Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 73.djvu/255

Rh the Academic Department and Scientific School, as I have stated, comprised all classes, including the short as well as the tall and the weak as well as the strong, and may, therefore, be regarded as fairly representative of the physique of the college.

It may surprise many to learn that the strongest men in college as a class are below the average student in stature. This is perfectly consistent with established facts. Strength is more a matter of shortness and thickness of arms and legs than of great length of limbs, which is likely to be the physical characteristic of speed, as shown by runners and oarsmen, rather than strength and endurance. The superior musculature of the strong man is indicated by his superior weight. In this respect it is observed that he weighs from 7 to 10 pounds more than the average student, while he surpasses this man in strength by some 300 points.

Having ascertained the medium height and weight of what we have termed the average student, let us turn our attention to the same measurements of scholarship men. It is interesting and instructive to observe that the scholarship men when taken in large groups tend to verify the conclusions reached by Drs. Porter, Byer, Christopher, Roberts, Leharzig and others as to the correlation of a superior mind with a superior body. This is shown rather strikingly by the order in which the scholarship men group themselves according to height, the highest scholars in Group I. being tallest, those in Group II. being nearly one half inch shorter. The scholarships in Group III. are not awarded according to college rank, but for some other special consideration. Although the order among the scholarship men themselves remains the same, that is, the highest scholars as represented by Group I. being the tallest, Group II. over one half inch shorter, etc., the great discrepancy between the height of the honor scholarship men, the stipend scholarship men, and the average student seems at once inconsistent with our premises. Although the honor scholarship men have risen nearly three quarters of an inch in height above the average university student of 1880, the average stipend scholarship men as shown in Group 14 (I., II. and III.) are about one quarter of an inch shorter. There is a difference of 1.2 inch between the height of the average student of to-day and the average stipend scholarship men, and a difference of three quarters of an inch between the average stipend scholarship men and the average honor scholarship men. The discrepancy between the average weight of the different groups is not so regular or well marked as that of the height, although it will be observed that there is a difference of 4.4 pounds between the average student and the honor scholarship men and a difference of 8.8 between the average student and the stipend scholarship men.

The comparison of strength between the average student and the scholarship men is rather more favorable to the latter. Although