiency of physical as well as mental stamina in both these unfortunate classes of society.

The physical measurements of the English and American people are so nearly identical, as shown by comparisons which I made with Mr. Galton's measurements some years ago, that conditions that affect one class of persons in England may be said to affect in a similar way the same class of persons in this country. We have already seen that growing youth in different parts of this country and Europe develop mentally as they develop physically, and that the men who have attained the highest degree of intellectual eminence as a class, have invariably had a good physique as shown by their superior height and weight, to back up their superior intellectual vigor. In view of these indisputable facts we should expect to find that the same observations would hold true among college students, who may be said to represent the intermediate class on the way from growing youth to men of intellectual eminence and distinction. According to our physiological law we should expect to find that the students as a class who ranked the highest in scholarship would also have the best physiques, as shown by their superior height and weight. In order to ascertain if this inference be true, I have had the following table compiled from my statistics at Harvard University, from which some very interesting and instructive conclusions may be drawn.

This table consists of the medium measurements of 15 different groups of men, all except Group 10 being composed of students of Harvard University ranging in age from 18 to 26 years. These groups are arranged according to superiority in height and weight. Group No. 1 consists of 240 university crew men, the number whose measurements have been taken since 1880 to 1906. The medium height is seen to be 69.9 inches and the medium weight 152 pounds. Group 2