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 I
see by the papers that Americans are growing up. That’s a
little hard to believe, since there are so many who still act
like children. But our statistics will not be denied, and
immaturity or no immaturity, we are growing up.
According
to the records “the average adult male has grown two inches in
height, and added 23 pounds in weight” since 1920. During
W.W.I, the American male averaged 67.7 inches and weighed 142
lbs. By W.W.II, his height was up to 68.4 inches, and his weight
to 155 lbs. In 1970 he averaged 69.7 inches, 165 lbs.
Remembering
Mark Twain’s jab at the scientist re. the Mississippi river
basin, I did a little mathematicing myself. Running our growth
rate backward, I found that in 1870, just after the Civil War,
the average male in America was 69.7 inches tall, and weighed
119 lbs. In 1770, he was only 61.7 inches, weighing 73 lbs. It
is really surprising we whipped the British. But the most
amazing “facts” are yet to come. Our ancestors who landed on
Plymouth Rock (1620) were about 55.7 inches tall, and weighed
only 4 pounds. (Skinny little sailors weren’t they?)
If
it were not for my absolute trust in
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statistics, I would stop here. This thing
begins to get just a little bit ridiculous. The American’s
male ancestors were no height at all in 230 A.D., and
would not weigh anything until 1612. Of course there could be
some truth in that. It does seem that history says we began to
shove our weight around in the early seventeenth century.
One
possible solution for this dilemma is to remember that the
records said nothing about women. We could use a bit of “scientific”
supposing here, arid assume that our early history (while the
men were so small) was made possible by the inverse ratio of
growth on their part: they have been getting smaller while men
were getting larger. But — that is such an embarrassing
thought let’s not go into that.
it
is also barely possible that we are prone to put too much
reliance in what may have happened, so many million years
ago, if the present observable rate of growth or deterioration
was maintained, etc., etc.
Anyhow,
we try to live up to the heading on this page.
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