THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES tamnd below X SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY, t-QS ANGELES. CALIF. UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES LIBRARY PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY BY MARIA MONTESSORI AUTHOR OP "THE MONTESSORI METHOD" TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN BY FREDERIC TABER COOPER WITH 163 ILLUSTRATIONS AND DIAGRAMS NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY MCMXIII 72519 Copyright, 1913, by FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY Att rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian July, 1913 THE. MAPLE. PRESS YORK' PA Education Library LB 1125 M76E TO MY MOTHER RENILDE STOPPANI AND MY FATHER ALE88ANDRO MONTESSORI ON THE OCCASION OF THE FORTY -FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THEIR UNCLOUDED UNION, I DEDICATE THIS BOOK, FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT OF LOVE AND CONTENTMENT WITH WHICH THEY HAVE INSPIRED ME * J| W PREFACE FOR some time past much has been said in Italy regarding Pedagogical Anthropology; but I do not think that until now any attempt has been made to define a science corresponding to such a title; that is to say, a method that systematises the positive study of the pupil for pedagogic purposes and with a view to establishing philosophic principles of education. As soon as anthropology annexes the adjective, " pedagogical," it should base its scope upon the fundamental conception of a possible amelioration of man, founded upon the positive knowl- edge of the laws of human life. In contrast to general anthro- pology which, starting from a basis of positive data founded on observation, mounts toward philosophic problems regarding the origin of man, pedagogic anthropology, starting from an analogous basis of observation and research, must rise to philosophic con- ceptions regarding the future destiny of man from the biological point of view. The study of congenital anomalies and of their biological and social origin, must undoubtedly form a part of pedagogical anthropology, in order to afford a positive basis for a universal human hygiene, whose sole field of action must be the school; but an even greater importance is assumed by the study of defects of growth in the normal man; because the battle against these evidently constitutes the practical avenue for a wide regen- eration of mankind. If in the future a scientific pedagogy is destined to rise, it will devote itself to the education of men already rendered physically better through the agency of the allied positive sciences, among which pedagogic anthropology holds first place. The present-day importance assumed by all the sciences cal- culated to regenerate education and its environment, the school, has profound social roots and is forced upon us as the necessary path toward further progress; in fact the transformation of the outer environment through the mighty development of experimen- vii viii PREFACE tal sciences during the past century, must result in a correspond- ingly transformed man; or else civilisation must come to a halt before the obstacle offered by a human race lacking in organic strength and character. The present volume comprises the lectures given by me in the University of Rome, during a period of four years, all of which were diligently preserved by one of my students, Signor Franceschetti. My thanks are due to my master, Professor Giuseppe Sergi who, after having urged me to turn my anthropological studies in the direction of the school, recommended me as a specialist in the subject; and my free university course for students in the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Medicine was established, in pursuance of his advice, by the Pedagogic School of the University of Rome. The volume also contains the pictures used in the form of lantern slides to illustrate the lectures, pictures taken in part from various works of research mentioned in this volume. Acknowledgment is gratefully made to the scientists and scholars whose work is thus referred to. I have divided my subject into ten chapters, according to a special system: namely, that each chapter is complete in itself for example, the first chapter, which is very long, contains an out- line of general biology, and at the same time biological and social generalisations concerning man considered from our point of view as educators, and thus furnishes a complete organic conception which the remainder of the book proceeds to analyse, one part at a time; the chapter on the pelvis, on the other hand, is exceed- ingly short, but it completely covers the principles relating to this particular part, because they lend themselves to such condensed treatment. Far from assuming that I have written a definitive work, it is only at the request of my students and publisher that I have con- sented to the publication of these lectures, which represent a modest effort to justify the faith of the master who urged me to devote my services as a teacher to the advancement of the school. MARIA MONTESSORI. ( The figures in parenthesis refer to (he number of the page) INTRODUCTION MODERN TENDENCIES OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND THEIR RELATION TO PEDAGOGY The Old Anthropology (1) Modern Anthropology (4) De Giovanni and Physiologi- cal Anthropology (11) Sergi and Pedagogic Anthropology(14) Morselli and Scientific Philosophy (21) Importance of Method in Experimental Sciences (23) Objective Collecting of Single Facts (24) Passage from Analysis to Synthesis (26) Method to be followed in the present Course of Lectures(SO) Limits of Pedagogical Anthropology(34). The School as a Field of Research(37). CHAPTER I CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY The Material Substratum of Life(38) Synthetic Concept of the Individual in Biology (38) Formation of Multicellular Organisms(42) Theories of Evolu- tion(46) Phenomena of Heredity(SO) Phenomena of Hybridism (51) Men- del's Laws (51). THE FORM AND TYPES OF STATURE The Form (67) Fundamental Canons regarding the Form (74) Types of Stature, Macroscelia and Brachyscelia; their Physiological Significance(75) Types of Stature in relation to Race(77), Sex(80), and Age(81) Pedagogic Considera- tions^) Abnormal Types of Stature in their relation to Moral Training(91) Macroscelia and Brachyscelia in Pathological Individuals (De Giovanni's Hypo- Bthenic and Hypersthenic Types) (95) Types of Stature in Emotional Criminals and in Parasites (101) Extreme types of Stature among the Extra-social: Nan- ism and Gigantism(103) Summary of Types of Stature(lOS). THE STATURE The Stature as a Linear Index(106) Limits of Stature according to Race(108) Stat- ure in relation to Sex(lll) Variations in Stature with Age, according to Sex(118) Variations due to Mechanical Causes(119) Variations due to Adaptation in connection with various Causes, Social, Physical, Psychic, Pathological, etc. (124) Effect of Light, Heat, Electricity(132) Variations in Growth according to the Season(138) Pathogenesis of Infantilism(151) Stature affected by Syphilis (157), Tuberculosis (158), Malaria(160), Pellagra(161), Rickets(164) Moral and Pedagogical Considerations(168) Summary of Stature(170). THE WEIGHT The Weight considered as Total Measure of Mass(172) Weight of Child at Birth (173) Loss of Weight(176) Specific Gravity of Body (178) Index of Weight(lSl). ix x CONTENTS CHAPTER II CRANIOLOGY The Head and Cranium(187) The Face(188) Characteristics of the Human Cra- nium (191) Evolution of the Forehead; Inferior Skull Caps; the Pithecanthro- pus; the Neanderthal Man(192) Morphological Evolution of the Cranium through different Periods of Life(197) Normal Forms of Cranium (202) the Cephalic Index (207) Volume of Cranium (220) Development of Brain (220) Extreme Variations in Volume of Brain(229) Nomenclature of Cranial Capac- ity(242) Chemistry of the Brain(247) Human Intelligence(252) Influence of Mental Exercise(254) Pretended Cerebral Inferiority of Woman(256) Limits of the Face(259) Human Character of the Face(260) Normal Visage(262) Prognathism(268) Evolution of the Face(272) Facial Expression(276) the Neck(282). CHAPTER III THE THORAX Anatomical Parts of the Thorax(281) Physiological and Hygienic Aspect of Thorax (286) Spirometry (288) Growth of Thorax (294) Dimensions of Thorax in relation to Stature(295) Thoracic Index (297) Shape of Thorax (299) Anoma- lies of Shape(SOl) Pedagogical Considerations: the Evil of School Benches(302). CHAPTER IV THE PELVIS Anatomical Parts of the Pelvis(304) Growth of Pelvis(306) Shape of Pelvis in relation to Child-birth (307). CHAPTER V THE LIMBS Anatomy of the Limbs(308) Growth of Limbs(309) Malformations: Flat-foot, Opposable Big Toe(311), Curvature of Leg, Club-foot (3 12) The Hand(312) Cheiromancy and Physiognomy; the Hand in Figurative Speech; High and Low Types of Hand(312) Dimensions of Hand(315) Proportions of Fingers(316) the Nails (3 17) Anomalies of the Hand(317) Lines of the Palm(318) Papil- lary Lines (3 19). CHAPTER VI Pigmentation and Cutaneous Apparatus (320) Pigmentation of theHair(323) of the Skin (325) of the Iris(325) Form of the Hair (327) Anomalies of Pigment: Icthyosis, Birth-marks, Fvreckles, etc. (329) Anomalies of Hair(330). MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF CERTAIN ORGANS (STIGMATA) Synoptic Chart of Stigmata(332j Anomalies of the Eye(333) of the Ear(334) of the Nose(335) of the Teeth (336) Importance of the Study of Morphology (338) Significance of the Stigmata of Degeneration (342) Distribution of Malforma- tions(344) Individual Number of Malformations (347) Origin of Malforma- tions(355) Humanity's Dependence upon Woman(357) Moral and Pedagogi- cal Problems within the School (358). CONTENTS xi CHAPTER VII TECHNICAL PART The Form (361) Measurement of Stature(362) the Anthropometer(363) the Sitting Stature(365) Total Spread of Arms(367) Thoracic Perimeter (368) Weight (368) Ponderal Index (368) Head and Cranium (369) Cranioscopy (370) Craniometry (373) Cephalic Index(376) Measurements of Thorax(385) of Abdomen (386). THE PERSONAL ERROR Need of Practical Experience in Anthropology (387) Average Personal Error(388) Susceptibility to Suggestion (389). CHAPTER VIII STATISTICAL METHODOLOGY Mean Averages (39 1) Seriation (396) Quet61et's Binomial Curve (398). CHAPTER IX THE BIOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF THE PUPIL AND HIS ANTECEDENTS Biographic Histories (404) Remote Antecedents (406) Near Biopathological Ante- cedents(407) Sociological Antecedents(411) School Records(411) Biographic Charts(422) Psychic Tests(425) Typical Biographic History of an Idiot Boy(434) Proper Treatment of Defective Pupils(446) Rational Medico-peda- gogical Method (448). CHAPTER X THE APPLICATION OF BIOMETRY TO ANTHROPOLOGY FOR THE PURPOSE OF DETERMINING THE MEDIAL MAN Theory of the Medial Man(454) Importance of Seriation(455) De Helguere's Curves (460) Viola's Medial Man(463) Human Hybridism (466) the Medial Intellectual and Moral Man(469) Sexual Morality(473) Sacredness of Mater- nity (474) Biological Liberty and the New Pedagogy (477). TABLE OF MEAN PROPORTIONS OP THE BODY ACCORDING TO AGE (480). TABLES FOR CALCULATING THE CEPHALIC INDEX (485). TABLES FOR CALCULATING THE PONDERAL lNDEx(491). GENERAL INDEX: A. INDEX OF NAMEs(501). B. INDEX OF SuBJECTs(503). INTRODUCTION THE MODERN TENDENCIES OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE RELATION THAT THEY BEAR TO PEDAGOGY HUMAN HYGIENE The Old Anthropology. Anthropology was defined by Broca as "the natural history of man," and was intended to be the appli- cation of the "zoological method" to the study of the human species. As a matter of fact, as with all positive sciences, the essential characteristic of Anthropology is its "method." We could not say, if we wished to speak quite accurately, that "Anthropology is the study of man" ; because the greater part of acquirable knowl- edge has for its subject the human race or the individual human being; philosophy studies his origin, his essential nature, his characteristics; linguistics, history and representative art inves- tigate the collective phenomena of physiological and social orders, or determine the morphological characteristics of the idealised human body. Accordingly, what characterises Anthropology is not its sub- ject: man; but rather the method by which it proposes to study him. The selfsame procedure which zoology, a branch of the natural sciences, applies to the study of animals, anthropology must apply to the study of man; and by doing so it enrolls itself as a science in the field of nature. Zoology has a well-defined point of departure, that clearly distinguishes it from the other allied sciences: it studies the living animal. Consequently, it is an eminently synthetic science, because it cannot proceed apart from the individual) which repre- sents in itself a sum of complex morphological and psychic char- acteristics, associated with the species; and which furthermore, during life, exhibits certain special distinguishing traits resulting from instincts, habits, migration and geographical distribution. i 2 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Zoology consequently includes a vast but well-defined field. Fundamentally, it is a descriptive science, and when the general character of the individual living creatures has been determined, it proceeds to draw comparisons between them, distinguishing genus and species, and thus working toward a classification. Down to the time of Linnaeus, these were its limits; but since the studies of Lamarck and Charles Darwin, it has gone a step further, and has proceeded to investigate the origin of species, an example that was destined to be followed by botany and biology as a whole, which is the study of living things. When anthropology attained, under Broca, the dignity of a branch of the natural sciences, the evolutionary theory already held the field, and man had begun to be studied as an animal in his relation to species of the lower orders. But, just as in zoology, the fundamental part of anthropology was descriptive; and the description of the morphology of the body was divided, according to the method followed, into anthropology, or the method of inspec- tion, and anthropometry, or the method of measurements. By these means, many problems important to the biological side of the subject were solved such, for instance, as racial characteristics and a classification of "the human races" was achieved through the evidences afforded by comparative studies. But the descriptive part of anthropology is not limited to the inspection and measurement of the body; on the contrary, just as in zoology, it is extended to include the habits of the individual living being; that is to say, in the case of man, the language, the manners and customs (data that determine the level of civilisation), emigration and the consequent intermixture of races in the orig- inal formation of nations, thus constituting a special branch of science properly known by the name of ethnology. In this manner, while still adhering rigorously to zoological methods, anthropology found itself compelled to throw out nu- merous collateral branches into widely different fields, such as those of linguistics and archaeology; because man is a speaking animal and a social animal. One strictly anthropological problem is that of the origin of man, and its ultimate analogy with that of the other animal species. Hence the comparative studies between man and the anthropoid apes; while palaeontological discoveries of pre-human forms, such as the pithecanthropus, were just so many arguments INTRODUCTION 3 calculated to bring the human species within the scheme of a biological philosophy, based upon evolution, which held its own, for nearly half a century, on the battle-ground of natural sciences, under the glorious leadership of Darwin. Yet, notwithstanding that it offered studies and problems of direct interest to man, anthropology failed to achieve popularity. During that half century (the second half of the Nineteenth), which beheld the scientific branches of biology multiply through- out the entire field of analytical research, from histology to bio- chemistry, and succeeded especially in making a practical appli- cation of them in medicine, Anthropology failed to raise itself from the status of a pure and aristocratic, in other words, a super- fluous science, a status that prevented it from ranking among the sciences of primary importance. As a matter of fact, while zool- ogy is a required study in the universities, Anthropology still remains an elective study, which in Italy is relegated to three or four universities at most. The epoch of materialistic philosophy and analytical investigation could naturally hardly be expected to prove a field of victory for man, the intelligent animal, and nature's most splendid achievement in construction. The impressive magnificence of this thought, that bursts like pent-up waters from the results of positive research into man con- sidered as a living individual, was forced to await the patient preparation of material on which to build, such as the gathering of partial and disorganised facts, which were accumulated through rigorous and minute analyses, conducted under the guidance of the experimental sciences. It was in this manner that anthro- pology slowly evolved a method and, by doing so, raised itself to the rank of a science, without ever once being utilised for prac- tical purposes or recognised as necessary as a supplemental or integral element of other sciences. One branch of learning which might have utilised the important scientific discoveries regarding the antiquity of man, his nature considered as an animal, his first efforts as a labourer and a member of society, is pedagogy. What could be more truly instructive and educative than to describe to children that first heroic Robinson Crusoe, primitive man, cast away on this vast island, the earth, lost in the midst of the universe? Mankind, weak and naked, without iron, because it still remained mysteriously hidden in the bowels of the earth, without fire because they had not yet discovered the means of pro- curing it; stones were their only weapons of defense against the ferocious and gigantic beasts that roared on all sides of them in the forests. The rude, splin- 4 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY tered stone, the first handiwork of intelligent man, his first instrument and his first weapon, could be prepared solely from one kind of mineral, of which the local deposit began to fail a state of things which, let us suppose, occurred on some ocean island. Thereupon the men constructed a small boat from the bark of trees, and sped over the waters, in search of the needed stone, passing from island to island, with scanty nourishment, without lights in the night-time, and without a guide. These marvelous accounts ought to be easily understood by children, and to awaken in them an admiration for their own kinship with humanity, and a profound sense of indebtedness to the mighty power of labour, which to-day is rendered so productive and so easy by our advanced civilisation, in which the environment, thanks to the works of man, has done so much to make our lives enjoyable. But pedagogy, no less than the other branches of learning, has disdained to accept any contribution from anthropology; it has failed to see man as the mighty wrestler, at close grips with environment, man the toiler and transmuter, man the hero of creation. Of the history of human evolution, not a single ray sheds light upon the child and adolescent, the coming generation. The schools teach the history of wars the history of disasters and crimes which were pain- ful necessities hi the successive passages through civilisations created by the labour and slow perfectioning of humanity; but civilisation itself, which abides in the evolution of labour and of thought, remains hidden from our children hi the darkness of silence. Let us compare the appearance of man upon the earth to the discovery of the motive power of steam and to the subsequent appearance of railways as a factor in our social life. The railway has no limits of space, it overruns the world, unresting and unconscious, and by doing so promotes the brotherhood of men, of nations, of business interests. Let us suppose that we should choose to remain silent about the work performed by our railways and their social signifi- cance in the world to-day, and should teach our children only about the accidents, after the fashion of the newspapers, and keep their sensitive minds lingering in the presence of shattered and motionless heaps of carriages, amid the cries of anguish and the bleeding limbs of the victims. The children would certainly ask themselves what possible connection there could be between such a disaster and the progress of civilisation. Well, this is precisely what we do when, from all the prehistoric and historic ages of humanity, we teach the children nothing but a series of wars, oppressions, tyrannies and betrayals; and, equipped with such knowledge, we push them out, in all their ignorance, into the century of the redemption of labour and the triumph of uni- versal peace, telling them that "history is the teacher of life." Modern Anthropology : Cesare Lombroso and Criminal Anthro- pology. The Anthropological Principles of Moral Hygiene. The credit rests with Italy for having rescued Anthropology from a sort of scientific Olympus, and led it by new paths to the perform- ance of an eminent and practical service. It was about the year 1855 that Cesare Lombroso applied the INTRODUCTION 5 anthropological method first to the study of the insane, and then to that of criminals, having perceived a similarity or relationship between these two categories of abnormal individuals. The observation and measurement of clinical subjects, studied especially in regard to the cranium by anthropometric methods, led the young innovator to discover that the mental derangements of the insane were accompanied by morphological and physical abnor- malities that bore witness to a profound and congenital alteration of the entire personality. Accordingly, for the purposes of diagno- sis, Lombroso came to adopt a somatic basis. And his anthropo- logical studies of criminals led him to analogous results. The method employed was in all respects similar to the natural- istic method which anthropology had taken over from zoology; that is to say, the description of the individual subject considered chiefly in his somatic or corporeal personality, but also in his physiological and mental aspect; the study of his responsiveness to his environment, and of his habits (manners and customs)] the grouping of subjects under types according to their dominant characteristic (classification) ; and finally, the study of their origin, which, in this case, meant a sociological investigation into the genesis of degenerate and abnormal types. Thus, since the prin- ciples of the Lombrosian doctrine spread with a precocious rapidity, it is a matter of common knowledge that criminals present anoma- lies of form, or rather morphological deviations associated with degeneration and known under the name of stigmata (now called malformations}, which, when they occur together in one and the same subject, confer upon him a wellnigh characteristic aspect, notably different from that of the normal individual; in other words, they stamp him as belonging to an inferior type, which, ac- cording to Lombroso 's earlier interpretation, is a reversion toward the lower orders of the human race (negroid and mongoloid types), as evidenced by anomalies of the vital organs, or internal animal- like characteristics (pithecoids) ; and that such stigmata were often accompanied by a predisposition to maladies tending to shorten life. Side by side with his somatic chart, Lombroso pains- takingly prepared a physio-pathological chart of criminal subjects, based upon a study of their sensibility, their grasp of ideas, their social and ethical standards, their thieves' jargon and tattoo- marks, their handwriting and literary productions. H And, by deducing certain common characteristics from these 6 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY complex charts, he distinguished, in his classic work, Delinquent Man, a variety of types, such as the morally insane, the epileptic delinquent, the delinquent from impulse or passion (irresistible impulsion), the insane delinquent, and the occasional delinquent. In this way, he succeeded in classifying a series of types what we might call sub-species diverging from the somatic and psycho-moral charts of normal men. But the common bio- pathological foundation of such types (with the exception of the last) was degeneration. We may well agree with Morselli that, in many parts of his treatise, Lombroso completed and amplified Morel, whose classic work, A Study of the Degeneration of the Human Species, was published in France at a time when Lombroso had hardly started upon his anthropological researches. Both of these great teachers based their doctrine upon a naturalistic concept of man, and then proceeded to consider him, through all his anomalies and perversions, in relation to that extraneous factor, his environment. Morel, indeed, considers the social causes of degeneration, that is to say, of progressive organic impoverishment, as more important than the individual phenomena; they act upon posterity and tend to create a human variety deviating from the normal type. Such causes may be summed up as including whatever tends to the organic detriment of civilised man: such (in the first rank) as alcoholism, poisoning associated with professional industries (metallic poisons), or with lack of nutriment (pellagra), conditions endemic in certain locali- ties (goitre), infective maladies (malaria, tuberculosis), denutrition (surme'nage). It may be said that whatever produces prolonged suffering, or whatever we class under the term vices, or even the neglect of our duties, chief among which is that of working (para- sitism of the rich), or any of the causes which exhaust, or paralyse, or perturb our normal functions, are causes of degeneration, of impoverishment of the species. Such is the doctrine which underlies the etiological concept of abnormal personality in psychiatry as well as in criminology, or points the way to its bio-social sources. Accordingly, just as general Anthropology sought to investigate the origins of races or that of the human species in the very roots of life, so criminal Anthropology searches the origins of defective personality in its social surroundings. The ethical problems which are raised by such a doctrine INTRODUCTION 7 cannot fail to be of interest to us. The Lombrosian theories, by raising these problems, have not only shaken the foundations of penal law, but have even brought about a moral renovation of conscience. We will leave to the jurists the great civic labor resulting from having brought the individual as well as the crime under consideration, in relation to the social phenomenon of delinquency in other words, of having substituted an anthro- pological for a speculative attitude. Whether the delinquent should be cured, or simply isolated, or even subjected to punish- ment; whether the prison should be transformed into an asylum for the criminal insane ; whether the penal laws should be reformed on principles of a higher order of civil morality : these are problems which interest us only secondarily. What does interest us directly as educators is the necessity of laying our course in accordance with the standard of social morality which such a doctrine reveals and imposes upon us: since it is our duty to prepare the conscience of the rising generation. And, furthermore, to consider whether the organisation of our schools and of their methods is in conformity with such social progress. If we cast a general glance at social ethics, from the primitive beginnings of human intercourse, we witness the evolution of the vendetta. There was, first, the individual vendetta. It was a form of primordial justice, with which were associated the senti- ments of dignity, honour and solidarity; the injured party avenged himself by slaying; and the family of the slain retaliated by a new vendetta against the family of the slayer; and thus from generation to generation the tragic heritage continued to be handed down. Even now, in certain districts of civilised countries there exist survivals of these primitive forms of justice. In such cases, the slayer is held to be, not only honourable but virtuous. Analogously, in course of time, the individual vendetta, regulated by special formalities, developed into the duel for a point of honour. At a more advanced period, in the course of the organisation of society, the task of vengeance was taken away from the indi- vidual, and the social administration of justice was established. Thereafter, the act of an offender was punished by the people collectively, and the victims of the act had no other recompense from society than that of a sense of satisfied hatred. But throughout all civil progress, from the most primitive forms of society down to our own times, there persisted, as a 8 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY fundamental principle, the concept of vengeance, coupled with the two great moral principles, individually and collectively, of human society: honour and justice. The naturalistic concept introduced by the Lombrosian doctrine, namely, living man entering as a concrete reality into the midst of abstract moral principles, shatters this association of ideas, and by so doing prepares the way for a new order of things which is not a progess of evolution, but the beginning of an epoch. Vengeance disappears in the new conception of the defense of society and of an active campaign for the progress of humanity; and it ushers in an epoch of redemp- tion and of solidarity, in which all limitations of human brother- hood are swept away. The theories of Morel and Lombroso have resulted in calling the attention of civilised man to all the types of the physiologically inferior; the mentally deficient, epileptics, delinquents; shedding light upon their pathological personality, and transforming into interest and pity the contempt and neglect that were formerly the portion of such creatures. In this way science has accom- plished in their behalf a work analogous to that of certain saints on behalf of lepers and sufferers from cancer in the middle ages. At that epoch, and even down to the beginning of modern times, the sick were abandoned to themselves and languished, covered with sores, in the midst of the horrors of infection; lepers were universally shunned, and their bodies decomposed without succor. It was only when these miserable beings began to awaken pity, in the place of loathing and repulsion, and to attract the charity of saints, instead of spreading panic among egoists and cowards, that the care of the sick began upon a vast scale, with the founda- tion of hospitals, the progress of medicine, and later of hygiene. To-day those purulent plague-spots of the middle ages no longer exist; and infection is being combated with progressive success, in the triumph of physical health. Yet, we are standing to-day on the selfsame level as the middle ages, in respect to moral plague-spots and infections; the phe- nomenon of criminality spreads without check or succor, and up to yesterday it aroused in us nothing but repulsion and loathing. But now that science has laid its finger upon this moral fester, it demands the cooperation of all mankind to combat it. Accordingly we find ourselves in the epoch of hospitals for the morally diseased, the century of their treatment and cure; we have INTRODUCTION 9 initiated a social movement toward the triumph of morality. We educators must not forget that we have inaugurated the epoch of spiritual health; because I believe that it is we who are destined to be the true physicians and nurses of this new cure. From the middle ages until now, the science of medicine has slowly been evolving for us the principles required to guarantee our bodily health; but we know very well that while cleanliness and hygiene are signs of civilisation, it is its moral standard that establishes its level. This moral solidarity is something which it is our duty to under- stand thoroughly, if we wish to undertake the noble task of edu- cators in the Twentieth Century, which was prepared in advance by the intensive intellectual activity of the century of science. Granting the social phenomenon of crime, we ought to ask our- selves: where does the fault lie? If we are to acquit the individual criminal of responsibility, it falls back necessarily upon the social community through which the causes of degeneration and disease have filtered. Accordingly, it is we, every one of us, who are at fault : or rather, we are beginning to awaken to a consciousness that it is a sin to foster or to tolerate such social conditions as make possible the suffering, the vices, the errors that lead to physiolog- ical pauperism, to pathology, to the degeneration of posterity. The idea is not a new one: all great truths were perceived in every age by the elect few; the fundamental principles of the doctrine of Lombroso are to be already found in Greek philosophy and in that of Christ; Aristotle, in his belief that there is some one par- ticular organism corresponding to each separate manifestation of nature, foreshadows the concept of the correspondence between the morphological and psychic personality; and St. John Chrisostom expounds the principle of moral solidarity in the collective respon- sibility of society, when he says: "you will render account, not only of your own salvation, but of that of all mankind; whoever prays ought to feel himself burdened with the interests of the entire human race." Now, if it is not yet in our power to achieve a social reform based on the eradication of degenerative causes since society can be perfected only gradually it is nevertheless within our power to prepare the conscience for acceptance of the new morality, and by educational means to help along the civil progress which science has revealed to us. The honest man, the worthy man, the 10 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY man of honour, is not he who avenges himself; but he who works for something outside himself, for the sake of society at large, in order to purify it of its evils and its sins, and advance it on its path of future progress. In this way, even though we fail to prepare the material environment, we shall have prepared efficient men. In addition to this momentous principle of social ethics, the Lombrosian doctrines confront us squarely with the philosophic question of liberty of action, the controverted question of Stuart Mill, namely that of "free will." The libertarians admit the freedom of the will as one of the noblest of human prerogatives, on which the responsibility for our acts depends; the determinists recognise that the act of volition obeys certain predetermined causes. Now the Lombrosian theories find these causes, not after the fashion of the Pythagoreans, in cosmic laws or astrology, but in the constitution of the organism, thus serving as a powerful illus- tration of that physiological determinism, under whose guidance modern positive philosophy draws its inspiration.* In the case of criminality, the actions of the degenerate delin- quent are dependent upon a multiplicity of internal factors, that are almost necessarily governed by special predispositions. But, also in accordance with the Lombrosian doctrine, there are external factors which concur in determining acts of volition, factors relating to the environment, studied in accordance with rather vast conceptions: the actions of the individual are determined in advance by that social intercourse in which the great phenomena of any given civilisation have their necessary origin phenomena such as crime, prostitution, the grade of culture accessible to the majority, the character of industrial products, the limits of general mortality. Now, just as there are necessary fluctuations in the tables of mortality, so also there are fluctuations in the quantity and quality of those individual phenomena that are looked upon as crimes : and in the one case no less than in the other, those who are predisposed are the ones in whom occurs the necessary outbreak of phenomena having their origin in society. This constitutes in criminology, as well as in psychiatry, the re- sultant of all etiological concepts, pertaining to the interpretation of individual phenomena. It is precisely the same concept as that so exhaustively demonstrated by Que"telet, with the aid of European statistics, in his Social Physics, and it has come to represent in * From a work by E. MORSELLI: Cesare Lombroso and Scientific Philosophy. INTRODUCTION 11 modern science that fundamental concept which was to be found in all the great religions, of the dependence of the individual upon a governing force that is superior to him. This interpretation of individual phenomena cannot be ignored in the great problems of education; because the more literally we interpret the doctrine here set forth, just so much the less trust must be placed in the efficacy of education as a modifying influence upon personality, while it will acquire new importance as a co-worker in the interpre- tation of social epochs and individual activities, over which it should exercise a watchful guidance. But meanwhile it is of interest to us to note how the anthro- pological movement, introduced with great simplicity of method, without any scientific or philosophical preconceptions, has led the investigations of psychiatry into vast and unsuspected fields of social ethics, bringing into practice fundamental reforms, analo- gous to those relating to penal law. Achille De Giovanni and Physiological Anthropology; Anthro- pological Principles of Physical Hygiene. Another practical devel- opment of anthropology is that instituted by Professor De Gio- vanni, who has introduced into his medical clinic at Padua the anthropological method in the clinical examination of patients. He applies the well-known naturalistic procedure, namely, the discription of individuals, their classification into types, according to common fundamental characteristics, and the etiological study of their personality. But while Lombroso took note of malforma- tions solely in relation to other symptoms of degeneration, De Giovanni has established a strictly physiological basis for his investigations. Accordingly, he considers the human individual in his entirety, as a functionating organism, and he regards all inharmonious bodily proportions as signifying a necessary predis- position to certain determined forms of illness. With this end in view, he does not concern himself about single malformations, such for example as prognathism, the frontal angle, etc., but rather with the general relations of development between the bust which contains the organs essential to vegetative life, and the limbs; and from the external morphology of the bust, determined by measure- ments, he seeks to establish the reciprocal relations in development within the visceral cavities: "the proportions of the human body depend upon the development of its organs; and equally with its proportions, the whole physiological strength of the body depends 12 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY upon its organs taken collectively." Whoever has a defective chest capacity not only possesses a smaller allowance of organs fitted for respiration and circulation of the blood, but as a result of such anomaly of development he is also predisposed to at- tacks of special maladies, such for example as chronic catarrh of the bronchial tubes or pulmonary tuberculosis. Whoever, on the contrary, is over-developed in abdominal dimensions, will be sub- ject to disturbances of the digestive system and of the liver. In his classic work, Morphology of the Human Body, De Giovanni proceeds to elaborate a doctrine of temperaments, and of their several predispositions to disease, the tendency of which is to transfer the basis of medicine from a study of diseases to that of the individual patients, and to revive in modern days the ancient concepts of the Greek school of medicine, which from the time of Hippocrates and Galen drew up admirable charts of the funda- mental physical types. In place of the ancient classification of temperaments into nervous, sanguine, bilious and lymphatic, we have to-day as substitutes, according to the school of De Giovanni, morphological types that are very nearly equivalent, and in which the predominant disorders are respectively diseases of the heart, the nervous system, the liver and the lungs. In short, the result of this theory has been to establish an internal factor of predisposition to disease, analogous to that established by Lombroso as a predisposition to the phenomena of crime. And even here the mesogenic factors, that is, the influence of environment, must be taken into consideration: but environ- ment acts equally upon all individuals : nearly everyone encounters, in his surroundings, that nerve-strain which leads to cardiac disorders and to neurasthenia; almost everyone encounters the bacilli of tuberculosis; the causes of general mortality are dictated by the very conditions of civilisation. But among the vast major- ity who pass unharmed along the insidious paths of adaptation, only a few fall victims to the particular disease to which some spe- cial anomaly of their organism predisposes them. In this way we can understand how it happens that certain ones have reason to dread a cold that will develop into bronchitis, and others on the contrary must guard themselves from errors in diet which will lead to intestinal disorders. The part of De Giovanni's theory which is of special interest is that which leads to a consideration of the ontogenetic development INTRODUCTION 13 in relation to the anomalies of the physio-morphological personal- ity: "At every epoch of life this principle is applicable: Namely, that the reason for a special predisposition to disease is to be found in a special organic morphology. The individual is in a ceaseless state of transformation, and consequently at different periods of his life he may show a susceptibility to different diseases." A person who is predisposed to suffer continually from some com- plaint during his adult years, was usually unwell during the greater part of his childhood, although from some other disease; and with this as a basis, a scientific system of observation could speak prophetically regarding the physio-pathological destiny of a child. It is known, for example, that children subject to scrofula are predisposed to arrive at maturity with an undeveloped chest and a tendency to pulmonary tuberculosis. From our point of view as educators, the doctrine of tempera- ments, and of their respective predispositions to disease, offers a deep interest, the nature of which is made evident by the author of the theory himself : for he points out that the period of childhood is the one best fitted in which to combat the abnormal predisposi- tions of the organism, wisely guiding its development, to the final end of achieving an ideal of health, which depends upon the har- mony of form and consequently of functions, in other words, upon the full attainment of physical beauty. Here also, as in the Lombrosian doctrines, etiology fulfils the lofty task of throwing light upon the causal links between the bio- sociologic causes and the congenital anomalies of the physiological personality. The hereditary tendencies to disease, the errors of sexual hygiene, especially those regarding maternity, reveal to us the principal causes of that accumulation of imperfections that oppress and deform the average normal human being. It is be- cause of such errors and such ignorance that hardly any of us attain that harmonic beauty that would render us immune to the treacheries of environment, and enable us to achieve, in the triumphant security of good health, our normal biological development. It is not too much to say, that it is etiology which, applied to the Lombrosian doctrines, reveals the faults of society, the sins of the world, and, applied to the theories of De Giovanni, reveals its errors; and that from the two together there results a sort of ethical guide leading toward the supreme ideal of the 2 14 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY purification of the world and the perfectionment of the human species. These are ideals which were in part cherished by the Greeks, who made their system of education the basis of their physical develop- ment. Such physiological doctrines are precisely what we also need to round out our plan for a moral education. Giuseppe Sergi and Pedagogic Anthropology: Anthropological Bases of Human Hygiene. It is also an Italian to whom we owe that practical extension of anthropology that leads us straight into the field of pedagogy. It was my former teacher, Giuseppe Sergi, who, as early as 1886, defended with the ardor of a prophet the new scientific principle of studying the pupils in our schools by methods prescribed by anthropology. Like the scientists who preceded him, he was thus led to substitute (in the field of pedagogy) the human individual taken from actual life, in place of general principles or abstract philosophical ideas. As a matter of fact, while the doctrines of Lombroso and De Giovanni are profoundly reformatory, they nevertheless offer us nothing more substantial than certain new ideals of morality and social improvement. But the really practical field in which these ideals might in a large measure be realised is the school. What progress would result for humanity if, on the basis of these new ethical principles, we contented ourselves with trans- forming our prisons into insane asylums? Such scanty fruit might well be compared to the mercy of that mediaeval lordling who, out of consideration for a gentleman, commuted his sentence from hanging to decapitation. And scanty fruit would also be reaped by the science of medicine if, in its new anthropological develop- ment, it should content itself merely with diagnosing the personal- ity of the patient, in addition to the disease; that is to say, for example, if, instead of telling a patient that his attack of bronchitis would be cured within twenty days, it should go on to predict, on the basis of the morphology of his body, that he would infallibly fall ill every year, until such time as pulmonary tuberculosis should put a fatal ending to his days. On the contrary, behind the light of ideality that shimmers through and across these doctrines, we perceive our plain duty to trace out a path that will lead to a regeneration of humanity. If some practical line of action is to result, it will undoubtedly have to be exerted upon humanity in the course of development, in other words, at that period of life when the organism, being still in the INTRODUCTION 15 course of formation, may be effectively directed and consequently corrected in its mode of growth. Accordingly, the possible solution of the most momentous social problems, such as those of criminality, predisposition to disease, and degeneration, may be hoped for only within the limits of that space which society sets aside for guiding the new genera- tions in their development. In the school, we have hitherto retained, almost as a principle of justice, a leveling uniformity among the pupils: an abstract equality which seeks to guide all these separate childish individu- alities toward a single type which cannot be called an idealised type, because it does not represent a standard of perfection, but is on the contrary a non-existent philosophical abstraction: the Child. Educators are prepared for their practical services to childhood, by studies based upon this abstract infantile personality; and they enter upon their active work in school with the precon- ception that they must discover in every pupil a more or less faith- ful incarnation of the said type; and thus, year after year, they delude themselves with the idea that they have understood and educated the child. Now, this supposed uniformity cannot exist in the children of a human race so varied that it can produce, at the selfsame time, a Musolino* and a Luccheni,* a Guglielmo Marconi and a Giosue Carducci. All the different social types of men who labor with their hands and with their brains, the transformers of their environment, the producers of wealth, the directors of governments, equally with the undistinguished crowd of parasites, the enemies of society, all lived together in childhood, sitting side by side, upon the same school benches. It was in 1898 that the first Italian Pedagogical Congress was held in Turin, and was attended by about three thousand educators. Under the spur of a new passion, that made me foresee the future mission and transformation of a chosen social class, setting forth upon a glorious task of redemption the class of educators I attended the Congress. I was at that time an interloper, because the subsequent felicitous union between medicine and pedagogy still remained a thing undreamed of, in the thoughts of that period. We had reached the third day of our sessions, and were all awaiting with interest an address by Professor Ildebrando Bencivenni, who was announced to speak upon the theme of "The School that *MUSOLINO was a brigand, and LUCCHENI an anarchist and regicide. 16 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Educates." The discussion of this subject was expected to con- stitute the substantial work of the Congress, which seemed to have been called together chiefly in order to solve the problem of the greatest pedagogic importance: how to give a moral education. It was that very iriorning, just as the session was opening, that the frightful news burst upon us like a thunderbolt, that the Empress, Elizabeth of Austria, had been assassinated, and that once again an Italian had struck the blow! The third regicide in Europe within a brief time, that was due to an Italian hand! The entire public press was unanimously stirred to indigna- tion against the educators of the people; and as a demonstration of hostility, they all absented themselves that day from partici- pating in the Congress. There was something approaching a tumult in the ranks of teachers; inasmuch as they felt themselves innocent, they pro- tested against the calumny of the newspapers in thus unjustly holding them responsible. Amid the intense silence of the assembly, Bencivenni delivered a splendid discourse regarding the reform of educative methods in the school. Next in order, I took the platform and, speaking as a physician, I said: It will be all in vain for you to reform the methods of moral education in our schools, if you do not bear in mind that certain individuals exist, who are the very ones capable of committing such unspeakable deeds, and who pass through school without ever once being influenced in any manner by educa- tion. There exist various categories of abnormal children, who will fruitlessly go through the same grade over and over again, disturbing the routine and discipline of the class: and in spite of punishments and reprimands, they will end by being expelled without having learned anything at all, without having been modi- fied in any manner. What becomes of these individuals who, even in childhood, reveal themselves as the future rebels and ene- mies of society? Yet we leave such a dangerous class in the most complete abandonment. Now, it is useless to reform the school and its methods, if the reformed school and the reformed methods are still going to fail to reach the very children who, for the pro- tection of society, are most in need of being reached ! Any method whatever suffices to fit a sane and normal child for a useful and moral life. The reform that is demanded in school and in pedagogy is one that will lead to the protection of all children INTRODUCTION 17 during their years of development, including those who have shown themselves refractory to the environment of social life. Thus I laid the first stone toward the education of mentally deficient children and the foundation of special schools for them. The work which followed forms, I think, the first historic page of a great regeneration in the whole class of teachers and of a profound reform in the school; a question so momentous that it spread rap- idly throughout all Italy and was followed by the establishment of institutes and classes designed expressly for the deficient; and, most important of all, by the universal conviction which it carried, it also constituted the first page of pedagogy reformed upon an anthropological basis. This is precisely the new development of pedagogy that goes under the name of scientific: in order to educate, it is essential to know those who are to be educated. " Taking measurements of the head, the stature, etc." (in other words, applying the anthro- pological method), "is, to be sure, not in itself the practice of pedagogy," says Sergi, in speaking of what the biological sciences have contributed to this branch of learning during the nineteenth century, "But it does mean that we are following the path that leads to pedagogy, because we cannot educate anyone until we know him thoroughly." Here again, in the field of pedagogy, the naturalistic method must lead us to the study of the separate subjects, to a description of them as individuals, and their classification on a basis of char- acteristics in common; and since the child must be studied not by himself alone, but also in relation to the factors of his origin and his individual evolution since every one of us represents the effect of multifold causes it follows that the etiological side of the pedagogical branch of modern anthropology, like all its other branches, necessarily invades the field of biology and at the same time of sociology. Among the types which it will be of pedagogic interest to trace in school-children, we must undoubtedly find those that corre- spond to the childhood of those abnormal individuals already stud- ied in Lombroso's Criminal Anthropology, and in De Giovanni's Clinical Morphology. Nevertheless, it is a new study, because the characteristics of the child are not those of the adult reduced to a diminutive scale, but they constitute childhood characteristics. Man changes as he 18 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY grows; the body itself not only undergoes an increase in volume, but a profound evolution in the harmony of its parts and the com- position of its tissues; in the same way, the psychic personality of the man does not grow, but evolves; like the predisposition to disease which varies at different ages in each individual considered pathologically. For all those anomalous types which to-day are included under the popular term of deficients, for the pathological weaklings who reveal symptoms of scrofula or rickets, there is no doubt that special schools and methods of education are essential. We teachers would like, through educative means, to counteract the ultimate consequences of degeneration and predisposition to disease: if criminal anthropology has been able to revolutionise the penalty in modern civilisation, it is our duty to undertake, in the school of the future, to revolutionise the individual. And by achiev- ing this ideal, pedagogic anthropology will to a large extent have taken the place of criminal anthropology, just as schools for the abnormal and feeble, multiplied and perfected under the protection of an advanced civilisation, will in a large measure have replaced the prisons and the hospitals. We owe to the intuitive genius of Giuseppe Sergi the conception of a form of pedagogic anthropology far more exact in its methods of investigation than anything which had hitherto been fore- shadowed. This master takes the ground that a study of abnormal and weakly children is a task of absolutely secondary importance. What is imperative for us to know, he claims, is normal humanity, if we are to guide it intelligently toward that biological and moral perfection, on which the progress of humanity must depend. If general pedagogy is destined to be transformed under a naturalistic impulse, this will be effected only when anthropology turns its investigations to the normal human being. Educators are still very far from having a real knowledge of that collective body of school-children, on whom a uniformity of method, of encouragement and punishment is blindly inflicted; if, instead of this, the child could be brought before the teacher's eyes as a living individuality, he would be forced to adopt very different standards of judgment, and would be shaken to the very depths of his conscience by the revelation of a responsibility hitherto unsuspected. Let us take one or two examples; let us consider, among the pupils, one child who is very poor. INTRODUCTION 19 Studied by the anthropological method, he is revealed, in every personal physiological detail, as an inferior type. The child of poverty, as Niceforo has well shown, is an inferior in stature, in cranium, in weight, in muscular and intellectual strength; and the malformations, resulting from defects of growth, condemn him to an aesthetic inferiority; in other words, environment, mode of living, and nutrition may result in modifying even the relative beauty of the individual. The normal man may bear within him a germ of physical beauty inherited from parents who begot him normally, and yet this germ may not be able to develop, because impeded by environment. Accordingly, physical beauty consti- tutes in itself a class privilege. This child, weak in mind and in muscular force, when compared with the child of wealth, grown up in a favorable environment, shows less attractive manners, because he has been reared in an atmosphere of social inferiority, and in school is classed as a pariah. Less good looking and less refined, he fails to enlist the sympathy which the teacher so readily con- cedes to the courteous manners of more fortunate children; less intelligent himself, and unable to look for help from parents who, more than likely, are illiterate, he fails to obtain the encouragement of praise and high credit marks that are lavished upon stronger children, who have no need of being encouraged. Thus it happens that the down-trodden of society are also the down-trodden in the school. And we call this justice; and we say that demerit is pun- ished and merit is rewarded; but in this way we make ourselves the sycophants of nature and of social error, and not the adminis- trators of justice in education! On the other hand, let us examine another child, living in an agreeable environment, in the higher social circles; he possesses all the physical attraction and grace that render childhood charming. He is intelligent, smiling, gentle-mannered; at the cost of small effort he gives his teacher ample satisfaction by his progress, and even if the teacher's method of instruction happens to be somewhat faulty, the child's family hasten privately to make up for the defi- ciency. This child is destined to reap a harvest of praise and re- wards; the teacher, egotistically complacent over the abundant fruit gathered with so little effort, and the moral and aesthetic satisfaction derived from the fortunate pupil, gives him unmeasured affection and smooths his whole course through school. But if we study the rich, intelligent, prize-winning child carefully, we 20 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY find that he, too, is not perfect in his anthropological development; he is too narrow-chested. This is the penalty of the rich and the studious; every privilege brings its own peril; every benefit contains a snare; every one of us to-day, without the light of science, runs the risk of diminishing our physiological equilibrium, by living in an environment that contains so many defects. The child of luxury, living continually indoors, diligently studying in his well- warmed home, under his mother's vigilant eye, is impeding the development of his own chest; and when he has completed his growth and his education, will find himself with insufficient lungs; his physical personality will have been permanently thrown out of equilibrium by a defective environment. This highly cultured man may some day find himself urged on to big endeavour; his intelligence will create vast ideals, but he will not have at his disposal the physical force that is so strictly associated with the power to draw from the surrounding air a sufficient quantity of oxygen by means of respiration. The spirit is ready, but the flesh is weary; and all his ambitious hopes may be shattered in the very flower of life by pulmonary tuberculosis, to which he has himself created an artificial predisposition. It is our duty to understand the individual, in order to avoid these fatal errors; and to arise to higher standards of justice, founded upon the real exigencies of life guided by that spirit of love which is essential to the teacher, in order to render him truly an educator of humanity. Love is the essential spirit of fecundity whose one purpose is to beget life. And in the teacher, love of humanity must find expression through his work, because the very purpose of love is to create something. Accordingly, this spirit of fecundity ought to produce the teacher's mission, which to-day is the mission of reforming the school and accepting the proud duty of universal motherhood, destined to protect all mankind, the normal and abnormal alike. This is a reform, not only of the school, but of society as a whole, because through the redeeming and protective labours of pedagogy, the lowest human manifestations of degenera- tion and disease will disappear; and, more important still, it will make it henceforth impossible for normal human beings, conceived from germs that promise strength and beauty, little by little to lose that beauty and strength along the rough paths of life, through which no one has hitherto had the knowledge to guide them. INTRODUCTION 21 "In the social life of to-day an urgent need has arisen," says our common master, Giuseppi Sergi, "a renovation of our methods of education and instruction; and whoever enrolls himself under this standard, is fighting for the regeneration of man." Enrico Morselli and Scientific Philosophy. Among the names of Italian scientists that must be called to mind, in discussing the modern developments of anthropology, a special lustre attaches to that of Enrico Morselli, who has earned the right to call himself the critic, or rather, the philosopher of anthropology. Notwith- standing that he has made his name famous in the vast field of psychiatry, this distinguished Genoese practitioner has found time to assimilate the most diverse branches of science and the most widely separated avenues of thought, qualifying himself as a critic, and systematising experimental science on the lines of scientific philosophy. His great work, General Anthropology, is developed on synthetic lines, embracing in a single scientific system all the acquired knowledge of the past two centuries, and may rightfully be called the first treatise on philosophic anthropology. While the experi- mental sciences, by collecting and recording separate phenomena, were gradually preparing, throughout the nineteenth century, a great mass of analytical material, chosen blindly and without form, they apparently engendered a new trend of thought posi- tively hostile to philosophy: the odium antiphilosophicum, as Morselli calls it. And conversely, the speculative positivism of Ardigo remained throughout its development a stranger to the immediate sources of experimental research, and adhered strictly to the field of pure philosophy. It remained for Morselli to per- ceive that the scientific material prepared by experimental science was in reality philosophical material, for which it was only neces- sary to prepare instruments and means in order to systematise it and lead it into the proper channels for the construction of a scientific philosophy. Throughout the whole period of his intellectual activity, Morselli sought to unite experimental science and philosophy, by taking his content from the former and his form from the latter. To gather and catalogue bare facts could not be the scope of science; such labour could result only in sterilising the mind. "The human mind," says Morselli, "does not stop at the objective study of a phenomenon and its laws; it wants also to fathom their 22 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY nature; the how does not content it, but it must also have the wherefore.'' It must mount from facts to synthesis, constantly achieving a new and fuller understanding. But what determines the content of philosophy is not speculative thought, but facts that have been collected objectively. Such is the view of Enrico Morselli, expressed in the introduction to his Review of Scientific Philosophy: "We think the moment has come for professional philosophers to allow themselves to be convinced that the progress of physical and biological sciences has profoundly changed the tendencies of philosophy; so that it is no longer an assemblage of speculative systems, but rather the synthesis of partial scientific doctrines, the expression of the highest general truths, derived solely and immediately from the study of facts. On the other hand, we hope also that in every student of the separate sciences, whether pure or applied, the intimate conviction will take root that no science which applies the method of observation and experiment to the particular class of phenomena which form its subject, can call itself fully developed so long as it is limited to the collection and classification of facts. Scientific dilettantism of this sort must end by sterilising the human mind, whose natural tendency is to advance from observed phenomena by successive stages to the investigation of their partial laws, and from these to the research of more and more general truths. But philosophy, thus understood, can never confine itself within the dogmatism of a system, but rather will leave the individual mind free to make constant new concessions, in the pursuit of the truth. "The human mind is condemned to search forever, and perhaps never to find, the ultimate solution to the eternal problem which it offers to itself; accordingly, let it keep itself at liberty to accept to-day as probable, a solution which further researches or newly discovered facts will compel it to reject to-morrow in favor of another. We must admit that in philosophic concepts there is a constant evolution, or rather natural selection, thanks to which the strongest concepts, those best constituted, those that are fitted to make use of scientific discoveries with the broadest liberality, are predisposed to prove victorious or at least to hold their own for a long time in the struggle."* It is this liberty that makes it possible for us to pursue experi- * From a study by Prof. E. Troilo, Enrico Morselli as a Philosopher. In the volume by MOBSEMJ, MILAN: VALLARDI, 1906. INTRODUCTION 23 mental investigations, without fear that our brains may become sterile. And by liberty we mean the readiness to accept new concepts whenever experience proves to us that they are better and closer to the truth which we are seeking. Even though the absolute truth were never reached, the experimental method is the path most likely to lead us toward it step by step. Accordingly, what we should demand of investigators is not a creed, a philosophic system, but "the objective method in their researches and in the sources of their inductions." For this is the way to train the workers and philosophers of experimental science. And the same lines must serve us for building up a philoso- phy capable of shaping a regenerated method of pedagogy. THE METHOD The determining factor in anthropology is the same that determines all experimental science: the method. A well-defined method in natural science applied to the study of living man offers us the scientific content, which we are in the course of seeking. The content bursts upon us as a surprise, as the result of applying the method, by means of which we make advances in the investigation of truth. Whenever a science prescribes for itself, not a content but a method of experimenting, it is for that reason called an experi- mental science. It is not easy for those who come fresh from the pursuit of philosophic studies to adapt themselves to this order of ideas. The philosopher, the historian, the man of letters prepare them- selves by assimilating the content of one particular branch of learning; and thereby they define the boundaries of their indi- vidual knowledge and close the circle of their individual thought, however vast that circle may be. Indeed, the elaboration of human thought, the series of historic deeds, the accumulated mass of literature, may offer immense fields ; but after the student has little by little assimilated them, he cannot do otherwise than contain them within him precisely as they are. Their extent is limited by the centuries that cover the history of civilised man, and it is invariable, since it exists as a work accomplished by man. 24 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Experimental science is of an entirely different sort. We must look upon it as a means of investigation into the field of the infinite and the unknown. If we wish to compare it to some branch of learning that is universally familiar, we may say that an experi- mental science is similar to learning to read. When as children we learn to read, we may, to be sure, estimate the effort that it costs us to master a mechanical device; but such a mechanical device is a means, it is a magic key that will unlock the secrets of wisdom, multiply our power to share the thoughts of our con- temporaries, and render us dexterous in despatching the practical affairs of life. Thus considered, reading is a branch of learning that has no prescribed limits. It is our duty to learn to read the truth, in the book of nature; I. by collecting separate facts, according to the objective method; II. by proceeding methodically from analysis to synthesis. The subject of our research is the individual human being. 1. The Objective Collecting of Single Facts. In the gathering of data, our science makes use of two means of investigation, as we have already seen : observation or anthroposcopy ; and measurement or anthropometry. In order to take measurements, we must know the special anthropometric instruments and how to use them; and in making observations, we must treat ourselves as instruments, that is, we must divest ourselves of our own personality, of every preconception, in order to become capable of recording the real facts objectively. For since our purpose is to gather our facts from nature and await her revelations, if we allowed ourselves to have scientific preconceptions, we might distort the truth. Here is the point which distinguishes experimental science from a specula- tive science; in the former, we must banish thought, in the latter we must build by means of thought. Accordingly at the moment when we are collecting our data, we must possess no other capacity than that of knowing how to collect them with extreme exactness and objectivity. Accordingly we need a method and a mental preparation, that is, a training which will accustom us to divest ourselves of our own personalities, in order to become simple instruments of investi- gation. For instance, if it were a question of measuring the heads of illiterate children and of other children of the same age, who are attending school, in order to learn whether the heads of INTRODUCTION 25 educated children show greater development, we need not only to know how to use the >millimetric scale and the cranial calipers which are the instruments adapted to this purpose; we need not only to know the anatomical points at which the instruments must be applied in the manner established by the accepted method; but we need in addition to be unaware, while taking the measurements, whether the child before us at a given moment is educated or illit- erate because the preconception might work upon us by sugges- tion and thus alter the result. Or again, to take what in a certain sense is an opposite case, a,nd nevertheless analogous, we may undertake a research into some absolutely unknown question, as for instance, what are the psychic characteristics of children whose development has kept fairly close to the normal average, and of those whose anthropological measurements diverge notably from the average: in such a case we ought to measure all the children, make the required psychological tests separately, and then compare the results of the two investigations. A woman student in my course, last year, undertook precisely this sort of investigation, namely, to find out what was the standing in school of children who represent the normal average anthropo- logical type, that is to say, those whose physical development had been all that was to be desired : and she found that normal children are vivacious (happy), very intelligent, but negligent; and conse- quently their number never includes the heads of the classes, the winners of prizes. In addition to gathering anthropological data, which requires a special technique of research, we need to know how to proceed 'to interpret them. We are no longer at the outset of our observations. No sooner was the method established, than there were a multitude of students in all parts of the world capable of objective research, that is to say, of anthropological investigations. The sum total of all these researches forms a scientific patrimony, which needs to be known to us, in order that our own conclusions may serve to complete those of other investigators, who have preceded us, and thus form a contribution to science. In other words, there have already been certain principles es- tablished and certain laws discovered, on an experimental basis; and all this forms a true and fitting content of our science. It will serve to guide us in our researches, and to furnish us with a stand- 26 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY ard of comparison for our own conclusions. Thus, for example, when we have measured the stature of a boy of ten, we have un- doubtedly gathered an individual anthropological fact; but in order to interpret it, we must know what is the average stature of boys of ten; and the average will be found established by previous investigators, who have obtained it from actuality, by applying the well-known method of measuring the stature, to a great number of individuals of a specified race, sex, and age, and by obtaining an average on the basis of such research. Accordingly, we ought to profit from the researches of others, whenever they have been received, as noteworthy, into the litera- ture of science. Nevertheless, the patrimony which science places at our disposition must never be considered as anything more than a guide, an expression of universal collaboration, in accordance with a uniform method. We must never jurare in verba magistri, never accept any master as infallible : we are always at liberty to repeat any research already made, in order to verify it ; and this form of investigation is part of the established method of experimental science. One fundamental principle must be clearly understood; that we can never become anthropologists merely by reading all the existing literature of anthropology, including the voluminous works on kindred studies and the in- numerable periodicals; we shall become anthropologists only at the moment when, having mastered the method, we become investigators of living human individuals. We must, in short, be producers, or nothing at all; assimilation is' useless. For example, let us suppose that a certain teacher has studied anthropology in books: if, after that, he is incapable of making practical observations upon his own pupils, to what end does his theoretical knowledge serve him? It is evident that theoretic study can have no other purpose than to guide us in the interpretation of data gathered directly from nature. Our only book should be the living individual; all the rest taken together form only the necessary means for reading it. 2. The Passage from Analysis to Synthesis. Assuming that we have learned how to gather anthropological data with a rigorously exact technique, and that we possess a theoretic knowledge and tables of comparative data: all this together does not suffice to qualify us as interpreters of nature. The marvellous reading of this amazing book demands on our part still other forms of prepara- INTRODUCTION 27 tion. In gathering the separate data, it may be said that we have learned how to spell, but not yet how to read and interpret the sense. The reading must be accomplished with broad, sweeping glances, and must enable us to penetrate in thought into the very synthesis of life. And it is the simple truth that life manifests itself through the living individual, and in no other way. But through these means it reveals certain general properties, certain laws that will guide us in grouping the living individuals according to their common properties; it is necessary to know them, in order to interpret individual differences dependent upon race, age, and sex, and upon variations due to the effort of adaptation to environ- ment, or to pathological or degenerative causes. That is to say, certain general principles exist, which serve to make us interpreters of the meaning, when we read in the book of life. This is the loftiest part of our work, carrying us above and be- yond the individual, and bringing us in contact with the very fountain-heads of life, almost as though it were granted us to materialise the unknowable. In this way we may rise from the arid and fatiguing gathering of analytical data, toward conceptions of noble grandeur, toward a positive philosophy of life; and un- veil certain secrets of existence, that will teach us the moral norms of life. Because, unquestionably, we are immoral, when we disobey the laws of life ; for the triumphant rule of life throughout the universe is what constitutes our conception of beauty and goodness and truth in short, of divinity. The technical method of proceeding toward synthesis, we may find well defined in biology : the data gathered by measurement can be grouped according to the statistical method, be represented graphically and calculated by the application of mathematics to biology: to-day, indeed, biometry and biostatistics tend to assume so vast a development as to give promise of forming independent sciences. The method in biology, considered as a whole, may be compared to the microscope and telescope, which are instruments, and yet enable us to rise above and beyond our own natural powers and come into contact with the two extremes of infinity; the infinitely little and the infinitely large. Objections and Defences. One of the objections made to peda- gogical anthropology is that it has not yet a completely defined con- 28 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY tent, on which to base an organic system of instruction and reliable general rules. It is the method alone that enables us to be eloquent in defence of pedagogic anthropology, against such an accusation. For the accusation itself is the embodiment of a conception of a method differing widely from our own : it is the accusation made by specula- tive science, which, resting on the basis of a content, refuses to acknowledge a science that is still lacking and incomplete in its content, because it is unable to conceive that a science may be essentially summed up in its method, which makes it a means of revelation. How could we conceive of the content of pedagogic anthropology otherwise than as something to be derived by the experimental method from the observation of school-children? And where could we conceive of a possible laboratory for such a science, if not in the school itself? The content will be determined little by little, by the application of the anthropological study to school-children in the school, and never in any other manner. Now, if it were necessary to await the completion of a content before proceeding to any practical application, where could we hope to get this content from especially since we look for no help either from speculative philosophy or divine revelation? When a method is applied to any positive science, it results in giving that science a new direction, that is to say, a new avenue of progress: And it is precisely in the course of advance along that avenue that the content of the science is formed: but if we never made the advance, the science would never take its start. Thus, for example, when the microscope revealed to medicine the existence of micro-organisms, and bacteriology arose as the positive study of epidemiology, it altered the whole procedure in the cure and pro- phylaxis of infective maladies. Prior to this epoch people believed that an epidemic was a scourge sent by divine wrath upon sinners; or else they imagined it was a miasma transported by the wind, which groves and eucalyptus trees might check; or they pictured the ground ejecting miasmatic poisons through its pores: and human- ity sought in vain to protect itself with bare-foot processions and religious ceremonies, attended by jostling throngs and cruel flagel- lation; or else they betook themselves to the shade of eucalyptus trees, in the midst of malarial lowlands. Entire cities were de- stroyed by pestilence, and malarial districts remained uncultured INTRODUCTION 29 deserts, because entire populations, in the brave effort to perform their work, were destroyed by successive impoverishment of the blood. It is bacteriology that has put to flight this darkness of ignorance that was the herald of death, and has created the modern condi- tions of environment, which, by a multitude of means, defend the individual and the nation from infective diseases; so that to- day civilised society may be said to be advancing toward a triumph over death. But the microbes have not all of them been discovered ; bacteri- ology and general pathology are still very far from having com- pleted their content. If we had been obliged to wait for such com- pletion, we should still be living quite literally in the midst of mediaeval epidemics; or, to state the case better, where in the world would the science of medicine ever have attained its new content? For it has been building it up, little by little, by directing medicine upon a new path. It was the introduction of this new method of investigating the patient and his environment that experimentally reaped the fruit of new etiological discoveries, and new means of defence : the microscope became perfected because it came into universal use in practice; bacterial cultures owe their perfectionment to the fact that they became the common means of investigation for the purpose of diagnosis; just as tests in clinical chemistry have become perfected through practical use. Without which, who would ever have perfected the microscope, or the science of bacteriology? In a word, whence are we to get the content of any positive science, if not from practical application? A direction and an applied method represent a triumph of progress; and in progress, a content cannot have defined limits. We do not know its goal; we know only that at the moment when it finds its goal, it will cease to be progress. It is many years since medicine abandoned the speculative course, and we see it to-day hourly enriching itself with new truths; its triumphal march is never checked, and it moves onward toward the invasion of future centuries. In the wake of its progress, that frightful phenomenon which we call mortality tends to fall steadily to a lower level; giving rise to the hope that through future progress it will cease to be the mysterious, menacing fate, ever watchful and ready to sever the invisible threads of human life. These threads are to-day revealing themselves as 30 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY the resistant fibres of a fabric; because, humanity by engaging collectively in the audacious search after truth, and by thus pro- tecting the interests of each individual through the common in- terests, has succeeded in offering a powerful resistance to the mysterious sheers. Accordingly, we may say that the substitution to-day of an anthropological development of pedagogy, in the place of a purely philosophical and speculative trend, does not offer it merely an additional content, an auxiliary to all the other forms of teaching on which it now comfortably reposes; but it opens up new avenues, fruitful in truth and in life; and as it advances along these avenues, regenerated from its very foundations upward, it may be that pedagogy is destined to solve the great problem of human redemption. THE METHOD TO BE FOLLOWED IN THESE LECTURES Lastly, just one more word regarding the didactic method that I intend to follow, in delivering this course of lectures. From the purpose already stated, it follows that this Course in Anthropology must be eminently practical. Of the three weekly lectures, only one will be theoretical; that is to say, only one in which I shall expound the content of our science; a second lecture will treat of the technique of the method; that is to say, I shall devote it to describing the practical way of gathering anthropological data, and how we must study them and re-group them in order to extract their laws; and finally, the third lecture will be practical and clinical; I shall devote it to the collection of anthropological data from human subjects, and little by little I shall try to work toward the individual study of pupils, until we reach the compila- tion of biographic charts. At the lectures of the third type, we shall have present subjects who will be, for the most part, normal, but some of them will be abnormal, and all will be drawn from the elementary schools of Rome. Finally, in further illustration of our course, we shall make excursions, visiting certain schools that offer some particular in- terest from our scientific point of view; to the end that we may supply what is lacking and what is needed to complete a University Course in Scientific Pedagogy, namely a "Pedagogical Clinic," where pupils of the widest variety of types might be educated, INTRODUCTION 31 and where it might be possible to lay practical foundations of a far-reaching reform in our schools. Accordingly, I shall repeat myself three times, in these lectures; first, by setting forth the scientific content, secondly, by expound- ing the methods of investigation, and thirdly, by applying in prac- tice what I have already taught in theory. The didactic method of repeating the same instruction under different forms, is also a feature of scientific pedagogy, because it represents the method by which positive science must be taught and acquired; and furthermore, it is the method that deserves to be applied wherever instruction of any sort is to be given. Hitherto, we have not learned how to study; we know only, or at least the majority of us do, how to absorb the contents of books. The only true student is the scientist, who knows how to advance slowly; we educators on the contrary plunge in a dizzy, headlong rush, through all acquirable knowledge. To study is to look steadily, to stand still, to assimilate and to wait. We should study for the sake of creating, since the whole object of taking is to be able to give again; but in this giving and taking we ought not to be mere instruments, like high-pressure suction pumps; in work of this sort we ought to be creators, and when we give back, to add that part which has been born and developed within us from what we acquired. It is wise to give our acquired knowledge time not only to be assimilated but also to develop freely in that fertile psychic ground that constitutes our innermost personality. In other words : assimilate by every possible means, and then wait. In order to start from a point of established knowledge, let us consider what is meant by meditation: to meditate means to isolate one's thoughts within the limits of some definite subject, and wait to see what that subject of its own accord may reveal to us, in the course of assimilation. The Jesuits succeeded in winning souls merely by encouraging the people to meditate; meditation opened up an unsuspected inner world, which fascinated the type of person accustomed to flit lightly in thought across a multitude of diverse matters; and under the spell of such fascination, their consciences could attribute to nothing less than some occult power, what was really the application of a great pedagogic principle. There is a great difference between reading and meditating: we may read a voluminous novel in a single night; we may meditate upon a verse of Scripture for an entire hour. Anyone who reads 32 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY a novel in a night undoubtedly squanders his physical powers, like a wind that passes over arid ground; but one who meditates assimi- lates in a special manner that surprises the meditator himself, because he feels something unforeseen coming to life within him, just as though a seed had been planted in fertile soil and, while remaining motionless, had begun to germinate. Accordingly, the act of holding acquired knowledge within ourselves for a period of time results in self-development; superficial learning, on the con- trary, means the exhaustion of our personal resources. We become steadily more exhausted and more inefficient, through too much study; and instead, we ought to become all the time more flourish- ing and more robust, if we studied in the proper way: and this is because we squander our psychic powers, instead of acquiring new energy. The consequence of this mistaken method is that we rapidly forget all that we have learned. Everything is acquired at the cost of effort; what we need is to labor patiently, in order to acquire in the real sense. To-day it is the fashion to study in order to enter upon that particular business or profession that is destined to be our life's work; what we ought to do instead, is to devote our energies to the conquest of thought and the elevation of the spirit. The didactic method that I am trying to illustrate is not a new one; it dates back to the first precursors of scientific pedagogy. Half a century ago, a marvellous work on pedagogy, based on similar principles, was issued from the press; it was the method elaborated by Seguin, based on thirty years of practical experi- ence in the education of idiotic children. Such a system cannot be foreign to the interests of schools intended for average, normal children, because it is not a specialised method, like that for deaf- mutes or for the blind. Being designed for the mentally deficient, this method applies to any class of undeveloped beings who are striving to grow bigger; we may even apply it to ourselves, and thereby increase our own mental stature. In short, pedagogically considered, it is a rational method. Perhaps it is already familiar to a good many of you; but an example or two will serve to illustrate it. Let us suppose that we have to impart a lesson in history to a deficient pupil: first of all, a picture is shown him, representing an historic fact; then the same fact will be shown him in as many different ways as possible- through the cinematograph, for example. Finally it will be acted INTRODUCTION 33 on the stage; and in this case, it is the children themselves who prepare the setting and endeavor, to the best of their ability, to impersonate the historic figures. Now, it is precisely at the moment when they are reproducing the scene that these children feel it, and it is only then that they learn. But this is not peculiar to deficient children: the same path is the common path for all; it is necessary for all of us to assimilate mentally and to feel, before we can say: I have learned. If there is a latent tendency in the mind of a normal child to love historic happenings, then he will love them, and thus reveal to his teacher one of his intimate and secret tendencies ; in other words, we shall have developed a taste, of which the hidden germs already existed. Perhaps it was in some such way that Sabatier succeeded in realising the environment and the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Let us suppose, again, that we have to teach a child what is meant, in geography, by a mountain, a lake, or an island. Accord- ing to Seguin's method, we should take the child out into the garden, and make him construct a miniature mountain with earth, a lake with water, etc., than make him trace their geograph- ical outline with chalk, then make him paint them in oils or water- colours, so that in the end he will have, as the result of his handi- work, a little monument, so to speak, of the acquired lesson. It is only after a child has worked that he begins to learn and to be in- terested. Does not everyone know that, as between the one who receives, and the one who confers a favor, it is the latter who cares the more, because he has done something? The next step is to take the pupil to the top of some hill, so that he may see with his own eyes the things that we have taught him in the garden and through the medium of work; and in the silent contemplation of nature, it may happen that a normal child will hear the call of her mysterious voice, and reveal a dormant tendency to become some day, perhaps, a geographer, or an explorer, like the Duke of the Abruzzi; or perhaps he will feel that lure of nature which, some day or other, when he reaches maturity, will lead him to investigate the secrets of the earth and of meteorological phenom- ena, even to the point of such heroic sacrifice as was exemplified by Professor Matteucci, during the eruption of Vesuvius. Repeating the same things over and over, keeping the mind fixed upon the selfsame lesson, teaching how to reproduce objects by the work of the hands, bringing the pupil into direct contact 34 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY with the object that he is desired to study, such is the true way to enable him to learn. The man who has been educated according to this method has not fruitlessly expended his energy in fatiguing study; he has preserved his forces unimpaired; indeed, if anything, they are all the sounder and more flourishing. By such a system of education, we launch upon the world a sturdy generation, imbued with that living energy, that constitutes the one and only mainspring that really makes the world move. Accordingly this is the method that we shall follow: studying, repeating, working experimentally: the subject of our study is humanity; our pupose is to become teachers. Now, what really makes a teacher is love for the human child; for it is love that transforms the social duty of the educator into the higher con- sciousness of a mission. THE LIMITS OF PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY In concluding this preamble, it may be well to define the form of study and the purposes of pedagogical anthropology; in order to distinguish it clearly from general anthropology and from the allied branches of applied anthropology (criminal and medical anthropology). Pedagogical anthropology, like all the other branches of anthro- pology, studies man from the naturalistic point of view ; but, unlike general anthropology, it does not concern itself with the philo- sophic problems related to it, such, for instance, as the origin of man, the theories of monism or polygenism, of emigration, and classification according to race; problems which, as everyone knows, are difficult of solution, and which constitute the pivot on which biological anthropology revolves. Thus, for example, bacteri- ology has its origin in biology, in so far as it has certain orders of living organisms for the subject of its research; but it well nigh ignores the problems of biological philosophy associated with them, such as the origin of living matter and of the primitive cell; the fixity or variability of monocellular species; the possibility of life in the isolated nucleus (the microbe), or in the isolated protoplasm (the monera), but it devotes itself to the direct study of microscopic organisms, both in themselves alone and in their influence upon their environment; in short, bacteriology has for its purpose the acquirement of that practical knowledge necessary INTRODUCTION 35 for a successful campaign against the causes of infective maladies, and for rendering infected districts sanitary. In much the same way, pedagogical anthropology, considered as a form of study, departs from general anthropology. It studies man from two different points of view: his development (ontogenesis), and his variations. Since many causes concur in producing variations in the indi- vidual during his development (social causes, pathological causes, etc.), we have to take into consideration, and frequently invoke the aid of subsidiary sciences (sociology, pathology, hygiene). Varia- tions constitute the most important subject of inquiry in pedagogic anthropology, just as fixed characteristics constitute the essential matter of research in general anthropology: because the latter endeavours, by the help of fixed characteristics, to trace back to the origin of species, while the former tries, through the help of variable characteristics, to discover a way for the future perfec- tionment of the human species and the individual: indeed, this is precisely what constitutes the practical purpose of its application to pedagogy. In comparison with criminal and medical anthropology, peda- gogic anthropology differs substantially in its declared intentions. These other two kindred branches endeavour to diagnose the per- sonality of the individual; we must admit that both psychiatry and general medical practice profit by the application of anthro- pology to the extent of securing greater accuracy in diagnosis and prognosis; but whenever the study of a patient's personality sheds light upon decisions of this sort, it generally follows that the personality is fixed and unalterable. For instance, when, in medical practice an individual constitution is shown to be fatally pre- disposed to certain definite diseases, that is precisely one of the cases where medical treatment is most impotent; and the same may be said when, in the practice of criminal law we find a defendant whose personality is profoundly degenerate. It follows that the application of these new anthropological methods is substantially diagnostic; furthermore, they are limited to special classes of human beings, to those who are physiologically the most impover- ished, such as criminals and the diseased. Pedagogic anthropology, on the contrary, embraces all humanity; but it pays special atten- tion to that part of it which is psychologically superior: the normal human being. Its purpose is none the less diagnostic; but it 36 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY regards diagnosis as constituting a means, and not merely indicat- ing an end; because the end projected by pedagogic anthropology is a far-reaching and rational system of hygiene. More than that, the proposed system is the one true one, a hygiene that pays more attention to the man himself than to his environment; striving to perfect him in his physiological functions, or to correct any tendency to abnormal and patho- logical deviations. It follows that, in pedagogic anthropology, the direction taken by the naturalistic study of man is predominantly physiological. In the same manner as the other two kindred branches of anthro- pology, this branch which has joined forces with pedagogy has severed connection with the original parent stock of general anthropology, and abandoned its dogmatisms and to a large extent its phraseology. Criminal anthropology, for example, shows great daring and scant accuracy in its affirmations and its researches; and to a large extent it has acquired a nomenclature of its own; and medical anthropology lays down laws that general anthropology never took into consideration, and neglects to bestow particular attention upon the head, which formed the object of fundamental research in general anthropology. In the same way, pedagogic anthropology has had to emancipate itself from the general science from which it has sprung, in order to proceed unhampered along the practical line of research, which consists essentially in a study of the pupil and the compilation of biographic charts, from which a fund of material will result, destined to enrich the scientific content of this branch of learning. But since the study of the pupil must not be morphological alone, but psychological as well, it is necessary for anthropology to invoke the aid of experimental psychology, in order to achieve its purpose. Now it is essential to psychology, no less than to pedagogic anthropology, to study the reactions of the physiological and psychical personality of the child in the environment which we call school. Consequently it is reserved for the teacher to make a large contribution to these two parallel sciences, which are coming to assume the highest social importance. It follows further that pedagogic anthropology differs from the other two allied branches in its practical applications; the progress of criminal and medical anthropology requires, as a matter of fact, INTRODUCTION 37 only the labors of medical specialists; in the case of pedagogic anthropology there is equally a need of medical specialists, to whom the diagnosis and the treatment of abnormal pupils must be entrusted, as well as the hygiene of their development ; but in addi- tion to these, the teachers also are summoned to a vast task of observation, which, by its continuity, will supplement and com- plete the periodic observations of the physician. Furthermore, the teacher will acquire under the guidance of anthropology certain practical rules in the art of educating the child; and it is this especially that makes the anthropological and psychological training of the modern teacher so necessary. The school constitutes an immense field for research; it is a "pedagogical clinic," which, in view of its importance, can be compared to no other gathering of subjects for study. Thanks to the system of compulsory education, it gathers to itself every living human being of both sexes and of every social caste, normal and abnormal; and it retains them there, throughout a most important period of their growth. This is the field, therefore, in which the culture of the human race can really and practically be undertaken; and the joint labour of physician and teacher will sow the seed of a future human hygiene, adapted to achieve perfection in man, both as a species and as a social unit. 72519 CHAPTER I IN order to understand the practical researches that must be conducted for anthropological purposes, it is necessary to have an adequate preparation in the science of biology. The inter- pretation of the data that have to be gathered according to tech- nical procedure, demands a training; and this training will form our subject in the theoretic part of the present volume. The limits, however, not only of the book itself, but of pedagogic anthropology as well, preclude anything more than a simple general outline; but this can be supplemented by those other branches of study which are either collateral to it or constitute its necessary basis (i.e., general biology, human anatomy and physiology, hygiene of environment, general anthropology, etc.). THE MATERIAL SUBSTRATUM OF LIFE THE SYNTHETIC CONCEPT OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN BIOLOGY According to the materialistic theories of life, of which Haeckel is the most noted supporter, life was derived from a form of matter, protoplasm, which not only has a special chemical composition, but possesses further the property of a constant molecular move- ment of scission and redintegration; vital metabolism or inter- change of matter, by which the molecules are constantly renewed at the expense of the environment. It was Huxley who defined protoplasm as the physical basis of life; and, as a matter of fact, life does not exist without protoplasm. But Schultze and Haeckel carried this doctrine further, to the point of maintaining that a minute particle of protoplasm was all that was needed to constitute life; and that such a particle could be formed naturally, whenever the surrounding conditions were favorable, like any other inorganic chemical substance; and in this way the materialists endeavoured, with great ingenuousness, to maintain the spontaneous origin of life. And when Haeckel 38 CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 39 thought that he had discovered the monerce or living cells composed of a single particle of protoplasm, he held that these were the first species to have appeared on earth. But the further researches of physiologists and the improve- ments in the technique of the microscope proved that protoplasm does not exist independently in nature; because living cells are always a combination of protoplasm and a nucleus. If the nucleus is extracted from a radiolarium, the latter mortifies, and the proto- plasm also dies; if an amoeba is severed in such a manner that one part contains nucleus and protoplasm and the other protoplasm alone, it will be found that the latter part mortifies and dies, while the first part continues to live. If an infusorium is divided in such a way that each of the separate sections contains a part of the nucleus and a part of the protoplasm, two living infusoria are developed similar to the original one. Experiments of this kind, to which Verworn has given high authority, serve to prove that life does not exist except in cells divisible into protoplasm and nucleus. Further discoveries confirm this theory, as for instance the presence of a nucleus in hemacytes or red blood corpuscles, which were formerly believed to be instances of anuclear cells; and the discovery of protoplasm in microbes, which had formerly been considered free nuclei. Now, when we have an independent living cell, it represents an individual, which not only has, as a general feature, this primitive complexity of parts, but also certain special characteristics of form, of reaction to environment, etc., that mark the species to which this particular living creature belongs. Accordingly, we cannot assert, without committing the error of confining ourselves to a generic detail, that life originates in pro- toplasm or in a combination divisible into protoplasm and nucleus; we should say that life originates in living individuals; since, aside from abstract speculation, there can be no other material substra- tum of life. Such a doctrine is eminently synthetic, and opens the mind to new conceptions regarding the properties that characterise life. Formerly when life was defined as a form of matter (proto- plasm) subject to constant movement (metabolism), only a single general property had been stated; for that matter, even the stars consist of matter and movement; and, according to the modern theory of electrons, atoms are composed of little particles strongly 40 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY charged with electricity and endowed with perennial motion. Accordingly, these are universal characteristics, and not peculiar to life; and metabolism may be regarded as a variation of such a property, which is provoked by, or at least associated with the phenomenon of life. The properties which are really characteristic of life have been summed up by Laloy in two essential groups; final causes and limitations of mass, or, to use a term more appropriate to living organisms, limitations of form and size. The term final causes refers to a series of phenomena that are met with only where there is life, and that tend toward a definite purpose or end. Living organisms take nutriment from their environment, to the end of assimilating it, that is, transforming it from an inert, indifferent substance into a substance that is a living part of themselves. This phenomenon is undoubtedly one of the most characteristic. But there ar.e still other forms of final cause, such for example as the transformation of the fertilised ovum into the fully developed individual, predetermined in its essential characteristics, such as form, dimensions, colour, activities, etc. There are ova that to all appearances are exactly alike; the human ovum itself is nothing more than a simple cell composed of protoplasm and nucleus, measuring only a tenth of a millimeter ( = ^-5 inch) ; yet all these ovum cells produce living organisms of the utmost diversity; yet so definitely predetermined that, if we know to what species the ovum belongs, we are able to predict how many bones will compose the skeleton of the animal destined to develop from it, and whether this animal will fly or creep upon the ground, or rise to take a place among those who have made themselves the lords of the earth. Furthermore, knowing the phases of development, we may predetermine at what periods the successive transforma- tions that lead step by step to the complete development of the individual will take place. Another form of final cause is seen in the actions of living creatures, which reveal a self -consciousness; a consciousness that even in its most obscure forms guides them toward a destined end. Thus, for example, even the infusoria that may be seen through a microscope in a drop of water, chasing hither and thither in great numbers, avoiding collision with one another, or contending over some particle of food, or rushing in a mass toward an un- CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 41 expected ray of light, give us a keen impression of their possession of consciousness, a dim glimmering of self-will, which is the most elementary form of that phenomenon that manifests itself more and more clearly, from the metazoa upward, through the whole zoologic scale : the final cause of psychic action. Again, in multicellular organisms there are certain continuous and so-called vital phenomena, which some physiologists attribute to cellular consciousness: for example, the leucocytes in the blood seem to obey a sort of glimmering consciousness when they rush to the encounter of any danger threatening the organism, and ingest microbes or other substances foreign to the blood; and it is also due to a phenomenon that cannot be explained by the phys- ical laws of osmosis, that the erythrocytes or red blood corpuscles and the plasma in the blood never interchange sodium salts for those of potassium; and lastly the cells of each separate gland seem to select from the blood the special substances that are needed for the formation of their specific products : saliva, milk, the pancreatic juice, etc. Still another manifestation of final cause is the tendency ex- hibited by each living individual to make a constant struggle for life, a struggle that depends upon a minimum expenditure of force for a maximum realisation of life, thanks to which life multiplies, invades its environment, adapts itself to it, and is transformed. Another fundamental synthetic characteristic of life is the limitation of form and size that is a fixed and constant factor in the characteristics of each species; the body of the living individual cannot grow indefinitely. Living creatures do not increase in quantity by the successive accumulation of matter, as is the case with inorganic bodies, but by reproduction, that is, the multiplication of individuals. Through the phenomenon of reproduction, life has a share in the eternity of matter and cf force, that is, in a universal phenom- enon. But what distinguishes it is that the individual creatures produced by other living individuals form, each one of them, an indivisible element in which life manifests itself; and this element is morphologically fixed in the limits of its form and size. The peculiarities which are attributed to the chemical action of protoplasm are of an analytic character, so far as they concern the fundamental characteristics of life. The constant inter- change of matter, namely, metabolism, constitutes undoubtedly a 42 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY phenomenon peculiar to living matter, protoplasm; but protoplasm does not exist apart from living organisms. And what constitutes its chief characteristic is that, when brought into contact with it, inert substances are assimilated, i. e., they become like it, or rather, are transformed into protoplasm; mineral salts such as the nitrates or nitrites of sodium and potassium are transformed in the case of plants into living plasma capable of germinating either into a rose bush or a plane tree or a palm, and inert organic substances such as bread or wine are transformed into human flesh and blood. So that the phenomenon of assimilation outweighs, as a character- istic of life, the molecular chemical action through which it is accomplished. Since metabolism does not occur in nature as a chemical phenomenon, and cannot be produced artificially, but is found only in the matter composing living organisms, it follows that life is the cause of this form of dynamic action, and not that this dynamic action is the cause of life.* Even the latest theory, developed especially by Ludwig in Germany that protoplasm contains a separate enzyme for each separate function appointed to a particular task amounts to nothing more than an analysis of the living organism. THE FORMATION OF MULTICELLULAR ORGANISMS We cannot say that the cell is the element of life, because, in an absolute sense, it is not alive; it lives only when it constitutes an individual. Even the brain cells, the muscular fibres, the leuco- cytes, etc., are cells; but they do not live independently; their life depends upon the living individual that contains them. We may, however, define the cell as the means, the morphological material, out of which all living organisms are formed: because, from the algae to the orchids, from the ccelenterata up to man, all complex organisms are composed of an accumulation of those microscopic little bodies that we call cells. The manner of union between the cells in the most primitive living colonies, whether vegetable or animal, is analogous to that followed in the segmentation of the ovum in its ontogenetic (i.e., individual) development. See further, as to these fundamental ideas: Laloy, V Evolution de la Vie. Petite En- cyclopedic du XX Sikcle; CLAUDE BERNARD, Legons sur les Phenomenes de la Vie; Lu DENTU, in La Matiere Vivante, et Thtorie nouvelle de la Vie; Luciani, Fisiologia Umana, in the first chapter: "Material Substratum of Vital Phenomena." CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 43 But the manner of construction differs notably, as between animal and vegetable cells. Vegetable cells, on the one hand, have a resistant and strongly protective membrane; animal cells, on the contrary, have either a very thin membrane or none at all. Vegetable cells, as though made venturesome by their natural protection, proceed to invade their environment in colonies in other words, the cells dispose themselves in series of linear ramifications witness the formation of primitive algae; and analogously the expansion of the higher types of vegetation into their environment, with branches, leaves, etc. And just as though the vegetable cell acquired self-confi- dence because it is so well protected, it becomes stationary and strikes its roots into the soil. To this same fact of cellular protection must be attributed the inferior sensibility and hence the permanent state of obscured consciousness in vegetable life. This protection against the assaults of environment, and the con- sequent lack of sensibility, constitute from the outset an inferior stage of evolution. Animal cells have an entirely different manner of forming themselves into colonies; acting as though they were afraid, they group themselves in the form of a little sphere, enclosing their environment within themselves, instead of reaching out to invade it; and subsequent developments of the animal cell consist in suc- cessive and complex invaginations, or formations of layers, one within another instead of ramifications, after the manner of vegetable cells. Accordingly, if we advance from that primitive animal type, the volvox, consisting of a simple group of cells arranged spherically, like an elastic rubber ball, to the ccelenterata, we meet with the phenomenon of the first invagination, producing an animal body consisting of two layers of cells and an internal cavity, communicating with the exterior by means of a pore or mouth. The two layers of cells promptly divide their task, the outer layer becoming pro- tective and the inner nutritive; and in consequence of then* different functions, the cells themselves alter, the outer layer acquiring a tougher consistency, while the inner remains soft in order to absorb whatever nutriment is brought by the water as it passes through the mouth. In this way, there is a division of labor, such that all the external cells protect not only themselves, but the whole 44 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY organism; while the internal cells absorb nutriment not only for themselves but for the others. This is the simplest example of a process that becomes more and more complex in the formation of higher organisms; in adapting themselves to their work, the cells become greatly modified (formation of tissues) and perform services that are useful to the entire organism. And at the same time, because of the very fact that they have been differentiated, they become dependent upon the labors of others, for obtaining the means of subsistence. Similar laws seem to persist even at the present day in the formation of social organisms, in human society. During the development of the embryo, all animals pass through similar phases; and to this man is no exception. ^ FlG * 1 ;"7 Hu -T a f He traces his origin to an ovum-cell formed Ovum, Magnified. c a. Viteiiine mem- of protoplasm, nucleus and membrane, measur- Reside". 1 ' ing only a tenth of a millimetre/yet vastly large in comparison with the spermatic cell destined to fertilise it by passing through one of the innumerable pores that render the dense membrane penetrable. . After the ovum-cell is fertilised, it consti- tutes the first cell of the new being; that is, it contains potentially a man. But as seen through the microscope, it is really not materially any- Fio. 2. First Segmentation of a Fertilised Ovum. Fio. 3. A Morula as seen from the Outside. FIG. 4. An Egg and Spermatozoon of the same Species, about to Fertilise It. Note the difference in the pro- portional size of the two cells. thing more than a microscopic cell, undifferentiated, and in all things similar to other independent cells or to fertilised ovarian cells belonging to other animals. That which it contains, namely, man, often already predetermined not only in species, but in CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 45 individual characteristics as, for instance, in degenerative in- feriority is certainly not there in material form. At an early stage of the embryo's development, it exhibits a form analogous to that of the volvox; namely, a hollow sphere, called the morula; and subsequently, by the process of in vagi- nation, two layers of cells, an inner and an outer, are formed, together with the first body cavity, destined to become the digestive cavity, and also a pore corresponding to the mouth. This formation has received the name of gastrula (Fig. 10, facing page 72), and the two layers of cells are known as the primary layers, otherwise called the ectoderm and the entoderm. To these a third intermediate layer is soon added, the mesoderm. These three layers consist of cells that are not perceptibly differentiated from one another; but potentially each and every one contains its own special final cause. In each of the three layers, invaginations take place, furrows destined to develop into the nervous system, the lungs, the liver, the various different glands, the generative organs; and during the progress of such modifications, corresponding changes take place in the elementary cells, which become differ- entiated into tissues. From the ectoderm are developed the nerv- ous system and the skin tissues; from the entoderm, the digestive system with its associate glands (the liver, pancreas, etc.) ; from the mesoderm, the supporting tissues (bones and cartilage) and the muscles. But all these cells, even the most complex and spe- cialised, as for example those of the cerebral cortex, the fibres of the striped muscles, the hepatic cells, etc., were orginally em- bryonic cells in other words, simple, undifferentiated, all starting on an equal footing. Yet every one of them had within it a predestined end that led it to occupy, as it multiplied in number, a certain appointed portion of the body, in order to perform the work, to which the profound alterations in its cellular tissues should ultimately adapt it. Like children in the same school, these embryonic cells, all apparently just alike, contain certain dormant activities and des- tinies that are profoundly different. This unquestionably con- stitutes one of the properties of life, namely, the final cause; it is certainly associated intimately with metabolism and nutrition, considered as a means of development and not as a cause. Upon metabolism, however, depends the more or less complete attain- ment of the final cause of life. In man, for example, strength, 46 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY health, beauty, on the one hand, degeneration on the other, stand in intimate relations with the nutrition of the embryo.* The Theories of Evolution. At the present day, there is a general popular understanding of the fundamental principles involved in the mechanical or materialistic theories of evolution which bear the names of Lamarck, Geffroy-Saint-Hilaire, and more especially the glorious name of Charles Darwin. According to these theories, the environment is regarded as the chief cause of the evolution of organic forms. Charles Darwin, who formulated the best and most detailed theory of evolution, based it on the two principles of the variability of living organisms, and heredity, which transmits their characteristics from generation to generation. And in explanation of the underlying cause of evolution, he expounded the doctrines of the struggle for existence and the natural selection of such organic forms as succeeded to a sufficient degree in adapting themselves to their environment. Whatever the explanation may be, the substantial fact re- mains of the variability of species and the successive and gradual transition from lower to higher forms. In this way, the higher animals and plants must have had as antecedents other forms of inferior species, of which they still bear more or less evident traces; and in applying these theories to the interpretation of the person- alities of human degenerates, he frequently invoked the so-called principle of atavism, in order to explain the reappearance of atavis- tic traits that have been outgrown in the normal human being, certain anomalies of form more or less analogous to parallel forms in lower species of animals. There are other theories of evolution less familiar than that of Darwin. Naegeli, for instance, attributes the variability of species to internal, rather than external causes namely, to a spontaneous activity, implanted in life itself, and analogous to that which is witnessed in the development of an individual organ- ism, from the primitive cell up to the final complete development; without, however, attributing to the progressive alterations in species that predestined final goal which heredity determines in the development of individual organisms. The internal factor, namely life, is the primary cause of progress and the perfectionment of living creatures while environment Consult: HAECKEL, Anthropogenic; E. PERKIER, Les Colonies animates et la Formation des Organismes; RICHET, L' Effort vers la Vie, et la Thtorie des Causes finales. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 47 assumes a secondary importance, such as that of directing evolu- tion, acting at one time as a stimulus toward certain determined directions of development; at another, permanently establishing certain useful characteristics; and still again, effacing such forms as are unfit. In this way the external causes are associated with evolution, but with very different effects from those attributed to them by Darwin, who endowed them with the creative power to produce new organs and new forms of life. Naegeli compared the internal forces to invested capital; it will draw a higher or lower rate of interest, according as its environ- ment proves to be more or less favourable to earning a profit. The most modern theory of evolution is that of De Vries, who, after having witnessed the spontaneous and unforeseen transfor- mations of a certain plant, the (Enohtera Lamarckiana, without the intervention of any external phenomenon, admitted the pos- sibility of the unexpected occurrence of other new forms, from a preexistent parent form and to such phenomena he gave the name of mutations. It is these mutations that create new species ; the latter, although apparently unheralded, were already latent in the germ before they definitely burst into life. Consequently, new species are formed potentially in the germinating cells, through spontaneous activity. The characteristics established by mutations are hereditary, and the species which result from them persist, provided their environment affords favourable conditions, better suited to them than to the preexisting parent form. Accordingly new species are created unexpectedly. De Vries draws a distinction between mutations and variations, holding that the latter are dependent upon environment, and that in any case they constitute simple oscillations of form around the normal type determined in each species by mutation. Species, therefore, cannot be transformed by external causes or environments, and the mechanism of transformation is not that of a succession of very gradual variations, which have given rise to the familiar saying: natura non facit saltus. On the contrary, what produces stable characteristics is a revolution prepared in a latent state, but unannounced in its final disclosure. A parallel to this is to be found, for example, in the phenomena of puberty in its relation to the evolution of the individual. 48 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Now, when a species has once reached a fixed stability as regards its characteristics, it is immutable, after the analogy of an individual organism that has completed its development; hence- forth its further evolution is ended. In such a case, the oscilla- tions of variability are exceedingly limited, and adaptation to new environments is difficult; and while a species may offer the appearance of great strength (e.g., certain species of gigantic extinct animals), it runs the risk of dying out, because of. a lower potentiality of adaptability; or, according to the theory of Rosa, it may even become extinct spontaneously. Accordingly it is not the fixed species that continue the process of evolution. If we compare the tree of life to a plant, we may imagine evolution as soaring upward, sustained by roots far below; the new branches are not put forth by the old branches, but draw their sustenance from the original sources, from which the whole tree draws its life. When a branch matures and flowers, it may survive or it may wither but it cannot extend the growth of the tree. Furthermore, the new branches are always higher up than the old ones; that which comes last is the highest of all. Thus, the species which are the latest in acquiring a stable form are the highest up in the biological scale, because the privilege of carrying forward the process of evolution belongs to those species which have not yet become fixed. An apparent weakness, instability, an active capacity for adaptation, are consequently so many signs of superiority, as regards a potential power of evolu- tion just as the nudity and sensibility of animal cells, for example, are signs of superiority, as compared with vegetable cells and of man, as compared with the lower animals. In order to show that the inferiority of a species is in propor- tion to its precocity in attaining fixed characteristics, Rosa con- ceived the following striking comparison. Two animals are fleeing, along the same road, before an advancing flood. One of the two climbs to the top of a neighboring tree, the other continues in its flight toward a mountain. As the level of the water rises, it threatens to isolate and engulf the animal now stalled upon the tree; the other animal, still fleeing toward the heights, reaches, on the contrary, a higher and more secure position. The animal on the tree stands for an inferior species that has earlier attained a fixed form; the other represents a higher species CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 49 that has continued to evolve; but the animal upon the mountain never was on the tree at all, because, if he had mounted it and become caught there, he would have lost his chance of continuing on his way. In other words, the higher species never was the lower species, since the characteristics of the latter are already fixed. Some eloquent comparisons might be drawn from the social life of to-day. We are all of us spurred on to choose as early as possible some form of employment that will place us in a secure and definite place at the great banquet of existence. The idea of continuing to follow an indefinite and uncertain path, leading upward toward the heights is far less attractive than the safe and comfortable shelter of the shady tree that rises by the wayside. The same law of inertia applies to every form of life. Biological evolution bears witness to it, in the forms of the different species ; social evolution, in the forms of the professions and trades; the evolution of thought, in the forms of the different faiths. And whoever first halts in any path of life, the path of study, for instance, occupies a lower place than he who continues on his road. The salaried clerk, armed only with his high-school certificate, has an assured income and the pleasures of family life, at a time when the physician, with an independent profession, is still strug- gling to establish a practice. But the obscure clerk will eventu- ally hold a social position below that of the physician; his income will always be limited, while the physician may acquire a fortune. Now, the clerk, by adapting himself to his bureaucratic environ- ment, has acquired certain well-defined characteristics; we might even say that he has become a representative type of the species, clerk. And the same will be true of the physician in his independ- ent and brilliant life as high priest of humanity, scientist and man of wealth. Both men were high-school students, and now they are two widely different social types; but the physician never represented the type of clerk; or, in other words, he did not have to be a clerk before he could be a physician; on the contrary, if he had been a clerk, he never could have become a physician. It is somewhat after this fashion that we must conceive of the sequence of species in evolution. It follows that man never was an anthro- poid ape, nor any other animal now living around us. Nor was the man of the white race ever at any time a negroid or a mongo- lian. Consequently, the theory is untenable which tries to ex- plain certain morphological or psychic malformations of man, on 50 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY the principle of atavism because no one can inherit if he is not a descendant. So, for example, reverting to our previous comparisons, if the animal on the mountain should climb a tree, or if the physician should become pedantic, this would not prove that the animal from the mountain was once upon a time the animal in the tree, nor that the physician recalled, by his eventual pedantry, certain by-gone days when he was a clerk. The theories of evolution seemed for a time to illumine and definitely indicate the origin of man. But this illusion has so far resulted only in relegating to still deeper darkness the truth that the biologists are seeking. We do not know of whom man is the son. Even the earlier conceptions regarding the mechanics of evolu- tion are essentially altered. The mystery of the origin of species, like that of the mutability of forms, has withdrawn from the forms that are already developed, and taken refuge in the germinal cells; these cells in which no differentiation is revealed, yet in which the future organism, in all its details, exists in a potential state; in which, we may even say, life exists independent of matter, are the real laboratorium vitce. The individual, in developing, does noth- ing more than obey, by fulfilling the potentiality of the germs. The direction of research has shifted from the individual to its germs. And just as the early Darwinian theories evolved a social ethics, seemingly based upon the facts of life, to serve as a guide in the struggle for existence, so in the same way, to-day, there has arisen from the modern theories a new sexual ethics, founded upon a biologic basis. The Phenomena of Heredity. The most interesting biological researches of to-day are in regard to the hereditary transmission of characteristics. To-day the phenomena of heredity are no longer absolutely obscure, thanks to the studies of Mendel, who discovered some of its laws, which seemed to open up new lines of research prolific in results. Yet even now, although this field has been invaded by the most illustrious biologists of our time, among others, De Vries, Correns, Tschermack, Hurst, Russell, it is still in the state of investigation. Nevertheless, the general trend of researches relative to Mendel's laws is too important to permit of their enlightening first steps being neglected by Anthropology. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 51 The first phenomena observed by Mendel, and the ones which led him to the discovery of the laws of heredity which bear his name, were revealed by a series of experiments conducted with peas. Exposition of the Phenomena of Hybridism. If two strains of peas are crossed, one of them having red flowers and the other white flowers, the result in the first generation is, that all the plants will have red flowers, precisely similar to those of one of the parent plants. Accordingly, in hybridism, the characteristic of one of the parents completely hides that which is antagonistic to it in the other parent. We call this characteristic (in the case cited, the red flowers), dominant; in distinction to the other characteristic which is antagonistic to the first and overcome by it ; namely, the recessive characteristic (in the present case, the white flowers). This is the law of prevalence, and constitutes Mendel's first law, which is stated as follows: Mendel's First Law: "When antagonistic varieties or charac- teristics are crossed with each other, the products of the first generation are all uniform and equal to one of the two parents." This result has been repeatedly reached in a host of researches, which have experimentally established this phenomenon as a law. Thus, for example, if we cross a nettle having leaves with an indented margin, with a nettle having leaves with a smooth margin, the product of the first generation will all have leaves with in- dented margins, and apparently identical with the parent plant having indented margins, in other words, having the character- istic that has proved itself the dominant one (Russell) . These phenomena discovered by Mendel have been observed in many different species of plants, such as wheat, Indian corn, barley and beans. They have also been verified in certain animals, such as mice, rats, rabbits, caveys, poultry, snails, silk-worms, etc. One of the most typical experiments was that of Cue'not, who, by crossing ordinary mice with jumping mice, obtained as a result a first generation composed wholly of normal mice; the characteristic of jumping was thus shown to be recessive. Notwithstanding that the first generation is apparently in every way similar to the parent with the dominant character, there is in reality a difference. 52 Because, if we cross these hybrids together, we meet, in the second generation, with the following phenomenon: to every three individuals possessing the dominant character, one is born having the recessive character. To go back to Mendel's first example, that of the peas with red flowers (dominant) and with white flowers (recessive), we find, by crossing together the hybrids of the first generation, that for every three plants with red flowers,, there is one plant with white flowers. And similarly, the crossing of hybrid nettles with indented leaves will result in a second generation composed of three plants with indented leaves to every one with smooth-edged leaves (see Fig. 5). Tlica Dod&rtli+fiilalifera jiilulifera. Dodarttt I Gen. ^^^^f ^^^^ *^^^^^ ^^j^r 44 Ilii HI44 Aft FIQ. 5. That is, the characteristics which belonged to the first two parents all survive, even though in a latent form, in the descen- dants; and they continue to differentiate themselves in well established proportions. In one offspring out of four, the charac- teristics of the grandfather, which have remained dormant in the father, once more reappear. This intermittent heredity of CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 53 characteristics, that are passed from grandfather to grandson, overleaping the father, is one of the best-known laws of path- ological heredity in man; and it is called atavistic heredity, to dis- tinguish it from direct heredity, which denotes the transmission from parent to offspring. But no explanation had ever been found for this sort of phenomenon. Undoubtedly, it must be connected with the phenomena of Mendelism. Accordingly, in the second generation Mendel's second law has been established, the law of disjunction, which is stated as follows : Mendel's Second Law: "In the second generation obtained by reciprocal fertilisation of the first hybrids, three quarters of the offspring will exhibit the dominant character, and one quarter the recessive" Mendel's Hypothesis, Designed to Explain the Phenomena of Heredity. Mendel's great service is to have conceived a hypoth- esis that seems to have disclosed the key adapted to unlock all the secrets of heredity. While the body of an individual is the resultant of forces so mutually exclusive that the appearance of one characteristic means the disappearance of its antagonist; in the development of the sexual cells the two antagonistic characters are distributed in equal proportion. That is to say, one-half of the male cells contain the dominant character, and one-half the recessive; and the same holds true for the female cells. The characters of the two parents, in other words, never merge in the reproductive cells, but are distributed in equal measure, independently of the question whether they are dominant or recessive. Thus for example: in the case already cited of the first hybrid generation of the peas with red flowers, in every one of the plants, without distinction, half the pollen has potentially the red character and half has the white; and in the same way the female cells have, half of them a red potentiality and half of them a white. Such hybrids of the first generation, therefore, although apparently similar to the parent with red flowers, differ in their germinative powers, which are not made apparent in the individual. And the same may be said of hybrid nettles with indented leaves, etc. Granting Mendel's hypothesis, we have on the one hand pollen and on the other seed ready to come together in every manner in- cluded within the range of possible combinations; the individual is, in its characteristics, nothing else than the product of a combi- 54 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY nation which must necessarily manifest itself in accordance with the well-known mathematical laws of probability. For instance, let us proceed to diagram the possible disposition of the sexual cells of the hybrids of peas, all of them having red flowers. In terms of percentage, they will give, out of every hundred, fifty red and fifty white. P = pollen; = ova; R = red, dominant; w = white, recessive: The possible number of combinations between the pollen grains and the ova are four; namely, RR, Rw, wR, ww. But where a dominant characteristic encounters a recessive (Rw, wR), the recessive disappears, to make way in the individual for the domi- nant characteristic alone. The definitive result is three individuals of dominant character, to one of recessive character. (50 R RR R RW R FIG. 6. Nevertheless, the hybrids of dominant character are not all equal among themselves. Those belonging to the combination RR, indeed, are permanent in character and in all respects alike, and they reproduce the original red-flower progenitor. The other red-flower hybrids, belonging to the groups Rw and wR are, on the contrary, similar to the hybrids of the first generation and contain reproductive cells differentiated in character; such hybrids, if reciprocally fertilised, will again give three dominant offspring to every one recessive; that is, they will obey the law of disjunction. The hybrids belonging to the fourth group, on the contrary, are constant, like those of the first group, and are permanently of recessive character; and they will reproduce the original pro- genitor with white flowers. The same results may be attained with nettles with smooth CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 55 and indented leaves, and with all other types of plant and animal life that obey the laws of Mendelism. The figure given actually represents the third generation of nettles; from a combination corresponding to RR, there result only indented leaves, and from another combination corresponding to our ww there result only smooth-edged leaves, and from the two mixed groups there come three offspring with indented leaves to every one with smooth leaves. It is possible to represent, by means of a general diagram, the mathematical succession of characteristics in hybrids, after the following manner; denoting the dominant character by D, and the recessive by r. In each successive generation, provided the fertilisation takes place only between uniform individuals, as indicated in the diagram, and as may be effected by actual experiment with plants, r First crossing of individuals with antagonistic characters. First generation of hybrids, all alike, and simi- lar to the progenitor D (dominant;. Second generation: for each recessive there are three dominant: but of these only one is permanent. Third generation: disjunction of the hybrid groups takes place and new permanent groups are formed. FIG. 7. groups identical with the original progenitors will continue to be formed, through successive disjunction of the hybrids; the sexual phenomenon operating in obedience to the laws of probability. An effective experiment, that anyone may repeat for himself, is the one originated by Darbishire. He took two boxes, typifying respectively the male and female organ, and placed in them black and white disks of equal size, so distributed that each box contained fifty disks of each colour. After mixing these disks very carefully, he proceeded to take at random one disk at a time alternately from each box; and he piled up each pair of disks in such a manner 56 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY that the black ones should be on top and the white underneath. The result was that for every three black disks on top of the piles there was one white disk ; but of the black groups one consisted of two black disks, while in the other two the lower disk was white. This is simply one of the many games dependent on the laws of probability. Now, supposing that instead of one, there are two character- istics that are in antagonism; in that case, we have the occurrence of double hybridism (dihybridism). Let us take the strains of peas already considered, but let us choose for observation the character of their seed. One of the plants has round seed and yellow cotyledons; and the other angular seed and green cotyledons. These two characteristics, therefore, are both inherent in the seed; condition of surface (rough, smooth), and colour (green, and yellow). After fertilisation, Mendel's first law, that of the prevalence of the dominant character, will operate, and all the plants of the first generation will have round seed and yellow cotyledons. Hence these are the dominant characteristics, which we will represent by capital letters: R (round), Y (yellow), to distinguish them from the recessive characteristics, which we will designate with small letters: a (angular), and g (green). According to Mendel's hypothesis, all these hybrids with round seed and yellow cotyledons, contain sexual cells of opposite poten- tialities, numerically equal and corresponding to -the antagonistic characters of the parent plants. That is, they must have in their pollen grains and their ovarian cells all the possible combinations of their different potentialities. They should produce in equal quantities: pollen grains (P) with round seed and yellow cotyledons: R Y angular a ovarian cells (0) with round u angular The total number of combinations that may result is sixteen; that is, each one of the four combinations of pollen may unite with any one of the ovarian cells; thus constituting four groups green R g yellow a Y green a g yellow R Y green R g yellow a Y green a g CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 57 of four. And these groups represent the combinations (of pollen and ova) capable of producing individuals: RY - RY = RY RY - R g = RY RY - aY = RY RY - a g = RY R g - RY = RY Rg Rg = Rg R g - a Y = RY R g a g = R g aY - RY = RY aY - R g = RY aY - a Y = a Y aY - a g = a Y a g - RY = RY ag-Rg = Rg a g a Y = a Y a g a g = a g P< }O FIG. 8. Every time that a dominant characteristic encounters a reces- sive one (R with a or Y with g), it overpowers and hides it: conse- quently the results of the different combinations are quite definitely limited as determining forms of different individuals. In fact, the results of the sixteen combinations are as follows: R Y R Y R Y R Y R Y a Y R Y a Y R Y R Y R g R Y R g a Y R g a g 58 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY That is to say, the only forms which occur are the following: RY, Rg a Y, a g whose relative probability of occurrence is: RY 9 times in 16 = 56.25% R g, 3 times in 16 = 18.75% a Y 3 times in 16 = 18.75% a g 1 time in 16 = 6.25% Now, as a result of actual experiment, the forms obtained show the following relative percentage: Results of experiments according to the combinations with plants and laws of probability R Y 56.5% 56.25% R g 19.75% 18.75% a Y 18.2% 18.75% a g 5.8% 6.25% The correspondence between these figures is close enough to warrant the acceptance of Mendel's hypothesis as the true inter- pretation of the phenomena that are shown to take place within ths sexual cells; the germinal cells of the hybrid contain potentialities belonging to one or the other only of the parents, and not to both ; one-half of the cells contain one of these potentialities, and the other half the other potentiality. But in the phenomena of hybridism, we have seen the results of another fact which determines Mendel's third law; the Law of the Independence of Characteristics. That is, that while the original progenitors had angular seed and green cotyledons, and round seed and yellow cotyledons, certain hybrid plants inherited the round seed of the one and the green colour of the other; or the angular seed of the one and the yellow colour of the other. In the same way, it may happen, for example, that the colour of one plant may combine with the height of another, etc. That is, that each separate characteristic of the progenitor is independent and may combine with the characteris- tics of the other progenitor even to the point of separating the colour from the form, as in the case cited. What we find in hybrids, then, is not a separation into two types of generative cells, considered as united and complex entities; but every separate germ cell may break up into as many different potentialities as there are separate characteristics in the individual; CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 59 and that, too, not only as regards the separate minute parts of the individual body, but, within the same organ, as regards the shape, colour, character of the surface, etc. Such phenomena of Mendelism cannot as yet be generalised; yet it has already been established by a host of experiments that a great number of characteristics obey the laws of Mendel, such, for example, as the character of the hair or plumage; the gra- dations of colour, the abundance or absence of hair; physical malformations, such as cerebral hernia in poultry; the character of locomotion, as in the jumping mice: and even normal physio- logical attributes connected with the epoch of maturity in certain plants. But the manner in which the dominant character asserts itself is not always uniform. There are times when a fusion of antago- nistic characters takes place. Thus, for example, when two varie- ties of the mirabilis jalapa are crossed, one having red flowers and the other white, a fusion of the colours takes place in the first generation, and all the plants have pink flowers. In the second generation we get, for every plant with red flowers, two with pink flowers and one with white. That is, the law of disjunction has again asserted itself, but the individual hybrids merge their antago- nistic attributes, which remain, nevertheless (as their differentiation proves), separate one from the other in the sexual cells. Another phenomenon observed in individual hybrids is the in- termingling of characteristics. For instance, there are cases where the flowers of a hybrid produced by a plant with red flowers and another with white are variegated with red and white stripes. Accordingly, the transmission of antagonistic attributes through the individual may be divided into three different methods: Exclusive. Transmission \ By fusion. [ By intermingling. In the first case, the character of one of the parents is trans- mitted intact ; in the second, the formation of a new characteristic results, constituting a form more or less nearly midway between those from which it comes and whose fusion it represents; in the third case (which is very rare and seems to obey Mendel's laws in quite an uncertain way), the result is a mosaic of the fundamental attributes. 60 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Of special interest to us are the two first methods of hereditary transmission of characteristics. Even before Mendel's discoveries, anthropologists had observed that in the intermixture of races certain human attributes remained distinct while others merged. In the first case they called the individuals hybrids, and in the second case they called them metics. Take, for example, the colour of the skin when black and white merge in the so-called mulatto. Other characteristics, instead of merging, intermingle, as for instance those that are internal or related to the skeleton, and those that are external or related to the soft tissues and the skin. It may happen, for example, that where one race has an elongated head and black hair and another has a round head and blond hair, the result of their union will be hybrids with elongated heads and blond hair or vice versa. Similarly, if one of the parents is tall of stature and fair complexioned, and the other of short stature with a dark skin, these characteristics may be interchanged in the hybrids. A very common occurrence, as regards the colour of the hair, is the fusion of blond and brunette into chestnut; while parents with chestnut hair may have either fair-haired or dark- haired children. In his book entitled Human Races and Varieties, Sergi says in regard to hybridism: "It is impossible to ignore human hybridism, which, for that matter, has been demonstrated under various forms by all the anthropologists; America, in itself alone, offers us a true example of experimental anthropology in regard to this phenomenon. Already the result of investigations shows that human hybridism is multiform among all the peoples of the earth; but what is best known of all is the exchange of external characteristics and then* intermingling with the internal; that is, the combination of external characteristics of one type with internal characteristics of another type. It is easy, for in- stance, to find cases in which a certain colour of skin and hair, with the special qualities proper to them, are found combined with pe- culiarities of the skeleton that do not rightfully belong to types of that particular colouring, and vice versa; and this same phenom- enon may be observed regarding certain separate attributes, and not all of them such as. the stature, or the face with its outer covering of soft tissues, or the shape of the skull alone. "If we observe our European populations, that call themselves a white-skinned race, but whose whiteness has many different gra- dations, we are convinced of the great intermixture of characters, CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 61 and, what is more, a varied mixture resulting in a great variety of individual types, consisting of characters differing widely from one another. It requires a very accurate and very minute analysis to distinguish the different elements that are found in the compo- sition of ethnic characters in individuals and peoples. Undoubt- edly these intermixtures and combinations of character differ in their constituent elements and in the number of such elements in the different nations, according to whether we study those of the south, or the centre, or the north of Europe; and this results from different degrees of association with mongrel races. "But a more important fact, and one that seems to have escaped the attention of anthropologists, is the absence of fusion of internal and external characteristics in the product of such inter- mixture. We find only a positional relationship between the dif- ferent ethnic elements, a syncretism or superposition of characteris- tics, and a consequent readiness to disunite and form other unions. This phenomenon has already been demonstrated in America, on a mass of evidence; but it is apparent also in Europe, among the peoples that are seemingly most homogeneous, if by careful obser- vation we separate the characteristics that constitute the ethnic types; and not only the types, but the individuals belonging to the different peoples." And in the following passage, Sergi expresses himself still more clearly : "From my many observations, it follows, further, that human hybridism, or meticism, as others choose to call it, is a syncretism of distinct characteristics of great variety, and that these do not modify the skelital structure or the internal characteristics, ex- cepting by way of individual variation; it may happen that sepa- rate parts of the skeleton itself acquire characteristics peculiar to themselves. The stature, the chest formation, the proportion of the limbs, may all be in perfect correlation and be united with external characteristics of diverse forms, as for instance with differ- ent forms of cranium, or the cranium may be associated with differ- ent facial forms, and conversely. Furthermore, the forms adapted separately and in part in hybrid composition remain unvaried in their typical formation. The face retains its typical characteristics in spite of its union with different forms of cranium; and similarly the cranium preserves its architectural structure when combined with different types of face. The stature maintains its proper- 62 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY tions in spite of combinations with diverse cranial and facial types, and in spite of varied colours of skin and hair." The foregoing page, that I have borrowed from this masterly investigator, is most eloquent testimony that, in regard to the phenomena of hybridism, man also comes within the scope of Mendel's laws. There is something wonderful in the power of observation and intuition shown by Sergi, who, running counter to the convictions of the majority of anthropologists, arrived through these conclusions at a truth the key to which was destined to be discovered later on through studies, very far removed from anthropology, such as were pursued by the botanists Mendel and De Vries. While Mendel was led by his experiments to the dis- covery of the laws based upon his ingenious hypothesis, Sergi was drawn simply by observation to conclusions that to-day are con- firmed by experience. And from difficult observations of single characteristics taken separately, Sergi demonstrated, in his ingenious studies, their persistence through innumerable generations; while, through the identification of separate characteristics, he achieved that brilliant analysis of the races which revealed to his anthro- pological insight that the European varieties of man originated among the peoples of Africa and Asia. Unquestionably, the laws of Mendel confirm what hitherto were considered, in the scientific world of Europe, simply as the individual hypotheses of Sergi, but which American anthropologists recognise and welcome as a scientific truth, brilliantly observed and expounded by the Italian anthropologist. Thus, through single characteristics, through particularities, we may read the origins of races; and recognise which are the con- stant characteristics and which the transitory ones. Accordingly, let us keep these principles in mind, as we pro- ceed further in our investigation of the phenomena of heredity. Mendel's laws, however much they may be discredited or illumi- nated by further experience, serve in the meanwhile to give an absolutely new conception of the individual and to shed light upon many obscure problems relating to heredity. The individual is the product of a combination of germ poten- tialities, which, in the case of hybrids (and consequently always in the case of man, who is the product of racial intermixture), meet in accordance with the mathematical laws of probability. One might almost conceive of a formula, or, better yet, a calculation, CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 63 in accordance with which the individual resulting from any given germs might be predetermined; if it were not for the fact that the calculations would become infinitely complicated through the multiplication of characteristics. With only ten pairs of characteristics it is already possible to form upward of 1024 kinds of germinal cells and these give rise to 1,000,000 different combinations. Furthermore, through the law of dominant characteristics, the combinations of germs would produce in the descendants 1000 varieties distinguishable by their external appearance, and 60,000 differing only internally, that is, in their germinal cells. There remains, however, one general principle: the individual contains not only his personal attributes, but also other attributes which belonged to his ancestors, and which are latent in him, and may reappear in his descendants. Consequently, if the individual is a hybrid, he must be interpreted not only through himself alone, but through the history of his family; and the characteristics which he may transmit are not those of his own body, but those of his origin. The individual body is nothing more than a "temporary ex- pression" of those germinal characteristics which have united to give it consistency; but the complex transmission of character- istics rests wholly with the germinal cells. The problem of heredity is transferred from the individual and from the series of individ- uals, who are simple and transitory products of combinations, to the sexual cells and their potentialities. And this is unquestionably an absolutely new scientific concept, and a revolutionary one as well, capable of drawing in its wake a lengthy evolution of thought. Since the germinal potentialities determine the single character- istics, they may be considered as the atoms of the biologist. "The field of investigation," says Bateson, "does not appear to differ greatly from that which was opened to the students of chemistry at the beginning of the discovery that chemical combinations are governed by definite laws In the same way that the chemist studies the properties of every chemical substance, the characteristics of organisms ought to be studied, and their com- position determined." (First Report, p. 159). This brings us to two widely diverse facts that demand con- sideration: first, the subdivision of antagonistic characteristics in the germinal cells that form, so to speak, the atomic and chaotic 64 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY substratum of characteristics characteristics that combine accord- ing to the mathematical laws of probability; and, secondly, the dominance of characteristics, or else their fusion, which, independ- ently of anything that may happen in the germinal cells, serves to determine and define the individual. What sort of characteristics are the dominant ones? According to the latest researches of Mendelism, the domi- nant characteristics are those acquired latest in the course of evolu- tion, in other words, the youngest, or, if you prefer, the most highly evolved. Accordingly, in hybrids, the most perfected character- istics and forms are the ones that triumph in the end. This is quite a new principle. Hitherto it was held that the pure species or race was the most perfect ; and the hybrid or bastard was under a cloud of contempt. And, as a matter of fact, the first crossings of different races may result in some combinations lack- ing in harmony, and calculated to sanction the old-time conception of the aesthetic inferiority of the bastard. But it is necessary to leave time for new generations and further crossings, in order that all of the more highly evolved characteristics may unite and end by triumphing in reciprocal harmony. This the followers of Mendel cannot yet give us, because it would require decades or centuries, according to the species, to produce experi- mentally such aesthetic forms of hybridism. But in the human race we have an experiment already .accom- plished, which actually shows us the cesthetic triumph achieved in the region where the races have for the greatest length of time been crossed and recrossed, through the agency of the most an- cient civilisation: the Europeans surpass in physical beauty the people of any other continent; and the Neo-Latin races, the most ancient hybrids of all, seem to be nearing the attainment of the greatest aesthetic perfection. In fact, when I was engaged in compiling an anthropological study of the population of Latium, in accordance with Sergi's principles, and was making a most minute examination of all the different characteristics and their prevalence, as a possible basis for a delineation of the fundamental racial types, I found that complete beauty is never granted to any one race, but distributed among different races: "as a result of my labours, I find perfect artistic proportion as to certain facial features, in a race having inferior hands and feet; and, vice versa, I find facial irregularities in the race having the smallest ex- CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 65 tremities, and the most artistically proportioned hands. What we now consider as standards of human beauty, and delight in bringing together artificially in a single figure in a work of art, are found in nature scattered and distributed among different races." (See Physical Characteristics of Young Women of Latium, p. 69.) Upon the combination of all the different points of beauty in a single individual depend Que"te"let's biological theories of the medial man (Phomme moyen), lately revived and extensively developed by Viola. The new importance acquired by the recon- struction of the medial man is due precisely to the fact that the new method of reconstructing him is by bringing together all the single characteristics taken separately and worked out mathemat- ically according to the laws of individual variations that behave precisely like those of probability. (See Biometry and the Theory of the Medial Man.) Viola considers, in its relation to the physiological laws of health, the combination in a single individual of the maximum number of average characteristics, which at the same time are the characteristics numerically prevalent in individuals (dominant characteristics?). The man who accumulates the greater number of average characteristics, escapes diseases and predisposition to disease; he is consequently sounder and more robust and hand- somer. De Giovanni, on the contrary, through an ingenious conceit, bestows the name of morphological combination upon the union in a single individual, of parts that are mutually inharmonic and incapable of performing their normal functions together, in consequence of which such an individual's morphological person- ality is predisposed to special maladies. Accordingly the meeting and union of germinative poten- tialities may be either more or less propitious; as for instance the result sometimes produced by the combination of a platyopic (broad) face and an aquiline and extremely leptorrhine (narrow) nose; in other words, combinations that are discordant from the aesthetic standpoint, but harmless as regards health ; or again, there may be a lack of harmony between the internal organs, incom- patible with a healthy constitution. There may even exist mal- formations due to the meeting of forms that clash violently; each of which parts may be quite normal, when considered by itself, but cannot adapt itself to the other parts with which it is united. 66 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY It is as though the dominant characteristic in respect to an organ had been overpowered by another, which ought on the contrary, in this special case, to have been recessive. It is precisely on this question of the dominance of charac- teristics that the researches of the Mendelists are at present being expended. It has been observed in the course of experiments that there exist certain special correlations between potentialities, in consequence of which certain characteristics must always go together; as, for example, when two characteristics, having once been united, must continue to recur together, although they each exist separately. These laws, which are not yet clearly deter- mined, may serve to explain the final harmony of the sum total of individual attributes. But in general the dominance of characteristics is not absolute, but subject to many causes of variation, associated with environ- ment. Thus, for example, just as a change in nutrition of a young plant will result in a different height, it is also possible in the mechanics of reproduction that the original relations of germs may be altered by external causes, and the dominant character- istics be made recessive.* Many deviations are attributable to the influences that act upon the germinative cells of hybrids, after the latter have already been determined in their potentiality; thus for example when certain germinal cells are less resistant during maturation; or again when combinations between poten- tialities are difficult to achieve. That is to say, there may exist certain phenomena associated with environment, thanks to which Mendel's natural laws concerning the dominance of character- istics may become inverted. Another fact of great significance is this : that, in the course of extensive experimental plantings, for the purpose of verifying the laws of Mendel, a widespread sickliness and mortality occurred among cryptograms, at the expense of the plants of recessive character; which would go to prove that a lower power of resist- ance accompanies the appearance of recessive characteristics. The dominant characteristics accordingly are not only the most highly evolved, but they also possess a greater power of resist- ance. So that, to-day, the dominance of the strong tends through the workings of the phenomena of Mendelism, to do away, little by little, in the course of generations, with characteristics that are * COKKENS: Concerning the Laws of Heredity. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 67 weak or antiquated. This has an important bearing upon human pathology, because it opens the way to hope for a possible regener- ation in families branded with hereditary disease. The germinal potentialities that contain beauty and strength seem predestined to that predominance which will achieve the triumph of life in the individual. To learn the laws of the union, in one individual and definitive unity, of the infinite dominant and recessive potentialities that must encounter one another in the mysterious labyrinth in which life is prepared therein lies the greatest problem of the present day. It is that which should constitute our guiding purpose. FORM AND TYPES OF STATURE The Form. Fundamental Cannons regarding the Form. Types of Stature, Macroscelia and Brachyscelia; their physiological Significance. Types of Stature in relation to Race, Sex, and Age. A few years ago, when anthropology first began to be studied, the skull was taken as the point of departure; because in the ana- lytical study of the human body it represents the principal part. Indeed, the same thing was done by Lombroso, when he applied anthropology to the practice of psychiatry and later to the study of criminals. It is a matter of fact that degenerative stigmata of the gravest significance are to be found associated with the skull; and this he could not fail to take into account, because of its bear- ings upon criminal anthropology. But to-day anthropology is reaching out into vaster fields of science and striving to develop in diverse directions, such as those of physiology and pathology; and revolting from the collection of degenerative details, it undertakes to study normal man in regard to his external form as related to his functional capacity, or else the man of abnormal constitution, who in his outward form reveals certain predispositions to illness; and starting on these lines, it proposes to investigate principally the metamorphoses of growth, through the successive periods of life. From this new point of view, it is not any single malformation, but the individual as a whole in the exercise of his functions, who assumes first importance. The study of the cranium (formerly so important as to be the basis of a special science, craniology), becomes only one detail of the whole. As a matter of fact, the 68 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY brain, which is what gives the cranium its importance, is not only the immediate organ of intelligence, but it is also the psychomotor organ; and as such exercises control over all the striped muscles, and is morphologically associated with the development and the functional powers of the whole body. It follows that, the larger the body, the bigger brain it needs to control it, independently of the question of intelligence. There- fore the first point of departure should be eminently synthetic, and should include the morphological personality considered as a whole. One of the properties of living bodies is that of attaining a determinate development, whose limits, both in regard to the quantity of its mass and the harmony of its form, are defined by that biological final cause which is implanted in the race and trans- mitted by heredity. Consequently every living creature has determinate limits: and these constitute a fundamental biological property. The causality of such limits has not yet been determined by scientific research; nevertheless it is a phenomenon over which we must pause to meditate. If the philosopher pauses to contem- plate the immensity of the ocean from the sea shore, marvelling that the interminable and impetuous movement of the waves should have such exact and definite limits that it cannot overpass by so much as a metre the extreme high-water line upon the beach, we may similarly pause to meditate upon the material limits that life assumes in its infinitely varied manifestations. From the microbe to the mammal, from the lichen to the palm, all living creatures have inherited these limits, which permit the zoologist and the botanist to assign to each a measure as one of its descriptive attributes. This is the first attribute which we must take into consideration in the study of anthropology: namely, the mass of the body, and together with the mass, its morphological entirety. The Italian vocabulary lacks any one word which quite expresses this idea, [and in this respect English is scarcely more fortunate*]. The stature which represents to us the most synthetic measure of the body in its entirety (a measure determined by the vertical linear distance between the level on which the individual's feet are placed, up to the top of his head as he stands erect), does not * Translator's note. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 69 represent the entire body in the sense above indicated. It may rather be considered as a linear index of this entirety. The French language, on the contrary, possesses the word taille, which may be rendered in Italian by the word taglia [and in English by the word form *], provided that we understand it to signify the conception of the whole morphological personality. No single measurement can express the form; the weight of the body, indeed, may give us a conception of the mass but not of the shape; and the latter, if it needs to be determined in all its limits, requires a series of measurements, mutually related, and signifying the reciprocal connection and harmony of the part? with the whole; in other words, a law. We may establish the following measurements as adapted to determine the form, in other words, as fundamental laws: the total stature, the sitting stature, the total spread of the arms, the circumference of the thorax, and the weight. Of these measures, the two of chief importance are the stature and the weight, because they express the linear index and the volumetric measure of the entire body. The other measurements, on the contrary, analyse this entirety in a sweeping way: thus, the sitting stature, in its relation to the total stature, indicates the reciprocal proportions between the bust and the lower limbs; the perimeter of the chest records the transverse and volumetric development of the bust; and the total spread of the arms denotes a detail that is highly characteristic in the case of man: the development of the upper limbs, which, while they correspond to organs of locomotion in the lower animals, assume in the case of man higher functions, as organs of labour and of mimic speech. Such measurements constitute a law, because they are in con- stant mutual relationship, when the normal human organism has reached complete development. The stature, in fact, is equal to the total spread of the arms; the circumference of the thorax is equal to one-half the stature, and the sitting stature is slightly greater than the perimeter of the chest. As regards the weight, it cannot be in direct proportion to any linear measure; neverthe- less, an empirical correspondence in figures has been noted that may be recorded solely for the purpose of aiding the memory: the normal adult man usually weighs as many kilograms as there are centimetres in his stature, over and above one metre (for * Translator's note. 70 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY instance, a man whose height is 1.60 metres will weigh 60 kilo- grams, etc.). To make these laws easier to understand, we may resort to signs and formulae. Thus, if we denote the stature by St, the total spread of the arms by Ts, the circumference of the thorax by Ct, the essential or sitting stature by Ss, and the weight by W, we may set down the following formulae, which will result in practice in more or less obvious approximations: Of St=Ts; CW ; Ct = Ss And for the weight, the following wholly empirical formula: Stature. Among all the measurements relating to the form, the principal one is the stature. It has certain characteristics that are essentially human. What we understand by stature is the height of a living animal, when standing on its feet. Let us com- pare the stature of one of the higher mammals, a dog for instance, with that of man. The stature of the dog is determined essen- tially by the length of its legs, while the spinal column is supported in a horizontal position by the legs themselves. Such is the atti- tude of all the higher mammals, including the greater number of monkeys, notwithstanding that these latter are steadily tending to raise their spinal column in an oblique direction, in proportion to the lengthening of their fore-limbs, which serve them as a support in walking a form of locomotion half way between that of quadrupeds and of man. Man alone has permanently acquired an erect position, that renders the bust ( = sum of head and trunk) vertical, and leaves the upper limbs definitely free from any duty connected with locomotion, thus attaining the full measure of the human stature, which is the sum of the bust and the lower limbs. Thus, we may assert that one fundamental difference between man and animals consists in this : that in animals the spinal column does not enter into the computation of stature; while in man, on the contrary, it is included in its entirety. Consequently, in man the stature assumes a characteristic and fundamental im- portance, because part of it (that part relating to the bust) rep- resents, as a linear index, all the organs of vegetative life and of life in its external relations. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 71 If we examine the human skeleton in an erect position (Fig. 9), it shows us the varying importance of the different parts of its structure, according as they are destined to protect, or simply to sustain. At the top is the skull, an enclosed bony cavity; and this arrangement indicates that it is designed to contain and protect an organ of the highest importance. By means of the occipital foramen, this cavity communicates with the vertebral canal, also rigourously closed, that is formed by the successive juxtaposition of the vertebrae. Such protective formation is in accord with the high physiological significance and the delicate structure of the organs of the cen- tral nervous system, which represent the su- preme control over physi- ological life and over the psychic activities of life in its external relations. Below the skull, the struc- ture of the skeleton is profoundly altered; in fact, the framework of the thorax is a sort of bony cage open at the bottom; still, the external arrangement of the bones renders them highly protective to the organs they enclose, namely, the lungs and the heart physiological centres, whose perpetual motion seems to symbolise the rhythm and consequently the con- tinuity of life. Continuing to descend, we come to a sort of hollow basin, the pelvis, which seems merely to contain, rather than protect, the abdominal organs: the intestines, kidneys, etc. Such a structure FIG. 9. 72 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY seems to be in accord with the minor physiological importance of these organs, whose function (digestion) is periodic and may be temporarily suspended, in defiance of physiological stimuli, without suspension of life. In the lower part of the skeleton, on the contrary, the arrangement between the soft and bony tissues is inverted: the long bones of the limbs constitute the inner part; and they are covered over with thick, striped muscles, organs of mechanical movement for the purpose of locomotion. Here the function of the skeleton is exclusively that of support, and in its mechanism it represents a series of levers. Accordingly, the structure of the skeleton also shows us how the stature is composed of parts that differ profoundly in their physiological significance; life as a complete whole, the living man, is contained within the bust, which holds the organs of the individ- ual, vegetative life; those of life in relation to its environment, and those of life in relation to the race, namely, the organs of reproduction. Deprived of arms and legs, man could still live; the limbs are nothing more than appendages at the service of the bust, in all animals; they serve to transport the bust, that is, the part which constitutes the real living animal, which without the limbs would be as motionless as a vegetable, unable to go in pursuit of nourish- ment or to exercise sexual selection. The embryos of different animals, of a dog, a bat, a rabbit and of man (as may be seen in Fig. 11) show that the fundamental part of the body is the spinal column, which limits and includes the whole animal in the process of formation. If we next examine the embryonic development of man, as shown in Fig. 13, we may easily see how the limbs develop, at first as almost insignificant appendages of the trunk, remaining hidden within the curve of the spinal column; and even in an advanced stage of development (15th week), they still remain quite accessory parts in their relation to the whole. Having established these very obvious principles, we may ask ourselves : of two men of equal stature, which is physiologically the more efficient? Evidently, that one of the two who has the shorter legs. In other words, it is of fundamental importance to determine the reciprocal relation, in the stature, between the bust and the FIG. 10. Gastrula of a sponge. External surface. Internal section. (Showing the inner and outer primary layers, and the mouth orifice.) ffti FIG. 11. Dog. Bat. Rabbit. (From the work by E. Haeckel: Anthropogeny.) Man. Four skeletons of anthropoid apes. Fio. 12. Man. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 73 lower limbs, that is, between the height of the bust and the total height of the body. The height of the bust was called by Collignon the essential stature, a name that indicates the biological significance of this measurement. It may, however, also be called the sitting stature, from the method of taking the measure, which equals the vertical distance from the level on which the individual is seated to the top of his head. The other is the total stature. Accordingly, in anthropology we may define the physiological efficiency of a man by the relation existing between his two statures, FIG. 13. 14 days, 3 weeks, 4 weeks, etc. (natural size). the total and the essential. If we reduce the total stature (which for the sake of brevity we will call simply the stature) to a scale of 100, we find that the essential stature very slightly exceeds 50, oscillating between 53-54; yet it may fall to 47 and even lower, or it may rise above 56. In such cases we have individuals of pro- foundly diverse types, whose diversity is essentially connected with the proportional differences between the several parts of their stature. Hence, we may distinguish the type of stature; understanding by this, not a measure, but a ratio between measures, expressed by 74 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY a number; that is, "the type of stature is the name given to the ratio between the essential stature and the total stature reduced to a scale of 100." The number resulting from this ratio, since it indicates the ratio itself, is called the index of stature (See "Technical Les- sons: on the Manner of Obtaining and Calculating the Indexes"). Manouvrier has distinguished the type with short limbs and pre- ponderant trunk, by the name of brachyscelous; and those of the opposite type, that is, with long legs, by the name of macroscelous; reserving the term mesatiscelous to designate the intermediate type. These types differ not only in the reciprocal relation between the two statures, but in all the recognised laws of the form. The brachyscelous type has a circumference of chest in excess of half the stature, because the trunk is more greatly developed in all its dimensions; and the total weight of the body exceeds the normal proportion in relation to the stature. The contrary holds true of the macroscelous type; their trunk, being shorter, is also narrower, and the circumference of the chest can never equal one-half the stature, while the total weight of the body is below the normal. CANONS OF FOKM Passing next to a consideration of the total spread of the arms, since there is an evident correspondence between the upper and lower limbs, it follows that in the brachyscelous type the total spread is less than the stature, while in the macroscelous it sur- passes it to a greater or less degree, according to the grade of type; the two types consequently differ in the level reached by the wrist, when the arms are allowed to hang along the sides of the body. This is a very interesting fact to establish, since at one time it was held that excessive length of arm was an atavistic feature, in other words, an anthropoid reminder. To-day, since the old interpretation of the direct descent from species to species has been abandoned in the light of modern theories of biological evo- lution, we can no longer speak of atavistic revivals. It is true that the anthropoid apes, as may be seen in Fig. 13, have extremely long forelimbs, and that man is characterised by the shortness of his arms, free to perform work and obedient instruments of his brain. But if it happens that certain individual men have excessively long arms, even if they should coincide with an inferior CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 75 capacity for work and social adaptation, such a simple coincidence must not be interpreted by the laws of cause and effect. The modern theories of evolution tend to admit between the anthro- poid apes and man, only a common origin from lower animals not yet fixed in a determined species. So that in phylogenesis men are not considered as the children or grandchildren of apes, but rather their brothers or cousins of a more or less distant degree; and their resemblance must be attributed to a parallel evolution. Consequently, it is not possible to speak of direct transmission of characters. Therefore, we must interpret an excessive length of arm, or an excessive shortness, after the same fashion, namely, in its rela- tion to the type of stature, or to the established canons of the form in other words, as a detail of individual human types. Let us sum up the three canons in the following table: Mesatisceles Brachysceles Macrosceles St = Ts St > Ts St < Ts 04 St St SS =T Ss >^ bs < -77 2 2 St St St Ct-f Ct>f Ct < 73- W = K(St -1 m.) W > K(St -1m.) W < K(St - 1 m.) From these measurements are derived certain types of individ- uality which we may now describe in detail. The brachyscelous type has an excess of bust, consequently a preponderance of vegetative life; the great development of the abdominal organs tends to make a person of this type a hearty eater, a man addicted to all the pleasures of the table; his big heart, abundantly irrigating the body, keeps his complexion constantly highly coloured, if not plethoric. We can almost see this man of big paunch, corpulent, with an ample chest, fat, ruddy, coarse, and jolly; an excess of nutriment and of blood-supply are favour- able to the ready accumulation of adipose tissue, and as the body constantly grows heavier it steadily becomes more difficult for the undersized legs to support it ; so that inevitably this man will tend to become sedentary, and he will select a well-spread table as his favourite spot for lingering. Whatever elements of the ideal the 76 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY world contains, will escape the attention of this type of man, who is far more ready to understand and engage in commerce, which leads by a practical way to the solution of the material problems of life. In the other type, on the contrary, the macroscelous, the organs of vegetative life are insufficient and the central nervous system is defective. Such a man feels, even though unconsciously, that the abdominal organs are incapable of assimilating sufficient nutriment, and that his lungs, unable to take in the needed quan- tity of oxygen, render his breathing labourious. His small heart is inadequate for circulating the blood through the wholo body, which consequently retains an habitual pallor; while the nervous system is in a constant state of excitation. We can almost see this man, so tall and thin that he seems to be walking on stilts, with pallid, hollow cheeks and narrow chest, suffering from lack of appetite and from melancholia; nervous, incapable of steady productive work and prone to dream over empty visions of poetry and art. The man of this type is quite likely to devote his entire life to a platonic love, Or to conceive the idea of crowning an ideal love by committing suicide; and so long as he lives he will never succeed in escaping from the anxieties of a life that has been an economic failure. It is interesting to examine the types of stature from different points of view : such, for example, as the height of stature, the race, the sex, the age, the social conditions, the pathological deviations, etc. The Types of Stature According to the Height of the Total Stature. There exists between the bust and the limbs a primary relation of a mechanical nature, already well known, even before Manouvrier directed the attention of anthropologists to the types of stature. When one individual is very tall and another is very short, the consequence of this fact alone is that the taller of the two has much longer limbs as compared with the shorter. This is because, according to the general laws of mechanics, the bust grows less than the limbs and is subject to less variation. But notwithstanding this general fact, other conditions intervene to determine the comparative relations between the two portions of the stature. Indeed, Manouvrier exhibits, within his own school, specimens of equal stature but of different types; and further- more, he notes that the inhabitants of Polynesia are of tall stature and have a long bust, while negroes, who are also of tall stature, have a short bust. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 77 Types of Stature According to Race. Among the character- istics of racial types, present-day anthropology has included the reciprocal proportions between the two statures. This means that the medium type in the different races is not always contained within the same limits of fluctuation in regard to stature : but some races are brachyscelous, others are macroscelous, and still again others are mesatiscelous. The most brachyscelous race is the Mon- golian, prevalent in the population of China; the most macroscel- ous is the Australian type that once peopled Tasmania. Other races, as for example the negroid, while in a measure macroscelous, approach nearer to the mesatiscelous type, characteristic of the population of Europe. Let us examine the psycho-ethnic charac- ters of these various peoples. The Chinese are the founders of the most ancient of all oriental civilisations, and have established themselves in a vast empire, solid and stable in its proportions, as well as in the level of its civilisation. It would seem as though the Chinese people, having accomplished the enormous effort of raising themselves to a determined civic level, were no longer capable of advancement. Individually, they have a singularly developed spirit of discipline, and are the most enduring and faithful workers; it is well known that in America the Chinese Mongolian does not fear the competition of labourers of any other race, because no others can compete with him in parsimony, in simple living, and in unremitting toil. The Tasmanians constituted a people that was considered as having the lowest grade of civilisation among all the races on earth. Even English domination failed to adapt them to a more advanced environment, and their race was consequently scattered and destroyed. Accordingly, we find associated with extreme macroscelia (Tasmanians) an incapacity for civic evolution; and with the corresponding extreme of brachyscelia an insuperable limitation to civic progress. Consequently, the triumph of man upon earth cannot bear a direct relation to the volume of the bust, or in other words, we cannot assume that the man most favour- ably endowed on the physiological side is the one who has the largest proportion of viscera. As a matter of fact, the con- quering race, the race which has set no limit to the territory of its empire nor to the progress of its civilisation, is composed of white men, whose type of stature is mesatiscelous, that is to say, 78 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY representative of harmony between its parts. This conception will serve us in establishing a fundamental principle in morpho- logical biology: namely, that perfectibility revolves around a centre, which represents a perfect equilibrium between the various parts constituting an organism. Hence, in order to determine the deviations of the individual type, we must always start from those central data, which represent, as the case may be, normality or perfection. Even among the populations of Europe, and within the Italian people themselves, fluctuations occur in the degree of mesati- scelia, approaching to a greater or less degree the eccentric forms of brachyscelia or macroscelia; and such fluctuations are an attribute of race. We should draw a distinction between a people and a race. The term race refers exclusively to a biological classification, and corresponds to the zoological species. On the other hand, we mean by a people a group of human individuals bound together by political ties. Peoples are always made up of a more or less pro- found intermixture of races. It is well known that one of the most interesting and difficult problems of ethnology is that of tracing out the original types of races in peoples that represent an inter- mixture centuries old. Without entering too deeply into this question, which lies outside of our present purpose, it will suffice to point out that in the people of Italy it is possible to trace types of races differing from one another, yet so closely related as to render them apparently so similar that they might almost be regarded as a single race. Now, in an anthropological study of mine on the young women of Latium, I succeeded in tracing, within the confines of that region, different racial types that show corresponding differences in degrees of mesatiscelia. Thus, for example, in Castelli Romani there exists in an almost pure state a dark-haired race, short of stature, slender, elegantly modelled in figure and in profile, and showing within the limits of mesatiscelia a brachyscelous tendency, in contrast with another race, tall, fair, massive, of coarse build, which within the limits of mesatiscelia shows a macroscelous tendency, and which is found in almost pure groups around the locality of Orte, that is, on the boundaries of Umbria. It is interesting to note the importance of researches in ethnological anthropology conducted in small centres of habitation. If it is CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 79 still possible to trace out groups even approaching racial purity, they will be found only in localities offering little facility to emigra- tion and to the consequent intermixture of races. The fact that we still find in Castelli Romani types so nearly pure, is due to the isolation of this region, which up to yesterday was still in such primi- tive and rare communication with the capital as to permit of the survival of brigandage. On the contrary, in localities that have attained a higher civic advancement, and in which the inhabitants are placed in favourable economic and intellectual conditions, the facilities of travel and emigration will very soon effect an altera- tion in the anthropological characters of the race. Hence it would be impossible, in a cosmopolitan city like Rome, to accom- plish any useful studies of the sort that I accomplished in the district of Latium, and which led me to conclude that in the small and slender race of Castelli Romani we may trace the descendants of the ancient conquerors of the world: descendants that belong to one variety of the great Mediterranean race, to whom we owe the historic civilisations of Egypt, Greece and Rome. It would seem that this race, disembarking on the coast of Latium, must have driven back, among the Apennines, the other race, blond and massive, whose pure-blooded descendants are still found in numerical prevalence at Orte, an ancient mediaeval town and a natural fortress from the remotest times, through its fortu- nate situation on the crown of a rocky height, that easily isolates it from the surrounding country (see the ancient history of the town of Orte). Accordingly, within the limits of mesatiscelia, it appears that the race which in early times won the victory was the more brachy- scelous, i.e., the one which had the larger bust, and consequently the larger brain and vital organs. In other words, within the limits of normality, brachyscelia is a physiologically favourable condition. Variations of Type of Stature According to Social Conditions. Independently of race, and from such a radically different point of view as that of the social condition, or adaptation to environment, we may still distinguish brachyscelous and macroscelous types. Brachysceles may readily be met with among the labouring classes, habituated from childhood to hard toil in a standing position, thus interfering with a free development of the long bones of the lower limbs; while the macroscelous type will be found among the 80 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY aristocratic classes, whose members, spending much time sitting or reclining, give the long bones an opportunity to attain their growth (mechanical theories of stature). Without stopping to discuss the suggested causes of such differentiation in types, we may nevertheless point out that the brachyscelous type is emi- nently useful to society, constituting, one may say, the principal source of economic production, while the macroscelous and unpro- ductive type settles comfortably down upon the other like a parasite. But the progress of the world is not due to the labour- ing class, but to the men of intellect, among whom the prevailing type is the medium, harmonic type, with mesatiscelous stature. Types of Stature in Art. The existence of these different individual types, which combine a definite relationship of the parts of stature with the complete image of a well-defined indi- viduality, was long ago perceived by the eye, or rather by the delicate intuition of certain eminent artists. These immor- talised their several ideals, investing now the one type and now the other with the genius of their art. Thus, for example, Rubens embodies in his Flemish canvases the brachyscelous type, robust and jovial, and usually represents him as a man of mighty appetite revelling in the pleasures of the table. Botticelli, on the contrary, has idealised the macroscelous type, in frail, diaphanous, almost superhuman forms, that seem, as they approach, to walk, shadow-like, upon the heads of flowers, without bending them beneath their feet and without leaving any trace of their passage. Accordingly, these two great artists have admirably realised, not only the two opposite types of stature, but also the psychic and moral attributes that respectively belong to them. But it was not granted to these artists to achieve the supreme glory of representing perfect human beauty in unsur- passed and classic masterpieces. The art of Greece alone succeeded in embodying in statues which posterity must admire but cannot duplicate, the medial, normal type of the perfect man. Variations of Stature According to Sex. It is not always neces- sary to interpret the type of stature in the same sense. Even from an exclusively biological standpoint, it may lend itself to profoundly different interpretations. Thus, for example, the type of stature varies normally according to the sex. Woman is more brachyscelous than man; but the degree of brachyscelia corresponds to a larger development CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 81 of the lumbar segment of the spinal column, which corresponds to the functions of maternity. In fact all the various segments of the spinal column show different propor- tions in the two sexes. As we know, the spinal column consists of three parts; the cervical (correspond- ing to the neck), the thoracic (corresponding to the ribs), and the abdominal, including the os sacrum and the coccyx. Now, Manouvrier, reducing the height of the spinal column to a scale of 100, expresses the relations of these different parts in the two sexes as follows : Segments Men Women Cervical 22.1 23 9 Thoracic 58.5 55.4 Lumbar 11 4 23 7 Sacro-coccygeal 7.9 6.7 In woman the thoracic segment is shorter and the abdominal is longer than in man; but the total sum in woman is relatively greater in proportion to the whole stature. In a case like this we have no right to speak of a morphological or psychosocial superiority of type; nor would a fact of this sort have any weight, for example, in establishing the anthropological superiority of woman. Nevertheless, it may be asserted that, if the day comes when woman, having entered the ranks of social workers, shall prove that she is socially as useful as man, she will still be, in addition, the mother of the species, and for that reason preeminently the greater producer. Now, it is beyond question that this indisputable superiority is in direct relation with the type of stature. But without insist- ing unduly on a point like this, we should note the connection between the brachyscelous type and the tendency shown by women to accumulate nutritive substances, adipose tissue; con- sequently, as compared with man, she is the more corpulent as are all brachysceles as compared with macrosceles. Types of Stature at Different Ages. Another factor that influ- ences the types of stature is the age; or rather, that biological force which we call growth. Growth is not an augmentation of volume, but an alteration in form; it constitutes the ontogenetic evolution, the development 82 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY of the individual. The child, as it grows, is transformed. If we compare the skeleton of a new-born child with that of an adult, we discover profound differences between the relative proportions of the different parts. The child's head is enormously larger than that of the adult in proportion to its stature; and similarly, the chest measure is notably greater in the child. If we wish to compare the fundamental measurements of the new-born infant with those of the adult, we get the following figures, on a basis of 100 for the total stature : Adult Child at birth Total stature Essential stature 52 68 = 100 Perimeter of thorax. . . . Height of head 50 10 70 20 8 4o Z 6 8 50 I j 2 4- 6 1 6 a 1 4 * yw / S 3 4 6 6 7 8 9 Fio. 14. // 72 Accordingly, the child has to acquire, in the course of its growth, not only the dimensions of the adult, but the har- mony of his forms; that is, it must reach not only certain de- termined limits of dimension, but also a certain type of beauty. Among the funda- mental differences be- tween the new-born child and the adult one of the first to be noted is the reciprocal difference of propor- tion between the two statures. The child is ultrabrachyscelous, that is, he presents a CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 83 type of exaggerated brachyscelia, calling to mind the form of the human fcetus, in which the limbs appear as little appendages of the trunk. In the course of growth, a successive alteration takes place between the reciprocal proportions of the two parts, so that the lower limbs, growing faster than the bust, tend to ap- proach the total length of the latter. Godin has noted that during the years before puberty the lower limbs acquire greater dimensions, as compared with the bust, than are found in the fully developed individual ; in other words, at this period a rapid growth takes place in the long bones of the lower limbs, and accordingly at this period of his life the individual passes through a stage of the macroscelous type. Immediately after puberty, there begins, in turn, an increase in the size of the bust, which regains its normal excess over the lower limbs, thus attaining the definite normal type of the adult individual. After the age of 17 years, by which time these metamorphoses have been com- pleted, the individual may increase in stature, but the propor- tions between the parts will remain unaltered. In Fig. 14 we have a graphic representation of the relative proportions between the height of the bust and the length of limbs at different ages, the total stature being in every case reduced to 100. The upper portion of the lines represents the bust, and the lower portion the limbs, while the transverse line corresponding to the number 50 indicates one-half of the total stature. From such a table, it is easy to see how the bust, enormously in excess of the limbs at birth, gradually loses its preponderance. It was drawn up from the following figures calculated by me: TYPES OF STATURE ACCORDING TO AGE IN YEARS At birth 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 68 65 63 62 60 59 57 56 55 55 54 53 53 52 52 51 51 52 Godin furnishes the following figures, relating to the type of stature at the period preceding and following puberty: 84 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY RATIO OF SITTING STATURE TO TOTAL STATURE REDUCED TO SCALE OF 100 (GODIN) Age 13 1/2 14 14 1/2 15 15 1/2 16 16 1/2 17 17 1/2 Ratio . . . 52 52 51 51 51 52 52 52 52 Hrdlicka has calculated the index of stature for a thousand white American children and a hundred coloured, of both sexes, and has obtained the following figures, some of which, based upon an adequate number of subjects, (10-13 years) are what were to be expected, while others, owing to the scarcity of subjects (under 6 and above 15 years) are far less satisfactory: PROPORTION BETWEEN THE SITTING STATURE AND THE TOTAL STATURE (AMERICAN CHILDREN) Age in years Number of subjects of each age Males, white Females, white Number of subjects of each age Males, coloured Females, coloured 3 1 60.8 59.5 4 1 58.9 5 2 57.4 57.3 3 57.3 57.9 6 15 56.6 57.4 5 55.9 55.6 7 38 56.3 57.2 5 54.9 55.4 8 56 55.9 56.2 13 55.1 53.3 9 62 55.2 55.9 25 54.2 54.1 10 98 54.6 54.2 12 54.9 53.7 11 99 54.0 55.0 12 52.8 53.8 12 93 53.5 54.1 10 57.7 54.0 13 86 52.9 53.8 13 52.9 51.9 14 53 52.7 54.1 7 52.3 51.8 15 20 53.1 53.7 6 51.7 53.0 16 9 52.0 55.0 2 53.0 17 3 52.2 54.7 Which goes to prove (in spite of the inaccuracies due to the numerical scarcity of coloured subjects of any age) that the females are more brachyscelous than the males; and that the blacks are more macroscelous than the whites. The above table of indices of stature was worked out by Hrdlicka from the following measurements : CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 85 SITTING STATURE Age iu years Males, white Females, white Males, coloured Females, coloured 3 476 476 4 534 5 551 576 597 571 6 595 608 616 607 7 631 621 630 625 8 644 635 659 671 9 672 663 679 680 10 684 687 697 695 11 711 718 718 703 12 728 734 797 792 13 751 770 737 767 14 764 809 787 808 15 777 825 753 819 16 839 824 795 17 864 850 TOTAL STATURE Age in years Males, white Females, white Males, coloured Females, coloured 3 783 839 4 906 5 961 1004 1044 985 6 1051 1060 1101 1091 7 1120 1086 1147 1127 8 1152 1130 1196 1260 9 1212 1187 1251 1257 10 1248 1267 1271 1295 11 1315 1304 1360 1307 12 1362 1357 1381 1467 13 1420 1431 1392 1477 14 1449 1495 1505 1559 15 1462 1535 1455 1545 16 '1615 1498 1500 17 1654 18 1554 ~ The following chart, prepared by MacDonald, on the growth of the total stature and the sitting stature of male white children, 86 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY born in America, gives a very clear idea of the rhythm of each of the two statures. The sitting stature increases quite slowly, and its greatest rate of growth is immediately after puberty (from 15 to 17 years) (Fig. 15) Mac Donald. 777 M 75; m 71! ftn 6K a m &v ;' ^ ' . .,y j / / / r e ^x / c. t o\ 7 / ^ ^ / I <$ i^x ? 7 y / <* y / 1359 1327 1282 1227 117O 1112 ^H Agt / / y / / ^ / 3 r /. / ^ / I / / s >6 7 S 9 10 11 12 13 # 15 16 17 FIG. 15. Lastly, in order to make this phenomenon still more clear, I have reproduced an illustration given by Stratz, consisting of a series of outlined bodies of children representing the proportions of the body at different stages of growth; and not only the pro- CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 87 portions between the bust and the lower limbs, but also between the various component parts of the bust, as for instance the head and trunk. The transverse lines indicate the changes in the prin- cipal levels: the head, the mammary glands, and the bust (Fig. 16). The different types of stature at different ages deserve our most careful consideration, yet not from the point of view already set forth regarding the different types in the fully developed individual. In the present case for instance, we cannot say of a FIG. 16. youth of sixteen that, because he is macroscelous he is a weakling as compared with a boy of ten who is brachyscelous ; nor that a new-born child represents the maximum physical potentiality, because he is ultra-brachyscelous. Our standards must be com- pletely altered, when we come to consider the various types as stages of transition between two normal forms, representing the evolution from one to the other. At each age we observe not only different proportions between the two fundamental parts of the stature, but physiological characteristics as well, biological signs of predispositions to certain determined maladies, and psychological characteristics differing from one another, and each 88 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY typical of a particular age. From the purely physical and mor- phological point of view, for example, a child from its birth up to its second year, the period of maximum brachyscelia and con- sequent visceral predominance, is essentially a feeding animal. After this begins the development of psychic life, until finally, just before the attainment of full normal proportions, the function of reproduction is established, entailing certain definite character- istics upon the adult man or woman. In accordance with its type of stature, we see that the child from its birth to the end of the first year shows a maximum development of the adipose system together with a preponderance of the digestive organs; while the adolescent, in the period preceding puberty, shows in accordance with his macroscelous type of stature, and reduction in the relative proportion of his visceral organs, a characteristic loss of flesh. These evolutionary changes in the course of growth having been once established, it remains for us to consider the individual variations. The alterations observed at the various ages, or rather, the notable characteristics of each age, serve as so many fundamental charts of the normal average child; and we may con- sider each successive type of stature, from the new-born infant to the adult man, in the same light as we do the average type of the mature mesatiscelous type. In the case of the latter, we found that both above and below the medium stature, there were a host of individual types departing more or less widely from it, and tending toward brachyscelia on the one hand and toward macroscelia on the other, thus constituting the oscillations of type in the individual varieties. Similarly, in the case of the medium type of each successive age we may find brachyscelous or macroscelous individuals whose complex personal character- istics may be compared to those already observed in the adult, and may be summed up as follows: that the macroscele is a weak- ling; and that the brachyscele may be, according to the degree of variation, either a robust individual or an individual that has been arrested in his morphological development, and retained the type of a younger age. Pedagogic Considerations. From the above conclusion, we may deduce certain principles that can be profitably applied to pedagogy, especially in regard to some of the methods suited to our guidance in the physical education of children. Let us begin CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 89 with the happy comparison drawn by Manouvrier, who describes an imaginary duel with swords between a macroscelous and a brachyscelous type. The duel, according to social conventions, must take place under equal conditions: hence the seconds take rigorous care in measuring the ground, the length of the swords, and determine the number of paces permitted to the duelists. But since they have forgotten the anthropologic side, the con- ditions are not entirely equal : by having a longer arm, the macro- scele is in the same position as though he had a longer sword; and because he has a greater development of the lower limbs, the established number of strides will take him over a greater space of ground than his adversary. Consequently, the conditions as a matter of fact are so favourable to the macroscele, that is, to the weaker individual, that the latter has a greater chance of victory. The brachyscele might, to be sure, offset this by a different manoeuvre depending on his superior agility; but both he and the macroscele were trained in the same identical method, which takes into consideration only the external factor, the arms of defence, and the immutable laws of chivalry. Well, something quite similar happens in the duel of life, which is waged in school and in the outside social environment. We ignore individual differences, and concern ourselves solely with the means of education, considering that they are just, so long as they are equal for all. The fencing-master, if he had been an anthropologist, might have counteracted the probability that the stronger pupil would be beaten by the weaker, by advising the brachyscele always to choose a pistol in place of a sword, or by teaching him some manoeuvre entirely different from that which affords the macroscele a favourable preparation for fencing. And in the same way, it is the duty of the school-teacher to select the arms best adapted to lead his pupil on to victory. That is, the teacher ought to make the anthropological study of the pupil precede his education; he should prepare him for whatever he is best adapted for, and should indicate to him the paths that are best for him to follow, in the struggle for existence. But, aside from general considerations, we may point out that something very similar to the above-mentioned duel takes place in school when, in the course of gymnastic exercises, we make the children march, arranging them according to their total height. 90 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY We expect them to march evenly and walk, not run, yet we do not trouble to ask whether their legs are of equal length. When we wish to know which of our pupils is the swiftest runner, we start them all together, macrosceles and brachysceles alike, neglecting to measure their lower limbs, the weight of their bodies, the circumference of their chests. Then we say " bravo!" to the macroscele, that is, the pupil who is most agile but at the same time the weakest, and we encourage him in a pride based upon a physi- ological inferiority. When we practise exercises of endurance, we find that certain children weary sooner, suffer from shortness of breath, and frequently drop out of the contest, in which the victory is reserved for others. The latter are the brachysceles, who have big lungs and a robust heart at their disposal. In this case we say "bravo!" to the brachysceles. Then we try to arouse a noble rivalry between the two types, encouraging emulation, and holding up before the brachyscele the example of the macro- scele's agility, and before the macroscele the example of the brachyscele' s endurance and perhaps we reward the two types with different medals. Such decisions by the teacher evidently have no such foundation in justice as he supposes; the diverse abilities of the two types of children are associated with the con- stitution of their organisms. A modern teacher ought instead to subject the brachyscelous child to exercises adapted to develop his length of limb, and the macroscelous to gymnastics that will increase the development of his chest ; and he will abstain from all praise, reward, exhortation and emulation, that have for their sole basis the pupil's complete anthropological inefficiency. " The judgment passed by the teacher in assigning rewards and punishments is often an unconscious diagnosis of the child's anthropological personality." Similar unconscious judgments are exceedingly widespread. Manouvrier gives a brilliant exposition of them in the course of his general considerations regarding the macroscelous and brachy- scelous types. A brachyscelous ballet-dancer, all grace and endur- ance in her dancing, thanks to the strength of her lungs, can never be imitated in her movements by a macroscelous, angular woman, with legs ungracefully long. The latter, on the contrary, wrapped in a mantle, may become the incarnation of a stately matron, ex- tending her long arms in majestic gestures. Yet it often happens that the stately actress envies and seeks to imitate the grace of CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 91 the dancer, while the latter envies and emulates the grave dignity of the actress. In any private drawing-room the same thing occurs, in the shape of different advantages distributed among persons of differ- ent types. There are some gestures that are inimitable because they are associated with a certain anthropologic personality. Every one in the world ought to do the things for which he is specially adapted. It is the part of wisdom to recognise what each one of us is best fitted for, and it is the part of education to perfect and utilise such predispositions. Because education can direct and aid nature, but can never transform her. Manouvrier is constantly observing how the macroscelous and brachyscelous types are adapted to different kinds of social labour; thus, for example, the macroscele will make an excellent reaper, because of the wide sweep of his arms, and he is well adapted to be a tiller of the soil; while the brachyscele, on the contrary, will succeed admirably in employment that requires continuous and energetic effort, such as lifting weights, hammering on an anvil, or tending the work of a machine. In the social evolution now taking place, the services of the macrosceles are steadily becoming less necessary; intensive modern labour requires the short, robust arm of the brachyscele. Such considerations ought not to escape the notice of the teacher, who sees in the boy the future man. He has the high mission of pre- paring the duelists of life for victory, by now correcting and again aiding the nature of each. And the first point of departure is undoubtedly to learn to know, in each case le physique du role. ABNORMAL TYPES OF STATURE AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGICAL ETHICS Abnormal types of stature in their relation to moral training. Macroscelia and brachy- scelia in pathologic individuals (DE GIOVANNI'S hyposthenic and hypersthenic types). Types of stature in emotional criminals and in parasites. Extreme types of stature among the extrasocial classes: Nanism and gigantism. Let us start from a picture traced in the course of the preceding lessons; the types of stature as related to race. The Chinese, being brachyscelous, ought to be hearty eaters; instead, they are the most sparing people on earth. Such parsimony, equally with religion and social morality, may be considered as a racial obli- gation. The whole life of the Chinese is founded upon duty: 92 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY fidelity to religion, to the laws, to the spirit of discipline, to the spirit of sacrifice, which always finds the Chinese citizen ready to die for his ethics and for his country, are strong characteristics of these invincible men. Their whole education rests solely upon a mnemonic basis; and their laws, which are highly democratic, make it possible for anyone to rise to the highest circles, pro- vided he can pass the competitive examinations. In other words, the laws aid in the natural selection of the really strong, and regard favouritism as a crime against the State. On such individual and national virtues is founded the survival of the race and of the massive empire. If tomorrow the Chinese should renounce his creed, become a glutton, a pleasure-seeker, and follow the instincts of nature, he would be advancing in mighty strides on the path that leads to death. Accordingly, what we call virtue may have a biologic basis, and represent the active force that tends to correct the defects of nature. We can conceive of a type of man, whose life is associated with sacrifice; and whose path of evolution is necessarily limited, first because his personality is imperfect, secondly because a part of his individual energy is necessarily expended in conquering, or if you prefer, in correcting his own nature. Evolution ought to be free; but instead, such a type is necessarily in bondage to duty, which stops its progress. Accordingly, the civilisation of China remains the civilisation of China; it cannot invade the world. The European on the contrary has no such racial virtues; what- ever virtues he has are associated with transitory forms of civili- sation, and are ready to succeed one another on the pathway of unlimited progress. The race can permit itself the luxury of not being virtuous on its own account; its biological conditions are so perfect, that they have reached the fullness of life. If virtue is the goal of the Chinese, happiness is the goal of the European. The race may indulge freely in the joys of living; and dedicate its efforts solely to the unlimited progress of social civilisation, and to the conquest of the entire earth. The Tasmanian, on the other hand, sparing by nature, lacking sufficient development of the organs of vegetative life, avoids every form of civilisation, and precipitates himself, an unconscious victim, upon the road to death. His natural parsimony, the scantiness of his needs, have prevented him from ever feeling that spur toward struggle and conquest which has its basis in CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 93 the necessities of life. Neither virtue, nor felicity, nor civilisation, nor survival were possible to that race, whose extermination began with the first contact with European civilisation. Hence we may draw up a table that will serve to make clear certain fundamental ideas that may prove useful guides along our pedagogic path : Biological types Brachysceles Mesatisceles Macrosceles Races and peoples. . . Civilisation Chinese. Stable civilisation, Europeans. Changeable ci vil- Tasmanians. Outside the pale of Psycho-moral types . . but limited. High ideal of virtue and sacrifice. isation, with un- limited powers of evolution. Happiness. civilisation. Insensibility. We ought to strive for the supreme result of producing men who will be happy; always keeping clearly before us the idea that the happy man is the one who may be spared the effort of thinking of himself, and dedicate all his energies to the unlimited progress of human society. The preoccupation of virtue, the voluntary sacrifice are in any case forces turned back upon themselves, that expend upon the individual energies that are lost to the world at large; nevertheless, such standards of virtue are necessary for certain inferior types. There exist, besides, certain individuals in rebellion against society, outcasts whose lives depend upon the succor of the strong, or may be destroyed by their adverse inter- vention, but in any case have ceased to depend upon the will of the individuals themselves. Between two inferior types the one with the better chances is the one with the larger chest development; apparently, in the case of biological deviations, melius est abundare quam deficere. Accordingly, let us draw up a chart. Human perfectionment tends toward harmony. If we wish to represent this by some symbolic or intuitive sign, we could not do so by a mere line; because perfection is not reached by the quantitative increase of favourable parts; robustness, for instance, cannot be indefinitely increased by augmenting the degree of brachyscelia ; nor can intel- ligence be increased by augmenting the volume of the head; but 94 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY perfection is approached, in the race and in the individual, through a central harmony. It is accordingly in the direction of this centre that progress is made; and whoever departs furthest from this centre, departs furthest from perfection, becomes more eccentric, more untypical, and at the same time also loses the psycho-moral potentiality to attain the highest civic perfection. In Fig. 17, we have a graphic representation in three con- centric circles. Let us begin by considering the middle circle, that of the abnormals. Here we have inscribed, as psycho-moral and physio- pathological traits, abstemi- ousness, anti-social tendency, predisposition to disease. Abstemiousness represents a corrective, without which the individual tends toward an anti-social line of action and contracts diseases. Abstemi- ousness is present within the circle of abnormal human beings, as a more or less at- tainable ideal ; but it must be regarded as the pedagogic goal, when the problem arises FIQ 17 _ of educating an untypical class of individuals. In other words, there are certain abnormal individuals who, if they are not to turn out criminals, must exercise a violent corrective influence over their psycho-physical personality, and they must be trained to do so; for it is an influence unknown to the normal man, who not only has no inclination to commit a crime, but recoils from doing so, and on the contrary may arise to degrees of moral perfection that are inconceivable to the abnormal man. Consequently, in order to maintain a relatively healthy condition, certain abnormal individuals are constrained to submit themselves to a severe hygienic regime throughout their entire life; a regime use- less to the normal man, who indulges naturally in all the pleasures which are consistent with the full measure of physical health, and which remain forever unknown, and unattainable, to the ab- normal individual organically predisposed to disease. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 95 Such self-restraint we may call the culte of virtue, a necessity only to certain categories of men; and we may also call it the virtue of inferior individuals. It applies and is limited almost wholly to the individual. Meanwhile, there is the normal man's high standard of virtue, which is an indefinite progress toward moral perfection; but the path it follows lies wholly in the direction of society collectively, or toward the biological perfectionment of the species. In life's attainment of such a triumph, man both feels and is happy rather than virtuous. The separation between the circles, or rather between the differ- ent categories of indviduals, the normal and the abnormal, is not clear-cut. There always exist certain imperceptibly transitional forms, between normality and abnormality; and furthermore, since no one of us is ideally normal, no one who is not abnormal in some one thing, it follows that this "some one thing" must be corrected by the humbling practice of self-discipline. At the same time it is rare for a man to be abnormal in all parts of his personality; in such a case he would be outside the social pale, a monstrosity; the high, collective virtues can, therefore, even if in a limited degree, illuminate the moral life of the abnormals. St. Paul felt that it "is hard to kick against the pricks"; and the picciotto of the Camorra feels that he is obeying a society that protects the weak. It is a question of degree. But such a conception must lead to a separation in school and in method of education, for the two categories of individuals. ABNORMAL TYPES ACCORDING TO DE GIOVANNI'S THEORY Certain very important pathological types have been distin- guished and established in Italy by De Giovanni, the Paduan clinical professor who introduced the anthropological method into clinical practice. Through his interesting studies, he has to-day fortunately revived the ancient theory of temperaments, explaining them on a basis of physio-pathological anthropology. De Giovanni distinguishes two fundamental types; the one hyposthenic (weak), the other hyper sthenic (over-excitable); these two types obey the following rules: morphologically considered, the hyposthenic type has a total spread of arms greater than the 96 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY total stature and a chest circumference of less than half the stature: these data alone are enough to tell us that the type in question is macroscelous; as a matter of fact, the chest is narrow and the abdo- men narrower still. De Giovanni says that, owing to the scant pulmonary and abdominal capacity the organs of vegetative life are inadequate; the heart is too small and unequal to its function of general irrigator of the organism; the circulation is consequently sluggish, as shown by the bluish net-work of veins, indicating some obstacle to the flow of blood. The type is predominantly lymphatic, the muscles flaccid, with a tendency to develop fatty tissues, but very little muscular fibre; there is a predisposition to bronchial catarrh, but above all to pulmonary tuberculosis. This hyposthenic type, which corre- sponds to the lymphatic temperament of Greek medicine, is in reality a macroscelous type somewhat exceeding normal limits and there- fore physiologically inefficient and feeble. The following is De Giovanni's description: Morphologically. Deficient chest capacity, deficient abdominal capacity, disproportionate and excessive development of the limbs; insufficient muscularity. Physiologically. Insufficient respiration, and consequent scanty supply of oxygen (a form of chronic asphyxia of internal origin), insufficient circulation, because the small heart sends the blood through the arteries at too low a pressure; and this blood, insuffi- ciently oxygenated, fails to furnish the tissues with their normal interchange of matter, and therefore the assimilative functions in general all suffer; finally, the venous blood is under an excessive pressure in the veins, the return flow to the heart is rendered difficult and there results a tendency to venous hyperemia (con- gestion of the veins), even in the internal organs. This is accom- panied by what De Giovanni calls nervous erethism (in contradis- tinction to torpor), which amounts to an abnormal state of the central nervous system, causing predisposition to insanity and to various forms of neurasthenia (rapid exhaustion, irritability). This type is especially predisposed to maladies of the respira- tory system, subject to bronchial catarrh recurring annually, liable to attacks of bronchitis, pleurisy, and pneumonia, and easily falls victim to pulmonary tuberculosis. Here are a few cases recorded by De Giovanni.* (It must be * DE GIOVANNI, Op, cit., p. 236. Cases referring to the first morphologic combination. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 97 borne in mind that the total spread of the arms, Ts, ought to equal the total stature, St. The measurements are given in centimetres.) F. M. St 147; Ts 151. Extremely frail; frequent attacks of hemorrhage of the nose; habitually pale and thin. Certain disproportions of the skeleton, hands and feet greatly en- larged; extreme development of the subcutaneous veins. Pulmonary tuberculosis. A. M. St 161; Ts 193. Nervous erethism; from the age of twelve subject to laryngo-bronchial catarrh; every slight ill- ness accompanied by fever; habitually thin. Pulmonary tuberculosis. F. M. St 150; Ts 150; Ct 67. Lymphatic, torpid, almost chronic bloating of the abdomen. Enlargement of the glands; scars from chilblains on hands and feet. Primary tuberculosis of the glands, secondary tuberculosis of the lungs. A. M. St 172; Ts 179. Extreme emaciation, heart singularly small. Chronic bronchial catarrh. If it is important for us, as educators, to be acquainted with this type in the adult state, it ought to interest us far more during its ontogenesis, that is, during the course of its individual evolution. Since, in the process of growth, man passes through different stages, due to alteration in the relative proportions of the different organs and parts, it follows that this hyposthenic type corre- spondingly alters its predisposition to disease. Its final state, manifested by various defects of development, gave unmistakable forewarnings at every period of growth. In early infancy symptoms of rickets presented themselves, and then disappeared, like an unfulfilled threat: dentition was tardy or irregular; the head was large and with persistent nodules. This class, as a type, is weak, sickly, easily attacked by infec- tious diseases, tracoma, purulent otitis. When the first period of growth is passed, glandular symptoms begin, with liability to sluggishness of the lymphatic glands (scrof- ula) or persistent swelling of the lymphatic ganglia of the neck. This is supplemented by bronchial catarrh, recurring year after year; finally intestinal catarrh follows, accompanied in most cases by loss of appetite. 98 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Such conditions are influenced very slightly or not at all by medical treatment. During the period of puberty, cardiopalmus (palpitation of the heart) is very likely to occur, often accompanied by frequent and abundant epistasis, or by the occurrence of slight fever in the evening, and by blood-stained expectorations, suggestive of tuber- culosis. The patient is pale (oligohsemic), very thin, and shoots up rapidly (preponderant growth of the limbs); he is subject to muscular asthenia (weakness, exhaustibility of the muscles) and to various forms of nervous excitability. These symptoms also (some of them so serious as to arouse fears, at one time of rickets and at another of tuberculosis), are all of them quite beyond the reach of medical treatment (tonics, etc.). Now, a fact of the highest importance, discovered by De Giovanni, is that of spontaneous corrections, that is, the develop- ment of compensations within the organism, suited to mitigate the anamolous conditions of this type, and hence the possibility of an artificial intervention capable of calling forth such compensations. Such intervention cannot be other then pedagogic; and it should consist in a rational system of gymnastics, designed in one case to develop the heart, in another the chest, in another to modify the intestinal functions or to stimulate the material renewal of the body; while every form of over-exertion must be rigorously avoided. ''I think that we should regard as an error not without conse- quences what may be seen any day in the gymnasiums of the public schools, where pupils differing in bodily aptitude, and with differ- ent gymnastic capacity and different needs are with little dis- cernment subjected to the same identical exercises, for the same length of time. "And day by day we see the results : there are some children who rebel outright against the required exercise which they fear and from which they cannot hope to profit, because it demands an effort beyond their strength. Some have even been greatly harmed; so that one after another they abandon these bodily exer- cises, which if they had been more wisely directed would assuredly have bettered their lot. ''Experience also teaches that one pupil may be adapted to one kind of exercise and another to another kind. Accordingly a really physiological system of gymnastics requires that those FIG. 18. FIG. 19. Brachyscelous type (from Viola). ( FIG. 20. FIG. 21. Macroscelous type (from Viola). CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 99 movements and those exercises which are least easily performed should be practised according to special methods, until they have strength- ened the less developed functions, without ever causing illness or producing harmful reactions.*" So that the final results are an improvement in the morpho- logical proportions of the organism, and consequently a correction and improvement in the relative liability to disease. The other fundamental pathological type described by De Giovanni is the hyper sthenic (second morphological combination), corresponding in part to the sanguine temperament of Greek medicine, and in part to the bilious temperament. In this type the total spread of the arms is generally less than the stature, and the perimeter of the chest notably exceeds one-half the stature. Consequently we are dealing with the brachyscelous type. This type has a greatly developed thorax, a large heart, an excessive development of the intestines; hence he is a hearty eater, subject to an over-abundance of blood; he is over-nourished, the ruddy skin reveals an abundant circulation, there is an excess of adipose tissue and a good development of the striped muscles. Such a constitution accompanies an excitable, impulsive, violent disposition, and conduces to diseases of the heart. "This type is characterised in general by robustness and a liability to disorders of the central circulatory system, "f But there are still other forms of disease that await the in- dividuals of this class, such for example as disorders affecting the interchange of organic matter (diabetes, gout, polysarcia = obesity) and attacks of an apoplectic nature. In the case of acute illness individuals of this class suffer from excess of blood and may be relieved by being bled. They are readily liable to bloody excretions. Here are a few cases illustrating this morphological combination, which is characterised by an exorbitant chest development (it must be borne in mind that the circumference of the thorax, Ct, should equal one-half the stature, St). P. A. St 156; Ct 93. Endocarditis; insufficient heart-action. Z. C. St 168; Ct 95. Cerebral hyperemia of an apoplectic nature. Hypertrophy of the left ventricle of the heart. Polysarcous (gluttonous) eater. * DE GIOVANNI, Op. cit. t DE GIOVANNI, Op. tit. 100 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY B. G. St 166; Ct 104. Diabetic, obese, subject to diabetic ischialgia (neuralgia) j frequent recurrence of gravel in the urine. Tendency to excesses of the table. D. G. St 160; Ct 96. Polysarcia, the first symptoms of which appeared in early youth. At the age of sixteen, suffered from all the discomforts of obesity. Shows atheroma (fatty degen- eration) of the aorta, irregular heart-action, hypertrophy and enlargement of the heart. In this brachyscelous type it may happen either that the whole trunk (that is, both the thoracic and abdominal cavities) is in excess, or else that the excessive development is confined to the abdomen. This latter case is very frequent, and may easily be found even in early childhood. Such children are hearty eaters, are very active and, for this reason, the pride and joy of their parents. Nevertheless, there are many signs that should give warning of constitutional defects; constant digestive disturbances (diarrhoea), frequent headaches, pains in the joints, apparently of a rheumatic character, tendency to pains in the liver which is excessively enlarged; excess of adipose tissue; a tendency to fall ill very easily, of maladies that are almost always happily overcome (but the truly robust person is not the one who recovers from ill- ness, but the one who does not become ill), and finally an excessively lively disposition, irritability and above all, impulsiveness. Such individuals ought, like the macrosceles, to live under the necessary and perpetual tyranny of a hygienic regime, adapted to correct or to diminish the morbid predispositions associated with the organism. A special dietetic, a regular hydrotherapic treat- ment, a moderate gymnastic exercise designed to direct the child's motive powers, and thus to prepare the man for that form of existence to which it is necessary for him to subject himself, if he does not wish to shorten his own life, or at least his period of activity all these things are so many duties which the school ought in great part to assume. In this way we have briefly considered the abnormal types of brachyscelia and macroscelia, which by their very constitution are predisposed to incur special and characteristic forms of disease, which may be avoided only by subjecting the organism to a special hygienic regimen. Men cannot all live according to the same rules. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 101 TYPES OF STATURE IN CRIMINALS In these latter times, some very recent researches have been made by applying De Giovanni's method to the anthropological study of criminals, especially through the labours of Dr. Boxich. He has found that the great majority of parasitic criminals, thieves for example, are macrosceles. They exhibit the stigmata already revealed by Lombroso: great length of the upper limbs, with elongated hands; furthermore, a narrow chest and a small heart, insufficient for its vital function; such individuals are singularly predisposed to pulmonary tuberculosis, and hence in their physical constitution they are already stamped as organisms of inferior biological value having little endurance and almost no ability as producers consequently they are forced to live as they can, that is like parasites, profiting by the work of others. On the contrary, the great majority of criminals of a violent character present the brachyscelous type: the thorax is greatly developed, the heart hypertrophic, the arterial circulation superabundant. This class of criminals, including a large proportion of murderers, have a special tendency to act from impulse, corresponding to their large heart which sends an excess of blood pulsing violently to the brain, obscuring the psychic functions; or, in the speech of the people, such a man has "lost his reason," "the light goes from the eyes when the blood goes to the brain." Here are some notes regarding these two different types: we will select as measures of comparison the stature and the weight, bearing in mind that in the macrosceles the weight is scanty and that the opposite is true of the brachysceles, while normally there ought to be a pretty close correspondence betwen the weight in kilograms and the centimetres of stature over and above one metre. TYPES OF NON-VIOLENT CRIMINALS (Parasites) Case No. 24. St. 168; Wt. 56. Farm steward, three years' sentence for theft. Pallid complexion, visible veins, scant muscles. Heart small and weak, pulse feeble and slow. Case No. 34. St. 175; Wt. 61. Baker, comfortable financial circumstances, has received a number of sentences for theft, amounting altogether to ten years. Is twenty-four years of age. Cyanosis of the extremities (bluish tinge, due to 102 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY excessive venous circulation). Cardiac action feeble. Scant muscles. Case No. 43. St. 156; Wt. 51. Peasant. Straitened circum- stances. Four years' sentence for theft. Rejected by the army board for defective chest measurement. Dark com- plexion. Extensive acne. Scant muscles. Bronchial catarrh. Has had hemoptysis (spitting of blood). Cardiac action weak. Pulse very feeble. Case No. 52. St. 173; Wt. 66. Book-binder. Prosperous cir- cumstances. Four years' sentence or thereabouts, for theft; age, twenty-four. Conjunctivitis and blepharitis from early childhood. Frontal and parietal nodules prominent. Muscles scant; cardiac action weak; lymphatic glands of the neck enlarged. The following is an example of the typical thief :* St. 162; Wt. 46. Exceedingly small heart, feeble cardiac action. Suffers from chronic bronchial catarrh. Cranial nodules very prominent. Began as a small child to steal in his own home, and since then has received sentence after sentence for theft, up to his present age of twenty-nine. TYPES OF VIOLENT CRIMINALS (Assault, Mayhem, Homicide) Case No. 54. St. 157; Wt. 62. Peasant. Good financial circum- stances. Condemned to thirty years in prison for homicide. Well-developed muscles. Blood vessels congested. Strong heart action; the pulsation extends as far down as the epi- gastrium. Ample pulse. Case No. QQ.St. 156; Wt. 70. Shoemaker. Bad financial cir- cumstances. Condemned to fifteen years' imprisonment for homicide, after having been previously convicted three times for theft. The chest circumference exceeds one-half the stature by 11 centimetres. Subject to frequent pains in the head. Good muscles. Corpulent. Full pulse. (It should be noticed that the florid complexion, accompanying this type of stature, persists in spite of straitened circumstances!) Case No. 85 St. 168; Wt. 70. Turner in iron. Comfortable circumstances. Sentenced to thirty years in prison after one previous conviction for criminal assault. Ruddy complexion. Veins not visible. Abdomen very prominent. Gastrectasia *Boxich, Contribution to the Morphological, Clinical and Anthropological Study of delinquents. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 103 (dilation of the stomach). Entire cardiac region protuberant. Laboured breathing. Cardiac action abundant. Hence we perceive, in the etiology of crime, the importance of the organic factor, connected directly with the lack of harmony in the viscera and their functions, and consequently accompanied by special morbid predispositions. As a result of this line of research, criminality and pathology are coming to be studied more and more in conjunction. For that matter, it was already observed by Lombroso that in addition to the various external malformations found in criminals, there were also certain anomalies of the internal organs, and a wide- spread and varied predisposition to disease. In short, his statis- tics reveal a prevalence of cardiac maladies and of tuberculosis in criminals, as well as a great frequency of diseases of the liver and the intestines. EXTREME OR INFANTILE TYPES, NANISM AND GIGANTISM, EXTRA- SOCIAL TYPES Whenever the disproportion between the bust and the limbs surpasses the extreme normal limits, the whole individual reveals a complex departure from type. Thus, for example, in connection with extreme brachyscelia, there exists a characteristic form of nanism (dwarfishness), called achondroplastic nanism, in which, although the bust is developed very nearly within normal limits, the limbs on the contrary are arrested in their growth so as to remain permanently nothing more than little appendages of the trunk. This calls to mind the foetal form of the new-born child, and the resulting type, because of this morphological coincidence, is classed among the infantile types. Achondroplastic nanism is associated with a pathological deformity due to foetal rickets. It is not only the child after birth, but the foetus also which, during its intrauterine life, may be subject to diseases. Rickets (always a localised disease, usually attacking some part of the skeleton) in this case fastens upon the enchondral cartilages of the long bones. As we know, the long bones are composed of a body or diaphysis and of extremities or articular heads, the epiphyses. Now, these different parts, which form in the adult a continuous whole, remain separate throughout the foetal and the immediate post-natal period : so that 104 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY the heads of the humerus and the femur, for example, in the case of the new-born child, are found to be joined to the diaphysis by cartilages (destined to ossify later on), which are the chief seat of growth of the bones in the direction of length. Well, in these cases of pre-natal rickets, the union of the bony segments takes place prematurely, and since the bones can hardly grow at all in length, they develop in thickness, and the result is that the limbs remain very short and stocky. Meanwhile the bust, the bones of which have in no way lost their power of growth, develops normally. Now, these dwarfs, who have abundant intelligence, because they have the essential parts of stature in their favour, constituted the famous jesters of the mediaeval courts, whose misfortune served to solace the leisure hours of royalty. Paolo Veronese went so far as to introduce a dwarf buffoon, of the achondroplastic type, into his famous painting, The Wedding at Cana. Conversely, in connection with an exaggerated macroscelia, we have gigantism. Ordinarily, a giant has a bust that is not greatly in excess of normal dimensions. The limbs, on the contrary, depart ex- tremely from the normal limits, in an exaggerated growth in the direction of length: so much so that the bodies of giants present the appearance of small busts moving around on stilts. Nevertheless, many different forms of gigantism occur. The pathology of this phenomenon is quite complex; but we can not concern ourselves with it here. It is a scientific problem of no immediate utility to our pedagogic problems. Dwarfs and giants, whatever their type and their pathological etiology, constitute extra-social individuals, who have been at all times excluded from any possibility of adaptation to useful labour, and employed, whether in the middle ages or in the twentieth century, to a greater or less extent as a source of amusement to normal beings, because of their grotesque appearance, either at court or in the theatres, or in moving pictures, or (in the case of giants) as figures suited to adorn princely or imperial gateways. These individuals are as completely independent of the social conditions of the environment in which they were born as if they were extraneous to humanity. In relation to the species, they are sterile. From the biological side, a consideration of these types serves CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 105 merely as an illustration of an important law: the essential part of the organism (the vertebral column) is less variable than the accessory parts (the limbs). SUMMAEY OF THE TYPES OF STATUEE According to the relative development of bust and limbs we have distinguished three types, the macrosceles, the brachysceles and the mesatisceles, within their respective limits of oscillation. Since the type of stature gives us a proportion between the different parts of an individual, it constitutes a fundamental criter- ion for a morphological judgment of the personality. That is, it leads to a diagnosis of the individual constitution, with which are associated not only the " character" but also certain predisposi- tions to disease. A knowledge of these types shows us the necessity we educators are under of taking into consideration the individual pupils, each of whom may have separate needs, tendencies and forms of develop- ment; and of demanding separate schools, in which even the methods of moral education must differ. Because men are not only not all adapted to the same forms of work, but they are not even all adapted to the same standards of morality. And since it is our duty to assume the task of aiding the biological development and the social adaptation of the new generations, it will also be part of our task to correct defective organisms, and at the same time to correct the types of mental and moral inferiority. In the following chart we may summarise the points of view from which we have studied the types of stature : Types of stature Variations in types of stature SYNOPTIC CHART Macrosceles [ long legs, short bust. Brachysceles ! short legs, long bust. Mongols (brachysceles). Tasmanians (macrosceles). Dark Mediterranean race (mesatis- celes tending toward brachyoscelia). Blond race (mesatisceles tending to- ward macroscelia). / Woman more brachyscelous. Man more macroscelous. Childhood brachyscelous. \ Old age macroscelous. Normal Race Sex Age 106 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY SYNOPTIC CHART Continued Variations in types of stature Pathologically abnormal. Criminals. Infantile types DE GIOVANNI'S f Macrosceles pre- hyposthenic disposed to tu- types. berculosis. DE GIOVANNI'S Brachysceles pre- hypersthenic disposed to dis- types. eases of the heart. Macrosceles parasites. Brachysceles violent. Achondroplastic nanism. Gigantism. SUMMARY OF THE SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES ILLUSTRATED IN THE COURSE OF OUR DISCUSSION Biological Laws. a. Growth is not only an augmentation in volume, but also an evolution in form. b. The more essential parts vary less than the accessory parts in the course of their transformations. The Index. The index is the mathematical relation between the measurements belonging to the same individual, and as such it gives us an idea of the form; since the form is determined by the relations between the various parts constituting the whole. THE STATURE While the figure and the type of stature tend to delineate the individual considered by himself, the different measurements con- sidered separately may guide us in our study of individuals in their relation to the race and the environment. Among the measurements of the form, we will limit ourselves to a study of the stature and the weight, which serve to give us respectively the linear index of development and the volumetric estimate of the body taken as a whole. We shall reserve the study of the other measurements, such as the total spread of the arms and the perimeter of the thorax, until we come to the analytical investigation of the separate parts of the body (limbs, thorax). The stature is expressed by a linear measure determined by the distance intervening in a vertical direction between the plane on which the individual is standing in an erect position and the top of his head. It follows that the stature is a measurement determined by the erect position; on the other hand, when a man is in a recumbent CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 107 position, what we could determine would be the length of body, which is not identical with the stature. In fact, a man on foot, resting his weight upon articulations that are elastic, and therefore compressible, is a little shorter than when he is recumbent. If we examine the skeleton (see Fig. 9), we discover that the single synthetic measure that constitutes the stature results from a sum of parts that differ greatly from one another. To be spe- cific, it is composed of the long and short bones of the lower limbs; of flat bones, such as the pelvis and the skull; of little spongy bones, such as the vertebrae; all of which bones and parts obey different laws in the course of their growth. Furthermore, inter- vening between these various bones are soft, elastic parts, known as the articulations, which, starting from below, succeed each other in the following order: 1. Calcaneo-astragaloid, between the calcaneus and the superimposed astraga- lus. 2. Tibio-astragaloid, between the astragalus and the superimposed tibia. 3. Of the knee, between the tibia and the femur. 4. Of the hip, between the femur and the os innominatum. 5. Sacro-iliac, between the os iliacum and the sacrum. 6. Sacro-vertebral, between the sacrum and the last lumbar vertebra. 7. Of the vertebras, consisting of 23 intervertebral disks, that is to say inter- posed between the vertebrae, which include the following: 5 lumbar, 12 thoracic, 7 cervical. 8. Occipito-atloid, between the first cervical vertebra, called the atlas and the os occipitale of the cranium. Accordingly, there are thirty articulations in all; and of these, 23 are the intervertebral disks, which constitute, taken together, a fourth part of the complex height of the vertebral column. Furthermore, the height of the body cannot be considered sim- ply the sum of the component parts, since these are not superim- posed in a straight line. As a matter of fact, if we examine the vertebral column, we see that it is not straight as in the case of animals, but exhibits certain curves that are characteristic of the 'human species, and must be taken into consideration in their rela- tion to the erect position. In fact, the vertebral column presents two curvatures, the one lumbar, and the other cervical, which together give it the form of an S. These curvatures are acquired along with the erect position, and are not innate; one of the points of difference between the skeleton of the new-born child and that 108 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY of the adult is precisely this, that the former has a straight vertebral column. A fact of no small importance to note, since in the course of growth a certain determined form of normal curve, and no other, ought to establish itself; otherwise, abnormal deviations in the vertebral column will become established. And for the very reason that it is plastic and destined to assume a curve, the vertebral column may very easily be forced into exaggerating or departing from its morphological destiny. In such a case, the resulting stature would be inferior to what it should normally have been. Accordingly, the stature is the resultant of the sum of anatom- ical parts and of morphological conditions. Hence it is a linear index not only of biological man, that is, of man considered in relation to his racial limitations; but also of social man, that is, of man as he has developed in the struggle for adaptation to his environment. The limits of stature, according to race. Stature is an anthro- pological datum of great biological value, since it is a definite racial characteristic and is preserved from generation to generation by heredity. The first distinguishing trait of a race is the height of the body in its natural erect position. It is also the first charac- teristic that strikes us when a stranger comes toward us for the first time. And that is why we make it the leading descriptive trait: a person of tall, or of low stature. If, for a moment, we should picture to ourselves the legend of Noah's Ark quite incred- ible, because emigration and embarkation of all the known species would have required more than a century of time (it is enough merely to think of the embarkation of the tortoises and the sloths!), and the necessity of an ark as big as a nation, what must inevitably have struck Noah and his sons would have been the stature of the individuals belonging to each separate species. The stature is the linear index of the limit of mass. Among the human races the variations in stature are included between fairly wide oscillations: coming down to facts, the average stature of the Akkas is 1.387 m. (4 ft. 61/2 in.) for the males; and that of the Scotchmen of Galloway is 1.792 m. (5 ft. 10 1/2 in.). Accordingly between the average heights of the two races that are considered as the extremes, there is a difference of 40 cm. (15 3/4 in.) ; but since the averages are obtained from a com- plex mass of normal measurements, some of which are above and CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 109 others necessarily below the average itself, we may assert that the "normal human individuals" may differ in stature to an extent of more than half a metre; the oscillations of normal individuals on each side of the racial average being estimated at about 10 cm. (3.937 in.). If we should see a little Akka 4 ft. 4 in. (1.33 m.) in height alongside of a Scotchman 6 ft. (1.83 m.) high we should say "a dwarf beside a giant." But such terms are pathological and should never be employed to indicate normal individualities. As a matter of fact dwarfs and giants are as a class extra-social and sterile; normal individuals, on the contrary, represent the physiopsychic characteristics of their respective races. Consequently we may say that normal people have a low stature, or a high stature; or if it is a question of extremely low stature (such as that of the Akkas) we may make use of the term pigmies or of the pigmy race, in speak- ing of such individuals. Sergi has proved the existence, among the prehistoric inhabitants of Europe, of various pigmy races. In the field of anthropology the scientific terminology ought always to be based upon certain determined limits. The author- ities indicate the normal extremes of individual stature, beyond which we pass over the into realm of pathology, incompatible with the survival of the species; and even in the pathological cases they determine the extreme limits, obtained from the individual mon- strosities that have actually existed in the course of the centuries, and that seem to indicate the furthest limits attained by the human race. Deniker, in summing up the principal authorities, assigns the following limits: Statures less than 1.25 m. Normal statures, range of oscillations among the races Statures from 2 m. upward Lowest indi- vidual extreme Excep- tionally low in- dividual stature Extreme low racial average Extreme high racial average Excep- tionally high in- dividual stature Highest indi- vidual extreme Nanism 1.25 m. 1.35 m. Akkas Scotch- 1.90 m. 1.99 m. Gigant- 1.387 m. men of i.-ni Galloway 1.792 m. 110 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY The pathological extremes that would seem to indicate the limits of stature compatible with human life would seem to be on the one hand the little female dwarf, Hilany Agyba of Sinai, described by Jaest and cited by Deniker,* 15 inches high (0.38 m. the average length of the Italian child at birth is 0.50 m. = 19 1/2 in.), and on the other, the giant Finlander, Caianus, cited by Topinardf, 9 ft. 31/2 in. in height (2.83); the two extremes of human stature would accordingly bear a ratio of 1:7. On the other hand, Quetelett gives the two extremes as being relatively 1 :6 namely, the Swedish giant who was one of the guardsmen of Frederick the Great, and was 2.523 m. tall (8 ft. 3 in.); and the dwarf cited by Buffon, 0.43 m. in height (16 3/4 in.). When there is occasion for applying the terms tall or low stature to individuals of our own race, it is necessary at the same time to establish limits that will determine the precise meaning of such terms. Livi gives as the average stature for Italians 1.65 m. (5 ft. 5 in.), and speaking authoritatively as the leading statistician in Anthropology, establishes the following limits : STATURE OF ITALIANS (LIVI) Averages Determining The Terminology of Stature 1.60 m. and below, low statures. 1.65 m. and all between 1.70 m. and above, tall 1.60-1.70, mean statures statures. The individual extremes among the low statures tend to ap- proach the average stature of the Japanese race (1.55 m.), and those among the high statures approach the Anglo-Saxon average (the Scotch = 1.79 m.) There is much to interest us in studying the distribution of statures in Italy. In Livi's great charts, he has marked in blue those regions where the prevailing percentage of stature is high (1.70 m. and upward), and in red those where the low statures prevail (1.60 m. and below; and the varying intensity of colouration indicates the greater or lesser prevalence of the high or low statures. * DENIKER, Races et peuples de la terre. t TOPINAKD, Elementi di Antropologia. % QUITS' LET, Proporzioni medie (mean Proportions). LIVI, Antropometria Militare (Military Anthropometry). CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 111 Thus it becomes evident in one glance of the eye that tall stat- ures prevail in northern Italy and low statures in the south; while the maximum of low stature (indicated by the most intense red) is found in the islands, and especially in Sardinia. In the vicinity of the central districts of Italy (the Marches, Umbria, Latium) the two colours fade out ; this indicates that here all notable prevalence of stature, either tall or low, ceases; conse- quently we have here, as the prevailing norm, the mean stature (1.65 m.). Anyone wishing to analyse the natural distribution of stature, has only to study these charts by Livi, which are worked out with great minuteness. If a study of this sort, extending over the entire peninsula, seems too great an undertaking, it is at least advisable for a teacher to acquaint himself with the local distribution of stature; in order that when it becomes his duty to judge of the stature of pupils in his school he will have the necessary idea regarding the biological (racial) basis on which so important an anthropological datum can oscillate. Livi's charts, based upon the male stature, correspond almost perfectly with my own regional charts based upon the average statures of the women of Latium. Both Livi and I find that in the region of Latium the tall statures prevail north of the Tiber, especially toward the confines of Umbria; while the lowest statures are found in the neighbourhood of the valley of the Tiber, toward the sea (Castelli Romani). That is to say, the stature becomes lower from north to south, and from the mountains toward the sea. Furthermore, there exist certain nuclei of pure race, such as at Orte and in Castelli Romani, where we may find the extremes of average stature, which for women are found to be 1.61 m. at Orte, and 1.47 m. at Castelli Romani; while the extreme individual statures, according to my figures, oscillate between 1.42 m (Castelli) and 1.70 m (Orte). It would be helpful to the teachers of Rome and Latium, if they would acquire some idea regarding the racial types of the district, by studying my work on the Physical Characteristics of the young Women of Latium, which is the only work on regional anthropology taken directly from life that so far exists in anthro- pologic literature.* The Stature in Relation to Sex. It is sufficient to point out that the stature varies normally between the sexes, so that the average * MONTESSORI, Caratteri fisici delle giovani donne del Lazio. 112 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY figures differ by about 10 centimetres (nearly 4 in.) in the direction of a lower stature for woman. Nothwithstanding that growth is an evolution, it manifests itself also by an absolute augmentation of mass; and the linear index of such augmentation is given by the growth in stature, or by its variations at different ages. This exceedingly important measurement ought to be taken in the case of all pupils; and undoubtedly in the course of time anthropometry will form a part of our school equipment; because, by following the increase of stature in a child, we follow his phys- ical development. In Chapter VII, in which the technique of the stature is dis- cussed, there is a graphic representation of the annual increase of stature in the two sexes; the upper parabolic line refers to the male sex, and the lower one to the female. On the vertical line are marked the measures of growth, from the base upward, and on the horisontal line the ages. All the dotted vertical lines which rise from the horizontal, each corresponding to a successive year of life, and stop at the parabolic line, represent the relative proportion of stature from year to year; while the parabola which unites the extremities of such lines may be regarded as a line drawn tangent to the top of the head of an individual through the successive periods of his life. If we analyse this table, we find that the greatest increase in stature takes place during the first year; in fact, a child which at birth has an average length of body of 0.50 m. for males, and 0.48 m. for females (the new-born child does not have stature, but only length of body, since it has not yet acquired an erect position) has by the end of the first year augmented the length of body by 20 centimetres, which gives an average length of 0.70 m. In no other year of life will the stature acquire so notable an increase; it is very important for mothers to watch the growth of the child during this first year of its life; and the following figures may be useful for comparison: It will be seen that the maximum increase takes place during the first four months especially in the first month (4 cm. = 1.57 in.) the rate diminishing from this point up to the fourth month (2 cm. = 0.78 in.), after which the monthly increase remains steadily at one centimetre (0.39 in.). ;>. . FIG. 22. New-born child, seen from in front and from behind. (Stratz.) 1 year. 8 months. 4 months. at birth. FIG. 23. Skeleton of a child from birth to the age of one year. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 113 GROWTH IN LENGTH OF BODY DURING THE FIRST YEAR OF LIFE (FROM FIGUEIRA) Age in months Length of body in metres Monthly increase 0.50 1 0.54 4 2 0.57 3 3 0.60 3 4 0.62 2 5 0.63 1 6 0.64 1 7 0.65 1 8 0.66 1 9 0.67 1 10 0.68 1 11 0.69 1 12 0.70 1 The same facts appear from the combination picture given by Stratz, showing an infant's skeleton at four-month intervals from birth to the end of the first year. During the second year of life, the increase in stature is about one-half that of the preceding year, that is, about 10 cm. (4 in.), so that at the end of the second year the child attains a height of about 80 cm. (31 1/2 in.). After this, the annual increase dimin- ishes in intensity (see " Figures of the increase of stature according to Que"telet and other authors," in the technical part, Chapter VII), as is shown by the horizontal dotted lines, which, starting from a vertical line at points corresponding to the height of various statures, represent by the intervals of space between them the successive growth from year to year. This increase is not regular, but proceeds by periodic impulses that in early childhood seem to recur at intervals of three years. Thus for example the increase between 0- 3 years of age is successively 20, 10, 6 cm. between 3- 6 years of age is successively 7, 6, 5 cm. between 6- 9 years of age is successively 7, 6, 5 cm. between 9-12 years of age is successively 6, 4, 3 cm. Accordingly we have a triennial rhythm, decreasing throughout the whole period of childhood; the maximum increase is in the first triennium, the second and third periods of three years cor- 114 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY respond exactly, while the last period shows a lowered rate of increase. At this point the period of approaching puberty begins (13 years for boys), after which the rate of increase becomes more rapid than it had been during the second or third period, attaining its maximum during the years 13-15; to be specific, the rate from 13 to 18 is successively 4, 8, 7, 5, 6, 3 cm. When the period of puberty is ended (18 years), the rate of growth is much slower; in fact, during the two following years (18 to 20) it hardly attains one centimetre. Nevertheless, the stature continues to increase up to the twenty-fifth year; according to Quetelet's figures, the average male stature at the age of eighteen is 1.70 m. (in Belgium) and at twenty-one it is 1.72 m. From twenty-five to thirty-five the stature remains stable; this is the adult age, the full attainment of maturity; at the age of forty the period of involution insensibly begins, and after fifty in the case of women, and sixty in the case of men, the stature begins insensibly to decrease; a decrease which becomes more marked with the advance of age, corresponding to an anatomical diminution of the soft parts interposed between the bones in the sum of parts that make up the stature; more especially the inter- vertebral disks; -and in connection with this phenomenon the vertebral column tends to become more curved. According to Quetelet's figures, at the age of eighty the average male stature is 1.61 m. (5 ft. 3 2/5 in.), a stature corresponding to that of the age of sixteen. Accordingly, the variations in stature throughout the different periods of life are neither a growth nor an evolution, but a parabolic curve, including evolution and involution. This curve represents the true human stature; the measurements taken successively from year to year representing nothing more than transitory episodes in the individual life. Man, as he really is, we may represent by portraits taken successively from time to time, from his birth until his death: the occasional photograph which it is the custom to have taken represents nothing; following no rule, it seizes a fugitive instant in the life of an individual, who is never a fixed quantity but is constantly in transition during the whole course of his existence. So that the habit of taking a picture annually on a child's birthday CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 115 is an excellent one if we wish to preserve a true likeness; and this practice is recommended in pedagogic anthropology, when it is desired to preserve the biographic history of the pupil. It is interesting to study, side by side with the growth of stature and the marked rhythms and periods that constitute its laws, the phenomenon of general mortality in its relation to age. Lexis gives the following curve of general mortality : the hori- zontal line marks the years and the vertical line the corresponding number of deaths, while the curved line shows the progress of mor- tality, and the highest points in the curve indicate the maximum mortality. It is highest of all during the first year and in general during early childhood, and is steadily lowered to a point corre- sponding to the ages from ten to thirteen, after which it rises again. Let us examine the curve up to this point, since it has a bearing upon our school work. We can prove that the maximum mortality J 1st year 10-13 years 70 years FIG. 24. Curve of general mortality (Lexis). corresponds to the maximum individual growth; in other words, an organism in rapid evolution is exposed to death, its powers of immunity to infective diseases are weakened; it constitutes what in medical parlance is known as a locus minoris resistentice. In that period of calm in growth, which would seem to be a repose preceding the evolution of puberty, mortality is at the lowest; only to rise again rapidly during the period of puberty; while the rise becomes less rapid after the eighteenth year, not- withstanding that after that age mankind in general are exposed, in their struggle for existence, to many causes of death that did not exist during the preceding years. Toward the age of seventy the line of mortality attains another apex, because the age of normal death is reached ; after which it drops precipitously because of the lack of survivers. 116 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY From these facts we may deduce certain very important prin- ciples that throw useful light upon pedagogy: there are certain ages at which even the strong are weak; and their weakness is of such a nature that it exposes the individual to death. Now, whenever the phenomenon of mortality occurs it is always an indication of impoverishment in the survivors. For example, of every one person that dies, many persons have been ill who have recovered from then 1 illness; but there are still many others who, although they did not actually fall ill, were weakened even though they passed through the peril unharmed. In short, for each death, which represents a final disaster, there are many victims. And whenever there is a rise in the phenomenon of mortality in connection with any one age, it is our duty to give special attention to those individuals who are not only weak in themselves, but whom the social causes affecting them tend to weaken still more and push onward toward illness and death. Whenever there are many deaths, there are undoubtedly also many sufferers. Now, in pedagogy we have no criterion to guide us in this matter of respecting the weaknesses characteristic of the various ages, as, for example, that of early infancy and of the age of puberty. With the most cruel blindness we punish and discourage the lad who, having reached the age of puberty, no longer makes the progress in his studies that rendered him the brilliant champion during the period of physiological repose in his growth ; and instead of regarding this as a psychic indication of a great physiological transformation that it is necessary to protect, we urge on the organism to enforced effort, without even suspecting that, in pro- portion to the degree of resistance of our pupil, we may be doing our share to induce in him a permanent weakness, or an arrest of development, or disease and death. Our responsibility as educators is great, because we have the threads of life entrusted to our care; man represents a continuous transition through successive forms, and each following period has been prepared for by the one preceding. Whenever we have the misfortune to concur in weakening a child, we touch that parabolic line traced in the graphic chart of stature, and standing as an index of the life of the body, and we give it a shock throughout its whole length ; it may either be shat- tered or be brought down to a lower grade. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 117 But the life of an individual does not contain merely that individual alone; the cycle of the stature with its violent period of puberty and the perfect physiological repose corresponding to the years from 25 to 36, or even 45, indicates the eternity of the in- dividual in the species: his maturity for reproduction. Man in his progress through the different levels of height, as indicated on the graphic chart of stature, does not pass through them without re- producing himself, save in exceptional cases; he commences the ascent alone, but in his descent he attains the majesty of a creator who leaves behind him the immortal works of his own creation. Well, even the capacity of normal reproduction, and of begetting a strong species, is related to the normal cycle of life: whoever weakens a child and puts a strain upon the threads of its existence, starts a vibration that will be felt throughout posterity. The parabolic cycle of stature shows us which is the most favourable period for the reproduction of the species ; it is undoubt- edly that period that stands at the highest apex of the curve, and at which the organism has reached an almost absolute peace, as if forgetful of itself, in order to provide for its eternity. When it has completed its period of evolution, during which the organism shows that it has not yet matured; and before the commencement of involution, in which period the organism is slowly preparing for departure that is the moment when man may or rather ought to procreate his species. Careful forethought not to produce immature or feeble fruit, will form part of the coming man's regard for his posterity. A new moral era is maturing, that is giving birth to a solidarity, not only between all living beings, but including also those future beings who are as yet unborn; but for whose existence the living man of to-day is preparing through his care of his own strength and his own virtue. To have intentionally begotten a son better than himself will be a proud victory for the man who has attained the higher sexual morality; and such pride will be no less keen than that of the artist, who by perfecting his marvelous talents has created a masterpiece. The statistics collected by Que'te'let demonstrate that "too pre- cocious marriages either occasion sterility or produce children that have a smaller probability of living." They prove furthermore that the number of children who die is largest in marriages contracted at the age of sixteen or earlier, 118 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY and becomes lowest among the children born of marriages con- tracted between the years of 29 and 32. During these years also the parents are most fertile: as is shown by the following tables : SANDLER'S FIGURES BASED ON THE FAMILIES OF ENGLISH PEERS Age of parents at marriage Percentage of deaths of children before attaining marriageable age Average births to each marriage Percentage of births to each death 15 years 35 4.40 0.283 1619 years 20 4 63 208 20-23 years 19 5 21 188 24-27 years 12 5 43 1.171 Age at the time of child's birth Percentage of deaths to each birth Average number of births in one year of marriage 16 years 0.44 0.46 17-20 years 43 50 21-24 years 0.42 52 25-28 years 41 55 29-32 years 40 0.59 The results of a recent research show that famous men have hardly ever been the first-born, and that the great majority were begotten of parents who were at the time between the ages of 25 and 36 years. Variations of Stature with Age, According to the Sexes. The general laws of the growth and involution of stature are pretty nearly the same for the two sexes. The female stature, beginning at birth, averages throughout life somewhat less than the male. But since the development of puberty takes place earlier in woman than in man, the female child manifests the characteristic increase in stature at an earlier age than the male; consequently at that age (about eleven) she overtakes him, and for the time being both boy and girl are equal in stature. But as soon as the boy enters upon the period of puberty, he rapidly surpasses the girl, and his stature henceforth steadily maintains a superiority of about ten centimetres (nearly four inches), as is shown by the CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 119 deviations between the two parabolic curves, representing the variations of stature in the two sexes. Even the involution of stature occurs precociously in women, as compared with man. VARIATIONS IN STATURE DUE TO MECHANICAL CAUSES OF ADAPTATION TO ENVIRONMENT Variations due to Mechanical Causes. Transitory and Permanent Variations. Deformations. The individual stature is not a fixed quantity at all hours of the day; but it varies by several millimetres under the influence of mechanical causes connected with the habits of daily life. In the morning we are slightly taller than at night (by a fraction of a centimetre) : in consequence of remaining on foot a good deal of the time during the day, our stature is gradually lowered. This is contrary to the popular belief that "while we stand up our stature grows." As a matter of fact, in the erect position the soft tissues that form part of the total stature are under constant pressure; but being elastic, they resume their previous proportions after prolonged rest in a horizontal position. Consequently at night, especially if we have taken a long walk, or danced, we are shorter than in the morning after a long sleep; the act of stretching the limbs in the morning completes the work of restoring the articular cartilages to their proper limits of elas- ticity. Nevertheless, according to the mechanical theory accepted by Manouvrier, persons who are habituated from childhood to stand on foot much of the time (labourers) interfere with the free growth of the long bones in the direction of length and at the same time augment the growth in thickness; hence the skeleton is rendered definitely shorter in its segments as well as in its bones (i.e., a shallower pelvis, shorter limbs, etc.). The result is a stocky type with robust muscles: the europlastic type, which is found among labourers. On the contrary, a person who spends much time reclining on sofas among cushions, and taking abundant nutriment, is likely to tend toward the opposite extreme; bones long and slen- der, the skeleton tall in all its segments, the muscular system delicate; this is the macroplastic or aristocratic type. According to Manouvrier, when a person has a long, slow convalescence after a protracted infectious malady such as typhoid, recumbent much of the time and subjected to a highly nutritive diet, it may happen, especially if he has reached the period of puberty at which a rapid 120 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY osteogenesis naturally takes place in the cartilages of the long bones, that he will not only become notably taller, but will even acquire the macroplastic type. The macroplastic type is artistically more beautiful, but the europlastic type is physiologically more useful. It is not only the erect position that tends to reduce the stature, but the sitting posture as well. In fact, whether the pelvis is sup- ported by the lower limbs or by a chair, the intervertebral disks are in either case compressed by the weight of the bust as a whole. If, for example, children are obliged, during the period of growth, to remain long at a time in a sitting posture, the limbs may freely lengthen, while the bust is impeded in its free growth, and the result may be an artificial tendency toward macroscelia. This is why children are more inclined than adults to throw themselves upon the ground, to lie down, to cut capers, in other words to restore the elasticity of their joints, and overcome the compression of bones and cartilages. Accordingly, such variations of stature recur habitually and are transitory, and since they are associated with the customary attitudes of daily life, they are physiological. But if special causes should aggravate such physiological condi- tions, and should recur so often as not to permit the cartilages to return completely to their original condition, in such a case per- manent variations of stature might result, and even morphological deviations of the skeleton. For example, a porter who habitually carries heavy weights on his head, may definitely lower his stature; and in the case of a young boy, the interference with the growth of the long bones through compression exerted from above down- ward, may produce an actual arrest of development of the limbs and spinal column, presenting all the symptoms of rickets. Wit- ness certain consequences of "child-labour" chief among which must be mentioned the deformities of the carusi [victims of child-labour, who from an early age toil up the succession of ladders, bearing heavy burdens of sulphur from the mines below.*] in the Sicil- ian sulphur mines, f As a general rule, all cramped positions that are a necessary condition of labour, if they surpass the limits of resist- ance and elasticity of the human frame, and especially if they op- erate during periods of life when the skeleton is in process of forma- tion, result in deformities, and when the skeleton is deformed, the * Translator's note. t Fig. 25 and those following it, dealing with deformities resulting from labour, are taken from Pieraccini's great work, The Pathology of Labour. FIG. 25. Vincenzo Militella of Lercara, a FIG. 26 Aged field labourer. Sicilian caruso. FIG. 27. FIG. 28. Attitude of woman working in the rice fields as seen from the right and left sides. FIG. 29. A gang of eight workers in the rice fields. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 121 internal organs and hence the general functional powers of the whole organism, suffer even greater alteration. Consider the postures that miners must endure, or as Pierac- cini phrases it, their " disastrous attitudes." The transport galleries are ordinarily too low to permit a man of average height to walk erect; along these galleries little trans- port-wagons are run by hand, excepting where the carrying is done on the backs of the men themselves. "Even in the front of the advance tunnels and in the galleries that are being worked, miners are to be seen in the most incon- gruous attitudes. These anomalous positions of the body main- tained throughout long hours of toil react upon the functional ac- tion of the heart and lungs, upon the stomach and intestines in the proper performance of their tasks, and result in producing hernia, varicose veins and eventually deformities of the skeleton (vertebral column, thorax)."* Field labourers also (Fig. 26) become permanently deformed, with diminution of stature, from remaining too long bent over in the act of hoeing or reaping. But a still more painful labour is that of the women in the rice fields during the period when the weeding is done. The position necessitated by this work requires a strained and prolonged dorsal flexion of the vertebral column, accompanied by a strain on the lower dorsal nerves; great elasticity is required to endure a position so painful and so apt to induce lumbago; only young women can endure it, and even they become deformed, and suffer seriously from anemia, intestinal maladies and diseases of the uterus, which predispose them to abortion or sterility (Figs. 27, 28, 29). Stone breakers also contract painful diseases and deformities from their work. They are constantly bowed over their task, performing a rhythmic, alternating movement of flexion, ex- tension and torsion of the trunk upon itself, while at the same time there is a slight undulation in a backward and forward direc- tion, accompanying the rising and falling of the arm holding the hammer. These movements of extension and flexion of the trunk involve the whole vertebral column, while the pelvis remains prac- tically motionless. "At the end of the day they rise from their task bowed over and they walk home bowed over, holding the ver- * PlERACCINI, Op. tit. 122 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY tebral column rigid; any attempt to force the trunk into an erect position is extremely painful. In the morning they return to their work with their loins still aching." And among these stone breakers there are young men, some of them mere boys ! And when we think that these injurious attitudes are coupled with malnutri- tion, we must realise the extent of the organic disaster that accom- panies diminution of stature as a result of adaptation to labour. We are naturally horrified at such conditions enforced upon a certain portion of humanity; and we pray for a time to come when machinery will have universally replaced human labour, in trans- portation, in stone-breaking, and in reaping, and when children will be spared from hard and deforming toil. But how is it that while we are so sympathetic regarding con- ditions at a distance from us, we remain unconscious of similar conditions, that are close beside us, and of which we are the direct- ors, the cruel enforcers, the masters? In the near future, I hope that people will tell with amaze- ment, as if citing a condition of inferior civilisation, how the school children, up to the opening of the twentieth century repre- sented one category of those "deformed by prolonged and enforced labour in injurious positions!" Such studies in school hygiene as deal with the type of school benches, designed to minimise the danger of deformities of the vertebral column in children will, I hope, be regarded by the coming generations with the most utter amazement! And the school benches of to-day will find their place in museums, and people will go to look at them as if they were relics of bygone barbarism, just as we now visit the collections from old-time insane asylums, of series of complicated instruments of wood and iron that in bygone centuries were considered necessary for main- taining discipline among the insane. What in the world would we say, if somebody should propose, in order to obviate the deformities and physiological injuries of labourers, that certain mechanisms should be applied to them in- dividually for the purpose of diminishing the harm? Imagine a law being proposed, to the effect that all miners should be obliged to wear trusses, to keep their viscera from breaking loose, as a result of prolonged compression! What would we think of such reforms and such a path toward an orthopedic state of society? Our way toward progress and higher civilisation is a very CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 123 different one. To remove man from torturing toil that twists the bones and undermines the health such is the goal that it is our duty to set before us! For the deformed vertebral column is the extreme sign of a great accumulation of evils; the internal organs are correspond- ingly affected with disorders fatal to the entire organism; but even greater is the corresponding harm done to the human soul! What we want is not only that the bones shall not be thrown out of their eurhythmic harmony, but that the souls of the labourers shall be freed from the inhuman yoke of slavery (progress can con- sist solely in a radical alteration of the form of labour}. So far as concerns the school, which is not limited to a few categories of human beings, but is extended to all, by requirements of law, is it not possible for us to adopt a different attitude of mind? The established fact that the pupils may even deform their skeletons in the course of their work, goes to prove that this work contains some error in principle that is fatal to successive gener- ations; and so long as this principle is maintained, we may assert a priori that even if, with the help of school benches as compli- cated and as costly as orthopedic machines, we should succeed in checking the deformation of the vertebral column, we should fail to check the deformation of the soul. Because whoever is condemned to labour that deforms is a slave. And as a matter of fact we employ coercive means, "rewards and punishments," to enforce upon children a condition that in their eyes amounts to serving their first sentence. It is not the school bench, but the method that needs reforming; it is not the ligaments of the spinal column, but human life in evolution that we ought to respect, and lead toward the attainment of perfection! Amid the many banners of liberty that have been raised in these latter times, one is still missing one which we ought to seize upon as the standard of our cause: the liberty of the new generation, which is groaning in the slavery of compulsory education, upon iron-bound benches, emblematic of chains! I foresee, in a radical reform of pedagogic methods, the practi- cal possibility of taking as guiding principles the individual liberty of the pupil and a reverential regard for life. And I affirm this all the more loudly, because I have applied such a method with indis- putable success in the "Children's Houses," obtaining prodigious results in the health and happiness of the children, perfect dis- 124 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY cipline in the classes, marvelously rapid progress in studies, and a surprising awakening of souls, a passionate love for the work. VARIATIONS DUE TO ADAPTATION IN CONNECTION WITH CAUSES OF VARIOUS KINDS SOCIAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL, PHYSICAL, PSYCHIC, PATHOLOGICAL, ETC. Physiology and Social Conditions. Nutrition. One of the effects of environment, of the highest importance in its relation to the development of stature, is nutrition. In order to attain the maximum development as biologically determined by hered- ity in a race, sufficient nutriment is the first necessity. It is a familiar fact that material or physiological life consists essen- tially in the exchange and renewal of matter, or in metabolism, which is also a renewal of vital force. The living molecules are continually breaking up, thus express- ing in an active form forces that had accumulated in a potential form, and eliminating the rejected matter; only to form again by means of new matter, containing potential forces. This break- ing up and renewal constitutes the material of life, that never pauses in its molecular movement; the cessation of renewal of matter is death, that is, scission without reparation; consumption without renewal; and consequently a rapid disintegration of the body. Living matter consists in metabolism, and is consequently directly related to the nutritive substances which renew the ele- ments necessary for continual redintegration. We may disregard certain individual potentialities, of a purely biological nature, and that are capable of manifesting vital forces of varying degrees of intensity: but it may be asserted as beyond question that every living being, if he is to live according to his biological destiny, has need of sufficient nutrition. This is not the same as saying that the food determines the life of an individual in its final development, in the sense that by eating in excess one may attain the stature of a giant, or an imbecile become intelligent or a man of talent become a genius. We all bear within us, in that fertilised germ that constituted the first cell of our organism, predetermined biological conditions, on which depend the physical limits of our body, as well as those of our psychic individu- ality. But in order that this germ may develop in accordance with its potentiality, it is necessary that it shall obtain the requisite material from its environment. Because otherwise and here the relation is direct neither the volumetric development nor the morphological development can be accomplished, nor the psychic potentiality express itself; in other words, the stature will be undersized, in a body defrauded of the degree of beauty potential in the germ, and the muscular forces, in common with those of the brain, will remain at a level of development below that which nature had intended. Consequently, to deprive children of their requisite nutriment is stealing from life, it is a biological crime. While we live, we must eat ; and while we labour, that is, while we expend the vital forces, it is necessary to repair them. The schools should establish a system of luncheons for the pupils; this is a principle that has already been generally recognised and is already bearing fruit. There was a time when a good appetite was regarded as a low material instinct; it was also the time when people sang the praises of spirituality, but actually indulged in banquets of Lucullian lavishness. The vice of the palate and the physiological need of nourishment were included under one and the same disdain. To-day science has shed its light upon the true conception of nutrition and holds it to be the first necessity of life, and conse- quently the first social problem to be solved. From this point of view, food is not a vulgar material thing, nor the dinner-table a place of debauchery. Indeed, there is nothing which affords better proof of immateriality than the act of eating. In fact, the necessity of eating is itself a proof that the matter of which our body is composed does not endure but passes like the fleeting moment. And if the substance of our bodies passes in this manner, if life itself is only a continual passing away of matter, what greater symbol of its immateriality and its spirituality is there than the dinner-table? ". . . the bread is my flesh and the wine is my blood; do this in remembrance of what life really is." Something similar to this is being accomplished to-day by science in regard to the sexual relations. We are accustomed to consider the sexual instincts as something contemptible, material and low, praising abstinence, and leaving these instincts wholly out of con- sideration in the course of education, as though they were some- thing degrading, or even shameful. And undoubtedly our sexual abuses are shameful, and shameful also is the barbaric tolerance of 126 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY the masses regarding prostitution, seduction, illegitimacy and the abandonment of new-born children. It is criminal abuse that makes us despise sexual relations, just as at one time excesses of the table made us despise nutrition. But the day will come when science will raise to the dignity of a new sexual morality the physiological function which to-day is considered material and shameful and that comprehends the most sublime of human conceptions. In it are to be found the words which ancient races deposited in their religious tabernacles : creation, eternity, mystery. And in it are also to be found the most sublime conceptions of modern races: the destiny of humanity, the perfectionment of the human species. Accordingly, we must to-day regard the serving of food in the schools as a necessity of the first order; but it is well, in introducing it into the schools, to surround it with that halo of gladness and of high moral significance that ought to accompany all manifes- tations of life. The hymn to bread, which is a human creation and a means of preserving the substance of the human body, ought to accompany the meals of our new generations of children. The child develops because the substance of his body passes away, and the meals that he eats symbolise all this: furthermore, they teach him to think of the vast labour accomplished by men who, un- known as individuals, cultivate the earth, reap the grain, grind the flour, and provide for all men and for all children. Where they are and who they are, we do not know; the bread bears neither their name nor their picture. Like an impersonal entity, like a god, humanity provides for all the needs of humanity: and this god is labour. If the child is destined some day to become him- self a labourer, who produces and casts his products to humanity without knowing who is to receive his contribution toward pro- viding for humanity, it is well that as he lifts his food to his lips he should realise that he is contracting a debt toward society at large, and that he must give because he takes; he must "forgive debts as his have been forgiven"; and since life is gladness, let him send forth a salutation to the universal producing power: "Our Father, give us our daily bread!" The Providence of human labour rules over our entire life; it gives us everything that is necessary. The God of the Universe, in whose train come cataclysms, is not more terrible than the god, Humanity, that can give us War and Famine. While we give CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 127 bread to the child, let us remember that man does not live by bread alone : because bread is only the material of his fleeting substance. The system of furnishing meals in school constitutes a chapter of School Hygiene that cannot directly concern us. Nevertheless, there are three rules of this hygiene which should be borne in mind: Children should never, in any case, drink wine, alcoholic liquors, tea or coffee in other words, stimulants, which are poisons to their childish organisms. On the other hand, children need sugar, because sugar has a great formative and plastic power; all young animals have sweetish flesh because their muscles, in the course of development, are extremely rich in sugar. The method of giving sugar to children should be as simple as possible, such, for instance, as is endorsed by the very successful English system of hygiene for children, which recommends freshly cooked fruits, sprinkled with sugar or served with a little syrup. But the substantial nourishment for young children should consist of soup or broth served hot, since heat is as essential as sugar for organisms in the course of evolution. The English recommend soups made of cereals and gluten, in which it is never necessary to use soup stock, just as it is never necessary to use meat in children's diet. That nutrition has a noteworthy influence upon growth, and therefore upon the definitive limits of stature, is exhaustively proved by statistics. In his brilliant studies of the poorer classes, Niceforo has col- lected the following average statures:* Age Stature (in centimetres) Children Rich Poor 7 years 120 126 129 134 135 140 144 150 116 122 123 128 134 138 140 146 8 years 9 years 10 years 1 1 years 12 years. 13 years 14 years. ... *ALFKEDO NICEFORO, Lis classes pauvres (the poorer classes). 128 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY from which it appears that, in spite of the strong biological im- pulse given by the attainment of puberty, the children of the poor continue to show a stature lower than that of the well-to-do. Ales' Hrdlic"ka has compiled the following comparative table of the poor or orphaned children received into the asylums, and the pupils of the public schools in Boston : Stature of American children: (1) In asylums; (2) in Boston public schools Boys Age in 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 years (1) 971 1088 1172 1163 1234 1261 1315 1367 1424 1452 1518 (2) 1060 1120 1176 1223 1272 1326 1372 1417 1477 1551 1599 1665 Girls (1) (2) 1052 1109 1101 1167 1158 1221 1204 1260 1289 1315 1290 1366 1452 1492 1398 1532 1559 1567 Even after reaching the adult age these differences are main- tained, as may be shown by the following statistics taken from various authorities: Average statures obtained from soldiers (in centimetres) Italians English French Students and profes- Professional men. . 175 Students . . 169 sional men 167 Merchants 172 Domestics 166 Tradesmen 165 Peasants . 171 Day labourers .. 165 Peasants 164 City employees 169 from which it appears that while in Italy the class of labourers having the lowest stature is the peasant class, which lives under the most deplorable economic conditions, in England on the contrary it is the workers in the cities who live under worse eco- CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 129 nomic conditions than the peasantry, it being well known that the English peasant is the most prosperous in the agricultural world. According to Livi, it is nutrition which causes the differences of average stature that are usually to be found between different social classes, and those between the inhabitants of mountains and of plains, or between the dwellers on the mainland and on the islands. In general the mountain-bred peasants have a lower stature than those of the plains; and this is because the means of procuring food are fewer and harder in mountainous regions. Similarly, the islanders, because of less ready means of com- munication, have less likelihood than those on the mainland of obtaining adequate nutrition. The same may be said regarding the differences found between the statures of cultured persons and of the illiterate, to the dis- advantage of the latter (the poorer classes). Students show the tallest stature of all, because they have in their favour the joint effect of the two chief factors of environment that influence this anthropological datum: mechanical causes and nutrition. A sedentary life, and above all a hearty diet both contribute to the tall stature of students, doctors, and members of the liberal professions. In this respect, the average figures of all the authorities agree, as appears from the following tables:* LIVI: 256,166 ITALIAN SOLDIERS Professions and callings Average stature in centimetres Students and professional men 166.9 Small shopkeepers and the like 165.0 Peasants 164 3 Blacksmiths 165.0 Carpenters 165.1 Masons 164.8 Tailors and shoemakers 164.5 Barbers 164.3 Butchers 165.7 Carters 164.4 Bakers . . 164.7 Day labourers in general 164.4 * Taken from Lrvi : On the Development of the Body in relation to the profession and the social condition. Rome, Voghera, 1897. 130 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY ROBERT AND RAWSON: 1935 ADULT ENGLISHMEN Professions and employments Average stature in centimetres Professional men Merchants and tradesmen. Peasants and miners City labourers Sedentary workmen Prisoners Insane. . 175.6 172.6 171.5 169.2 167.4 168.0 166.8 OLORIZ: 1798 CONSCRIPTS FROM THE CITY OF MADRID Professions and employments Average stature in centimetres Liberal professions Including: Students Other professions Workmen employed in the open air. Workmen employed in closed rooms. Including: Tailors, hatters and the like Shoemakers. . 163.9 164.0 161.1 160.7 159.8 159.0 158.9 Conditions of nutrition, which are always accompanied by a combination of other hygienic conditions all tending toward the same effects, have also an influence upon the development of puberty. Puberty is retarded by malnutrition. As a result of an inquiry made among the inmates of the Pia Barolo Society, which offers an asylum to reformed prostitutes, Marro* records that out of ninety rescued girls only those above the age of fourteen had begun to menstruate : notwithstanding that the normal period for the devel- opment of puberty in Italian women is between the years of twelve and thirteen. Furthermore, among the girls above the age of fourteen, menstruation had not yet begun in all cases; on the contrary, a large proportion of them still failed to show the phenomena of puberty : * MARBO, Puberty. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 131 Age in years Whole number Number menstruating 14-15 11 4 15-16 11 7 16-17 11 8 17-18 8 7 All the rest (thirty in number) menstruated for the first time after the age of eighteen. Among those in whom menstruation had appeared earlier, the order of appearance was as follows : Years 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Number 1 3 4 5 12 17 9 5 When we consider that we are dealing with rescued girls, we may conclude that direct sexual stimulus does not facilitate the normal development of puberty, but on the contrary, in conjunction with other causes, retards it. Accordingly, we must not confound the normal development of the organism with its disorders : whatever aids the natural development of life is useful and healthy. There may be conditions unfavourable to the development of puberty, which are favourable to the development of sexual vices (see, further on, the other causes influencing puberty, and moral con- ditions in colleges). In his work above cited, Marro compares his figures obtained from the Pia Barolo Society with those of Dr. Bianco* taken from 78 young girls in city institutes representing young women in easy circumstances: Date of first menstruation Girls in the Pia Barolo Society. Percentage Girls in city institutes for the wealthy classes. Percentage 10 years . .... .... 1 7 11 years 5.3 1.3 12 years .- 7.1 13.3 13 years 8 9 18.7 14 years 21.4 29.3 15 years 30.3 20.0 16 years 16 8.0 17 years 8.9 4.0 * Cited by PAQLIANI, Human Development, according to age, sex, etc. 132 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY It should be noted that the cold climate of Turin retards puberty (see below) : but the above table clearly shows the preco- cious puberty of young women in easy circumstances; in the great majority, in fact, it occurs between the ages of twelve and fourteen, with thirteen for the average; on the other hand, the majority for reformed prostitutes is between fourteen and sixteen, with fifteen for the average. Besides labour and nutrition, there are other factors that con- tribute to the development of stature (which we regard as an index to the entire mass of the body). Such factors are: PHYSICAL CONDITIONS HEAT, LIGHT, ELECTRICITY Thermic Conditions. Among the physical conditions which may have an influence upon the stature, the thermic conditions ought to receive first consideration. It is a principle demonstrated by nature that organisms in the course of evolution have need of heat. Even the invertebrates, as for example the insects, develop during the heat of summer; and the eggs of the higher vertebrates such as the birds, develop their embryo by means of the maternal warmth. In placental animals the development throughout the whole embryonic period takes place within the maternal womb, in the full tide of animal heat. In order to preserve life in premature babies, that is, in those born before the expiration of the physiological term of nine months, incubators have been constructed, an oven-like arrangement in which the child may be maintained at a temperature considerably higher than would be possible in the outside air; the term is also specifically used of the structures in which fertilised hens' eggs are kept during the required period of time until the chickens are hatched. Accordingly it is a principle taught us by nature that organisms in the course of evolution have need of heat. The most luxuriant vegetation, the most gigantic animals, the most variegated birds belong to the fauna and flora of the tropics. How is this physiological law, which nature expresses in such broad, general lines, to be interpreted by us in the environment of the school? It is well known that in this regard there are two conflicting opinions. There are some who would go to excessive lengths in protecting small children from the cold, by dressing CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 133 them entirely in woolen garments and keeping their apartments well heated; others on the contrary assert that the physiological struggle of adaptation to the cold invigorates the infant organism, and they advise that the child's body should never be completely protected, as for example that the legs should always be left bare, that the child should be lightly clad, that his apartments should not be heated, etc. Furthermore, it used to be held in the pietistic schools, and still is to some extent, that warmth had a demoralising influence, inas- much as it tended to enervate both mind and body. We educators cannot fail to be interested in such a discussion. As often happens in physiological arguments, the two opposite contentions each contain a part of the truth. In order to get at the truth of the matter, it is necessary to distinguish two widely separated facts : on the one hand, physiological exercise in the form of thermal gymnastics, and on the other, the development of organ- isms in a constantly cold environment. To live constantly warm, protected either by clothes or by arti- ficial heat, so that the organism remains always at a constant temperature, is not favourable to growth, because it deprives the organism of the physiological exercise of adapting itself to varia- tions in external temperature, an exercise which stimulates useful functions. By perspiring in summer, we cleanse our system of poisonous secretions, and by shivering in winter we give tone to our striped muscles and to our internal organs, as is proved by our gain in appetite. Anyone who wishes to be kept on ice in summer and to transform his apartment into a hot-house in winter, robs him- self of these advantages and enfeebles his system. The apparent comfort is not in this case a real physiological enjoyment but a weakness of habit that is accompanied by a loss of physiological energy. What makes us robust is a rational exercise of all our energies. Thermal gymnastics is consequently useful. It consists in exposing a healthy, resistant organism to changes in temperature, trusting to our physiological resources for the means of defense. Thus, for example, a child who is well fed and well protected from the cold for many hours of the day in the well-heated family apartment, can go out with bare legs into the snow; and doing so will make him more robust. In the same way, the ancient Romans exposed themselves in their hot baths to the steadily increasing temperature of the calidarium, up to 134 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY the point of 60 degrees (140 Fahrenheit), and then still perspiring flung themselves into a cold plunge. And it is a familiar fact that afterward they held lavish banquets in these same baths. . Such exercise which in classic times gave vigour to the race that made itself master of the world may be summed up as follows: " Thermic gymnastics" of organisms "well nourished and strong." Our own boatmen also throw themselves into the river in mid- winter, half nude, and half nude they ply their long poles. They expose themselves to the cold, in the same way that they might raise a weight of many pounds with their robust arms, for gymnas- tic exercise. But all this differs radically from living continually in a cold temperature. It is a very different thing from the life of a child of the lower classes, who goes bare-foot in winter, clad in a few scant rags, half frozen in his wretched tenement, and unable to obtain sufficient nourishment to develop the needed heat-units. He is already deficient in bodily heat because of malnutrition, and the effects of cold are cumulative. In this case it is not a ques- tion of thermic exercise but of a permanent deprivation of heat, in indi- viduals who are already suffering from an insufficient development of heatrunits. Consequently the organism is enfeebled it grows under unfavorable conditions and the result is a permanent diminution of development. Whoever grows up, exposed to cold after this fashion, has, in the average case, a lower stature than those who grow up in the midst of warmth, or in the practice of that healthful exercise which constitutes the ideal: thermic gymnastics. The contradictory ideas that are held as to the efficacy of heat in regard to growth, are due to a large extent to a prejudice which amounts to this: heat is effective in promoting the evolution of life as a whole, and consequently the development of that part of life that is centred in the organs of reproduction; from which comes the well-nigh antiquated theory that artificial heat should be banished from the schools, as one of the factors leading to immorality! It is true that warmth accelerates the development of puberty; but who is there in this twentieth century who can still conceive the idea that it is a moral act to silence the forces of nature? Good nourishment also leads to a more precocious puberty; and the same is true of the repeated psychic stimulus produced by various forms of intellectual enjoyment, by conver- CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 135 sation, and by social intercourse with individuals of the opposite sex. Accordingly, if it were a moral act to retard the development of puberty and to produce a general impoverishment of sexual life, the moral measures to be taken in education would be cold, malnutrition, and the isolation of the sexes in the schools, which, as a matter of fact, form the stumbling-block of environment in our colleges. But it is well known that all this leads on the contrary to moral and physical degeneration! As has already been said, the normal physiological development stands in counterdistinc- tion to immoral habits; consequently, whatever is an aid to physiological development is in its very nature moral. In warm climates the first manifestations of puberty occur precociously in man as well as in woman; and with them come all the transformations that are associated with puberty, among others the rapid increase of stature. In cold climates, on the contrary, such manifestations are more tardy. The women of Lapland are latest of all to develop. With them, menstruation begins only at eighteen, and they are incapable of conceiving under the age of twenty, while the period of the menopause (in- volution of sexual life) is correspondingly early; in other words, the entire period of sexual life is shortened. Furthermore, the fertility of the women of Lapland is low; they cannot conceive more than three children. But if these same women leave Lap- land and make their home in civilised countries, as for example in Sweden, they have a more precocious sexual life, as well as longer and more fertile, and altogether quite similar to that of the Swedish women.* Cabanist notes that even in cold climates, when young girls spend much of their time in the vicinity of stoves, menstruation begins at about the same age as in women who live on the banks of the Ganges as is the case with the daughters of wealthy Russians, whose development is quite precocious. In Arabia, in Egypt, and in Abyssinia the women are frequently mothers at the age of ten, menstruation having begun at the eighth year. It is even said that Mahomed married Radeejah when she was only five and that he took her to his bed at the age of eight. The religious laws of India permit the marriage of girls when they are eight years old. * RACIBORSKI, cited by MARRO, Puberty. t Idem. 136 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Consequently it is true that heat has an influence upon the development of the organism independently of other influences; in fact, heat acts both in the form of climate, that is, in a natural state, and also in an artificially warmed environment. It is also one of the causes of the different degrees of growth in stature through the successive seasons (see below). In conclusion: it is enjoined upon us, as a hygienic necessity, to heat the schools in winter, especially the schools for the poorer classes; it means more than increased vigour, it may even mean giving life to some who otherwise would pine away from depriva- tion of heat-units, a condition most unfavourable to organisms in the course of evolution. Photogenic Conditions. Light also has a perceptible influence upon growth : it is a great physiological stimulant. At the present day, physical therapy employs light baths for certain forms of neurasthenia and partial enf eeblement of certain organs ; and some biological manifestations, such as the pigments and similarly the chlorophyl in plants and the variegated colouring of birds receive a creative stimulus from light. Light contains in its spectrum many different colours, which act quite differently upon living tissues; the ultra-violet rays, for instance, kill the bacilli of tuberculosis and sometimes effect cures in cases of cancer. Psychiatrists and neuropaths have demon- strated that many colours of light have an exciting effect, while others, on the contrary, are sedative. Hence there has arisen in medicine a vast and most interesting chapter of phototherapy. In regard to the phenomena of growth, it has been noted that certain coloured lights are favourable to it, while certain others, on the contrary, diminish or arrest it, as the red and the green. Phototherapy ought to concern us as educators, especially in regard to schools for the benefit of nervous children: a periodic sojourn in a room lit by calming colours might have a beneficent effect upon epileptic, irritable, nervous children, in place of the debilitating hot bath, or, worse yet, the administration of bro- mides ; while light-baths would be efficacious for weak and torpid children. But for normal children we must consider the light of the sun as the best stimulant for their growth. A sojourn at the sea-shore, so favourable to the development of children, is now believed to owe CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 137 its beneficial effects to the fact that the child, playing half naked on the sea-shore, bathes more in the sunlight than he does in the salt water. Gymnastics in the sun, while the body is still only half dry, is what the younger generations should practise on a large scale, if they would bring about the triumph of physiological life. . We must not forget this great principle when, by planning home work for the pupils, we practically keep them housed during the entire day, keeping them for the most part employed in writ- ing or reading; in other words, using their sense of sight, which, if it is to be preserved unharmed, demands a moderate light. The eye ought to rest its muscles of accommodation, and the whole body be exposed to the full light of the sun during the greater part of the day. Let us remember that often the children of the poor live in a home so dark that even in full mid-day they are obliged to light a lamp! Let us at least leave them the light of the street, as a recompense for wretchedness that is a disgrace to civilisation ! According to certain experiments conducted in Rome by Professor Gosio, the light of the sun has an intensive effect upon- life. Living creatures reared in the solar light grow and mature earlier, but at the same time their life is shortened; that is, the cycle of life is more intense and more precocious; conversely, in the shade the cycle of life is slower, but of longer duration. A plant matures more quickly in the sun, but its stature is lower than that of a plant in the dark, which has grown far more slowly, but has become very tall and slender and lacking in chlorophyl. Similarly, as is well known, the women in tropical countries attain a precocious puberty, while conversely those of the North attain it tardily; and this fact must be considered in relation to the influence of the sun. A life passed wholly in the sunlight would be too intense; an organism that is exposed a few hours each day to the rays of the sun is invigourated; the inter- change of matter (metabolism) is augmented; all the tissues are beneficially stimulated. For this reason sun baths are employed for paralytic and idiot children, and consist in exposing the body of the child, reclining upon its bed and with its head well protected, to the direct rays of the sun for several hours a day; this treatment is found to be most efficacious in giving tone to the tissues and improving the general condition of the system. 138 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Variations in the Growth of Stature According to the Seasons. One proof of the beneficent influence of heat and sunlight upon the growth of the organism, is afforded by the variations in the rate of growth according to the seasons. Every individual grows more in summer than in winter. Daffner gives the following figures relative to the increase in stature according to the seasons : Stature Increase Number of Age in in centimetres in centimetres subjects years October April October Winter Summer Entire year 12 11-12 139.4 141.0 143.3 1.6 2.3 3.9 80 12-13 143.0 144.5 147.4 1.5 2.9 4.4 146 13-14 147.5 149.5 152.5 2.0 3.0 5.0 162 14-15 152.5 155.0 158.5 2.5 3.5 6.0 162 15-16 158.5 160.8 163.8 2.3 3.0 5.3 150 16-17 163.5 165.4 167.7 1.9 2.3 4.2 82 17-18 167.7 168.9 170.4 1.2 1.5 2.7 22 18-19 169.8 170.6 171.5 0.8 0.9 1.7 6 19-20 170.7 171.1 171.5 0.4 0.4 0.8 In the "Children's Houses," I require a record of stature to be made month by month in the case of every child, the measurement being taken on the day corresponding to the day on which he was born in the month of his birth; in addition to which I keep a record of the total annual increase. The ages of these children vary between three and four years, and they all belong to the poorer social classes. MONTHLY AVERAGE INCREASE IN STATURE IN THE "CHILDREN'S HOUSES" (In millimetres) Cold months Warm months December January February May June July 4 3 4 7 8 8 Another factor of growth is Electricity. One of the most interesting discoveries of recent date is that of the influence of terrestrial electricity upon the growth of living organisms. A series of experiments were made, by isolating cavies (a species of small Indian pig) from terrestrial electricity, and as a result they were found to be retarded in growth and to develop very imperfectly, much as though they had been suffer- ing from rickets. In short, they manifested an arrest of organic development. If, in electro-therapy, an electric current is applied to the cartilages of the long bones in children whose limbs have ap- parently been arrested in development, the result is a rapid in- crease in length, amounting to a luxuriant osteogenesis. Since we know that the electric current can stimulate the nerve filaments and the fibres of the striped muscles when they have been rendered inactive from the effects of paresis or even of paralysis, we realise that electricity can exert an influence over the entire physiological life of an organism. We live not only upon nutriment, air, heat, and light, but also upon a mysterious, imper- ceptible force, that comes to us from the mother earth. In addition to the biological potentialities which control the development of every individual, all living creatures owe some- thing of themselves to their environment. Space. An empirical contention, without scientific value, but nevertheless of some interest, is that there is an ultimate relationship between the dimensions of living bodies and the territorial space, that is, the environment in which they are destined to live. In view of the innumerable varieties of living creatures, such an assertion would seem to be utterly unfounded. But as a matter of fact we see that while inorganic bodies can increase indefinitely in dimension, living creatures are limited in form and size. This fact undoubtedly has some primal connection with properties innate in corporeal life itself; in fact, in order to attain its appointed end, life requires the services of certain very small microscopic particles called cells. But the aggregations and combinations of cells in living organisms are also limited in their turn, and no matter how willingly we would attribute the greatest share of causation to biological facts, nevertheless, as always happens in life, we cannot wholly exclude environment. 140 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Both animals and men that are bred on vast continents (Chi- nese, Russians) have tended to produce races of powerful and giant build: in islands, on the contrary, the men and the animals are of small size; it is sufficient merely to cite the men and the little donkeys of Sardinia, the small Irishmen who furnish jockeys for the race-track, and the small Irish horses or ponies that serve as saddle-horses for the children of the aristocracy the world over. There is a harmony of associations, as between the container and the contained, between environment and life, notwithstanding that as yet science has not made serious investigations in regard to it. Voltaire, in his Micromega, avails himself of this intuitive con- ception to create the material needed for his satire; he talks amus- ingly of the inhabitant of the planet Sirius, who was eight leagues in height and at four hundred years of age was still in school, while the inhabitant of Saturn was a mere pigmy in comparison, being scarcely a thousand rods tall in fact, the inhabitants of Saturn could not be otherwise than pigmies in comparison, since Saturn is barely nine hundred times larger than the earth. Gulliver makes use of similar standards in his Travels, which are read with so much delight by children. Psychic Conditions. Psychic Stimuli. Accordingly many chemical and physical factors associated with the environment concur in aiding life in its development. From the light of the sun to the electricity of the earth, the whole environment offers its tribute to life, in order to cooperate in life's triumph. But, in the case of man, in addition to these widely different factors, there is still another distinctly human factor that we must take into consideration and that we may call the psychic stimulus of life: We may scientifically affirm the Bible statement that "man does not live by bread alone." Without reverting to the basic physiological explanations of the emotions, as given by Lange and James, we may nevertheless assert that sensations of pleasure stimulate the renewal of bodily tissues and consequently promote health, happiness, and strength ; while, on the contrary, painful events produce physiological effects depressing to the tone of the nervous system and to the metabolic activity of the tissues. But it is precisely these metabolic phenomena that hold the key of life, and an organism in the course of evolution depends directly upon them. This problem concerns pedagogy in a very CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 141 special way : when we have given food to the children in our schools, we have not yet completed our task of nourishing these children; for the phenomena of nutrition which take place in the hidden recesses of their tissues are very different from a simple intestinal transformation of aliments, and are influenced by the psychic conditions of the individual pupil. Great workers not only need abundant nutriment, but they require at the same time a series of stimuli designed to produce 11 pleasure." The pleasures of life, necessary to human existence, include more than bread. In the history of social evolution there exist, side by side with the productions of labour, an entire series of enjoyments, more or less elevated, that constitute the stimului to production, and hence to evolution, and more profoundly still, to life itself. The further man evolves and the more he produces, the more he ought to multiply and perfect his means of enjoyment. Without stimuli, nutrition would grow less and less till it ended in death. E very-day experience in the punishment of criminals gives us proof of this. Confinement to a solitary cell is nothing else than a complete deprivation of psychic stimuli. The prisoner does not lack bread, nor air, nor shelter from the elements, nor sleep; his whole physiological life is provided for, in the strict material sense of the word. But the bare walls, the silence, the isolation from his fellow men in utter solitude, deprive the prisoner of every stimulus, visual, oral and moral. The consequences are not merely a state of hopelessness, but a real and actual malnutrition leading to tuberculosis, to anemia, to death from atrophy. We may affirm that such a prisoner dies slowly of hunger due to defective assimilation; the solitary cell is the modern donjon, and far more cruel than the one in which Ugolino died within a few days, so much so that solitary confinement, being incompatible with life, is only of short duration. Labour, love, and sensations apt to stimulate ideas, that is, to nourish the intelligence, are necessities of human life. This is further proved by observations made regarding the development of puberty. Psychic stimuli may render such de- velopment precocious, and, on the contrary, their absence may retard it. Jean Jacques Rousseau relates in Emile that at Friuli he encountered young people of both sexes who were still unde- veloped, although they were past the usual age and were strong 10 142 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY and robust, and this he attributed to the fact that " owing to the simplicity of their customs, their imagination remained calm and tranquil for a longer time, causing the ferment in their blood to occur later, and consequently rendering their temperament less precocious."* Recent statistical research confirms the intuitive observation of that great pedagogist; the women in the environs of Paris attain puberty nearly a year later than those who live in the city; and the same difference is observed between the country districts around Turin and those of the city itself. All this goes to prove the fact of psychic influence upon physiological life: psychic excitation, experienced with pleasure, by developing healthy activities, aids the development of physical life.f These principles must be taken under deep consideration when it comes to a question of directing the physiological growth of chil- dren. Fenelon relates a fable about a female bear who, having brought into the world an exceedingly ugly son, took the advice of a crow and licked and smoothed her cub so constantly that he finally became attractive and good-looking. This fable embodies the idea that maternal love may modify the body of the child, aiding its evolution toward a harmony of form by means of the first psychic stimuli of caresses and counsel. Nature has implanted in the mother not only her milk, the material nourishment of her child, but also that absolutely al- truistic love which transforms the soul of a woman, and creates in it moral forces hitherto unknown and unsuspected by the woman herself just as the sweet and nourishing corpuscles of the milk were unknown to the red corpuscles of her blood. Accordingly, the nature of the human kind protects the species through the mother in two ways, which together form the complete nutrition of man: aliment and love. After a child is weaned, it obtains its aliment from its environment in more varied forms; and it also obtains from its environment a great variety of psychic stimuli, calculated not only to mould its psychic personality, but also to bring its physiological personality to its full development. * ROUSSEAU, Entile, cited by MARRO. f It should be noted that sexual precocity or vice retards the development of puberty, while healthful psychic stimuli are favourable to it. Hence it was a right instinct that led us to give the name of sin and vice to what retards the normal development of life, and virtue and honour to what is favourable to it. Author's note. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 143 I have had most eloquent experience of this in the "Children's Houses" in the San Lorenzo quarter of Rome. This is the poorest quarter in the city, and the children are the sons and daughters of day labourers, who consequently are often out of work; illiteracy is even yet incredibly frequent among the adults, so much so that in a very high percentage of cases at least one of the parents is unable to read. In these " Children's Houses" we receive little children between the ages of three and seven, on a time schedule that varies between summer, from nine to five, and winter, from nine to four. We have never served food in the school; the little ones, all of whom live in their own homes, with their parents, have a half hour's recess in which to go home to luncheon. Consequently we have not in any way influenced their diet. The pedagogic methods employed, however, are of such sort as to constitute a gradual series of psychic stimuli perfectly adapted to the needs of childhood; the environment stimulates each pupil individually to his rightful psychic development according to his subjective potentiality. The children are free in all their manifestations and are treated with much cordial affection. I believe that this is the first time that this extremely interesting pedagogic experiment has ever been made: namely, to sow the seed in the consciousness of the child, leaving free opportunity, in the most rigourous sense, for the spontaneous expansion of its personality, in ari environment that is calm, and warm with a sentiment of affection and peace. The results achieved were surprising: we were obliged to remodel our ideas regarding child psychology, because many of the so-called instincts of childhood did not develop at all, while in place of them unforeseen sentiments and intellectual passions made their appearance in the primordial consciousness of these children; true revelations of the sublime greatness of the human soul! The intellectual activity of these little children was like a spring of water gushing from beneath the rocks that had been erroneously piled upon their budding souls ; we saw them accomplishing the incredible feat of despising playthings, through their insatiable thirst for knowledge; carefully preserving the most fragile objects of the lesson, the tenderest plants sprouting from the earth these children that are reputed to be vandals by instinct! In short, they seemed to us to represent the childhood of a human race more highly evolved than our own; and yet they are really the same humanity, marvelously guided and stimulated through its own natural and free development! But what is still more marvelous is the astonishing fact that all these children are so much improved in their general nutrition as to present a notably different appearance from their former state, and from the condition in which their brothers still remain. Many weakly ones have been organically strengthened; a great many who were lymphatic have been cured; and in general the children have gained flesh and become ruddy to such an extent that they look like the children of wealthy parents living in the country. No one seeing them would believe that these were the offspring of the illiterate lower classes! Well, let us glance over the notes taken upon these children at the time when they first entered the school; for the great majority, the same note was made: need of tonics. Yet not one of them took medicine, not one of them had a change of diet; the renewed vigour of these children was due solely to the complete satisfac~ 144 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY tion of their psychic life. And yet they remain in school continually from nine till five through eleven months out of the year! One would say that this was an excessively long schedule; yet what is still more surprising is that during all this period the children are continually busy; and even more remarkable is the report made by many of the mothers to the effect that after their little ones have returned home they continue to busy themselves up to the hour of going to bed; and lastly and this seems almost incredible many of the little ones are back again at school by half past eight in the morning, tranquil, smiling, as though blissfully anticipating the enjoyment that awaits them during the long day! We have seen small boys become profoundly observant of their environment, finding a spontanequs delight in new sensations. Their stature, which we measure month by month, shows how vigourous the physiological growth is in every one of them, but particularly in certain ones, whose blood-supply has become excellent. Such results of our experiments have amazed us as an unexpected revelation of nature, or, to phrase it differently, as a scientific discovery. Yet we might have foreseen some part of all this had we stopped to think how our own physical health depends far more upon happiness and a peaceful conscience than upon that material substance, bread! Let us learn to know man, eublime in his true reality! let Us learn to know him in the tenderest little child; we have shown by experiment that he develops through work, through liberty, and through love; hitherto, in place of these, we have stifled the splendid possibilities of his nature with irrational toys, with the slavery of discipline, with contempt for his spontaneous manifestations. Man lives for the purpose of learning, loving and producing, from his earliest years upward; it is from this that even his bones get their growth and from this that his blood draws its vitality! Now, all such factors of physiological development are suffocated by our antiquated pedagogic methods. We prevent, more or less completely, the devel- opment of the separate personalities, in order to keep all the pupils within the selfsame limits. The perfectionment of each is impeded by the common level which it is expected that all shall attain and make their limit, while the pupils are forced to receive from us, instead of producing of their own accord; and they are obliged to sit motionless with their minds in bondage to an iron programme, as their bodies are to the iron benches. We wish to look upon them as machines, to be driven and guided by us, when in reality they are the most sensitive and the most superb creation of nature. We destroy divine forces by slavery. Rewards and punishments furnish us with the needed scourge to enforce submission from these marvelously active minds; we encourage them with rewards! to what end? to winning the prize! Well, by doing so we make the child lose sight of his real goal, which is knowledge, liberty and work, in order to dazzle him with a prize which, considered morally, is vanity, and considered materially is a few grains of metal. We inflict punish- ments in order to conquer nature, which is in rebellion, not against what is good and beautiful, not against the purpose of life, but against us, because we are tyrants instead of guides. If only we did not also punish sickness, misfortune and poverty! CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 145 We are breakers-in of free human beings, not educators of men. Our faith in rewards and punishments as a necessary means to the progress of the children and to the maintainence of discipline, is a fallacy already exploded by experiment. It is not the material and vain reward, bestowed upon a few individual children, that constitutes the psychic stimulus which spurs on the multifold expansions of human life to greater heights; rewards degrade the gran- deur of human consciousness into vanity and confine it within the limits of egotism, which means perdition. The stimulus worthy of man is the joy which he feels in the consciousness of his own growth; and he grows only through the conquest of his own spirit and the spread of universal brotherhood. It is not true that the child is incapable of feeling a spiritual stimulus far greater than the wretched prize that gives him an egotistical and illusory superiority over his companions; it is rather that we ourselves, because already degraded by egotism, judge these new forces of nascent human life after our own low standards. The small boys and girls in our "Children's Houses" are of their own accord distrustful of rewards ; they despise the little medals, intended to be pinned upon the breast as marks of distinction, and instead they actively search for objects of study through which, without any guidance from the teacher, they may model and judge and correct themselves, and thus work toward perfection. As to punishments, they are depressing in effect, and they are inflicted upon children who are already depressed! Even in the case of those who are adult and strong, we know that it is neces- sary to encourage those who have fallen, to aid the weak, to comfort those who are discouraged. And if this method serves for the strong, how much more necessary it is for lives in the course of evolution! This is a great reform which the world awaits at our hands: we must shatter the iron chains with which we have kept the intelligence of the new generations in bondage!* Pathological Variations. Among the factors that may have a notable influence upon the stature are the pathological causes. Aside from those very rare occurrences that produce gigantism, it may be affirmed that pathological variations result in general in an arrest of development. In such a case it may follow that an individual of a given age will show the various characteristics of an individual of a younger age; that is, he will seem younger or more childish. In such a case the stature has remained on a lower level than that which is normal for the given age; and this in general is the most obvious characteristic, because it is the index of the whole inclusive arrest of the physical personality. But together with the diminution of stature, various other characteristics may exist * Compare The method of Scientific Pedagogy applied to infantile education in the " Chil- dren's Houses," MONTESSORI: Casa Editr. Lapi, 1909. 146 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY that also suggest a younger age; that is, the entire personality has been arrested in its development. It follows, in school for example, that such pathological cases may escape the master's attention; he sees among his scholars a type that is apparently not abnormal, because it does not deviate from the common type, in fact is quite like other children; but when we inquire into its age, then the anomaly becomes evident, because the actual age of this small child is greater than his appar- ent age. A principle of this sort announced in these terms is perhaps too schematic; but it will serve to establish a clear general rule that will guide us in our separate observations of a great variety of individual cases. This form of arrested development was for the first time explained by Lasegue, who introduced into the literature of medicine or rather into nosographism, the comparative term of infantilism. Infantilism has been extensively studied in Italy by Professor Sante de Sanctis, who has written notable treatises upon it. I have taken from his work Gli Infantilismi, the following table of fundamental characteristics necessary to constitute the infantile type. 1. Stature and physical development in general below that required by the age of the patient. 2. Retarded development or incomplete development of the sexual organs and of their functions. 3. Incomplete development of intelligence and character. In order to recognise infantilism, it is necessary to know the dimensions and morphology of the body in their relation to the various ages, and to bear in mind that in young children sexual development either has not begun or is still incomplete. Dimensions and Morphology of the Body at the Various Ages. What we have already learned regarding stature will give us one test in our diagnosis of infantilism: the increase of stature and the transformations of type of stature concur in establishing the di- mensions and the morphology of the body (See Stature, Types of Stature, Diagrams). A sufferer from infantilism will have, for example at the age of eleven, a stature of 113 centimetres and a statural index of 56, while the average figures give: CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 147 Age Stature Index 7 years 111 56 8 years 117 55 9 years 122 55 10 years 128 54 1 1 years 132 53 Consequently, in such a case the eleven-year-old patient would have the appearance of a child of seven, not only in stature but also in the relative proportions of his body. (And if we examined him psychically, we should probably find his speech was not yet perfected, that he showed a tendency toward childish games, a mental level corresponding to the age of seven or thereabouts; in school the child would be placed in the first or second elementary grade.) Accordingly the anthropological verdict of infantilism must not be based upon limits of measurement alone, but also upon the proportions of the body. Every age has its own morphology. Now, such changes are found not only in the reciprocal relations between the bust and the limbs, but also between the various parts of the bust, as we shall see when we come to an analytical study of the morphology of the head, the thorax and the abdomen; the detailed anthropological examination of the individual patient will furnish us with further accompanying symptoms helpful in establishing a diagnosis. Further on we shall give a summarised table of the morphology of the body from year to year (laws of growth) ; and of the most notable and fundamental psychological characteristics of the different years of childhood; so that a teacher may easily derive from it at a glance a comprehensive picture that will aid in a diagnosis of the age, and hence of the arrest of development, in subjects suffering from infantilism. Before entering upon the important question of pathogenesis in its relation to infantilism, I will reproduce a few biographic notes of infantile types, taken from various authorities: Giulio B. was brought to the clinic because of his continued love for toys, notwithstanding his age. At seventeen and a half he retained the manners, the games and the language of a child of between ten and twelve. In appearance, he gave the impression 148 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY of being between thirteen and fourteen, and was as well pro- portioned as a lad of that age. His stature was 1.45 meters (at thirteen the average stature is 1.40 m. and at fourteen it is 1.48 m. ; while at seventeen it ought to be 1.67 m.) and his weight was 39 kilograms (at fourteen the weight is 40 k. and at seventeen it is 57 k.) . His appearance was lively, intelligent, but on the whole childish. His genital organs were like those of a boy of twelve (Fig. 30). The patient understood all that was said to him, he could read, write and sing, but could not apply himself to any serious occupation; he did not read the papers, but would amuse himself by looking at pictures in illustrated books; he could play draughts, but was equally pleased when playing with children's toys. During his stay at the clinic he was several times punished for childish pranks: he filled his neighbour's chamber vessel with stones, and amused himself by making little paper boats and sailing them in the urine, etc. He was employed as a page at an all- night cafe; his age permitted him to perform this work forbidden to children, while his appearance rendered him fitted for the task. When questioned discreetly regarding his sexual functions, or rather his sexual incapacity, he understood at once, and expressed in a childish way his deep regret, because he had heard it said that "that was why they wouldn't let him serve in the army." Vittorio Ch. Is twenty-two years old and looks about eight or ten. Stature 1.15 metres (average stature for the age of seven being 1.11 m. ; for eight, 1.17 m.). Has no beard, nor any signs of virility; genital organs like those of a child. His intelligence is alert, but does not surpass that of a boy of .ten. He speaks correctly, can read, write and sing; plays draughts, but does not disdain children's toys, and prefers looking at pictures in illus- trated books to reading the daily papers. After the death of the patient, it was found, as a result of the autopsy, that the epiphyses of the long bones had not yet united with the diaphyses, and that the bones of the skull were still as soft as those of a child (Fig. 31). Here is another case, taken from Moige:* It is the case of a young working girl, presenting all the appear- ance of a child of twelve or fourteen; she had not yet attained puberty, although she was thirty years of age. No external sign gave evidence that she was undergoing the sexual transition that should give her womanhood. Her breasts were reduced to the * MOIOE, Nouvelle Iconographie de la Salpitriere, 1894. FIG. 30. Boy, seventeen and one-half years old. FIG. 31. Young man, twenty-two years old. FIG. 32. Idiotic cretin, age 20 years, stature 1.095m. FIG. 33. An example of myxedematous infantil- ism. FIG. 34. A group of cretins in the valley of Aosta (Pied- mont). The alteration of the thyroid gland is of endemic origin. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 149 mere nipple, as in infancy. Her voice was weak. This woman was hysterical and subject to frequent attacks of convulsions. Her mental condition remained infantile. She was gentle, docile, timid and apprehensive; she was destitute of coquetry or sense of shame. "Renato L.,* age twenty-nine; stature 1.30 m. (average stature at the age of ten, 1.28 m. ; at eleven, 1.32 m.) weight, 32 kilograms (average weight, age of twelve, 31 k.). It appears from his history that he developed normally up to the age of nine, after which period an arrest of development occurred, both physical and psy- chic. An arrest of the genital organs dates back also to early childhood. His intelligence is that of a backward child; he has never been able to read or write, but can count up to 1000. He has never been able to learn a trade, but shows some talent for drawing. His criminal instincts seem to be especially developed. He spends whole hours, turning over the leaves of popular illustrated novels, and whenever he comes across a picture representing a homicide or an assassination, he utters loud exclamations of delight. He has only one passion, tobacco, and only one object of adoration, Ravachol. Very violent, extremely irritable; when he is angry, he would kill someone, if, as he says, "he had the strength for it." Although, as a rule, he docilely obeys the orders given him, it is because he is "afraid of being scolded." His ideal is to be able some time to obtain refuge in the Hospice de Bicetre. From De Sanctis's work, Gli Infantilismi, I obtain the following data, that are very suggestive on the anthropological side, regarding a case of infantilism observed by the professor in his asylum- school for defective children, in Rome. Vincenzo P., seven years of age. Father in good health and of good character. Mother small, thin, weak, underfed; has had nine children, of which five are living, all feeble. Vincenzo was born in due time, birth regular; had five wet-nurses; cut his teeth at the normal intervals; began to walk at the end of the second year and to speak at the end of the first. According to his mother, all went well until the fourth year. At this period, Vincenzo became very troublesome and ceased to "grow taller." Later on he was sent to the communal school, but the director of the school * APEBT, Op. cit. 150 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY in the Via Ricasoli, seeing how undersized and backward he was, sent him to the Asylum-School for defective children. In appearance the child is eurhythmic, excepting that the head appears a little too big in proportion to the rest of his body; but it is not of the hydrocephalic type (an infantile characteristic). He is slightly asymmetric, the postero-inferior portion of the right parietal bone being more depressed than that of the left (infantile plagiocephaly). M easurements Of the child Normal measurements at the age of seven Age at which the measure- ments of Vincenzo would be normal Stature, O.70 m 1.10 m. Three years, stature, 0.864 m. Weight, 12.400 kg 20.16 kg. Two years, weight, 12 kg. Circumference of chest, 0.507 m. Vital index, 59 0.55 m Vital index, 54 Four years, circumference of chest, 0.505 m. Two years, vital index, 59. The bust is greatly developed in comparison with the lower limbs, which are unquestionably short. (The sitting stature was not taken, but this note, recorded from simple observation, reminds us of the enormous difference between the indices of stature at the age of two or three and at the age of seven: Index at two years = 63; at three = 62; at seven = 56.) But although we lack the index of stature, we may make use of the vital index, which is given by the proportion between the circumf erence of the chest and the stature, and consequently gives us an index of the morphology of the bust in its relation to the whole personality; thus we find that the vital index corresponds in the present case to that of a child of two, as is also true of the weight, so that we may deduce that the index of stature was probably about 62-63. He shows no impairment as to external sensations; on the other hand, internal sensations, such as satiety, illness, etc., are blunted. His power of attention seems sufficient, both at play and in school and when questioned. Neither does his memory show anything abnormal. Emotionally, he is below the normal level; he says that he is afraid of thunder; occasionally he shows annoyance when disturbed; but it is equally certain that he never becomes CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 151 angry, never turns pale and never blushes, as the result of any excitement. He is of an indifferent disposition and is passive in manner; he is good natured, or rather, a certain degree of apathy makes him appear so. All things considered, his mental development may be de- scribed as that of a three-year-old child; only that he differs from children of that age in his lack of vivacity and in his complete development of articulate speech (it should be noted, in regard to the diagnosis of age made by so distinguished a psychologist as De Sanctis, that he judged the child to have a psychic development corresponding to the age of three years; while we, studying the general measurements of the body, determined that they corre- spond to three different ages, namely, two, three and four the aver- age of which is precisely three; while the stature, which is the index of development of the body as a whole, corresponds almost exactly to that average of three years (0.870 m., 0.864 m.). Pathogenesis of Infantilism. At this point it might be asked : Why do we grow? We hide the mechanism of growth under very vague expressions: biological final causes, ontogenetic evolution, heredity. But, if we stop to think, such expressions are not greatly different from those which they have replaced: the divine purpose, creation. In other words, a causal explanation is lacking. But positive science refuses to lose itself in the search after final causes, in which case it would become metaphysical philosophy. Nevertheless, it may pursue its investigations into the genesis of phenomena, whenever the results of experiments permit it to advance. So it is in the case of growth; certain relatively recent dis- coveries in physiology have made it possible to establish relations between the development of the individual and the functions of certain little glands of " internal secretion." Now, the discovery of these relations is certainly not a causal explanation of the phenomenon of growth, but only a profounder analysis of it. Hitherto, we have considered the organism in regard to its chief visceral functions: in speaking of macroscelia and of brachy- scelia, we considered the different types in relation to the develop- ment of the organs of vegetative life and the organs of external relations: the central nervous system, the lungs, the heart, the digestive system. Our next step is to enter upon the study of certain little organs, which were still almost ignored by the ana- 152 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY tomy and physiology of yesterday. These organs are glands which, unlike other glands (the salivary glands, the pancreas, the sudoriferous glands, etc.), are lacking in an excretory duct, through which the juices prepared for an immediate physiological purpose might be given forth; and in the absence of such excretory tubes, their product must be distributed through the lymphatic system, and hence imperceptibly conveyed throughout the whole organism. One of these glands, the one best known, is the thyroid', but there are others, such, for example, as the thymus, situated beneath the sternum, or breast-bone, and much reduced in size in the adult; the pineal gland or hypophysis cerebri, situated at the base of the encephalon; the suprarenal capsules, little ear- shaped organs located above the kidneys. Up to a short time ago, it was not known what the functions of such glands were; some of them were regarded as atavistic survivals, because they are more developed in the lower animals than in man, and con- sequently were classed with the vermiform appendix as relics of organs which had served their functions in a bygone phylogenetic epoch and remain in man without any function, but on the con- trary represent a danger through the local diseases that they may develop. The cerebral hypophysis was in ancient times regarded as the seat of the soul. These glands are very small; the largest is the thyroid, which weighs between thirty and forty grams (1 to 1 f oz.) ; the supra- renal glands weigh four grams each (about 60 grains) ; the hypophy- sis hardly attains the weight of one gram. .The importance of these glands began to be revealed when antiseptic methods rendered surgery venturesome, and the attempt was made (in 1882) to remove the thyroid gland. After a few weeks the patient operated on. began to feel the effects of the absence of an organ necessary to normal life: effects that may be summed up as, extreme general debility; pains in the bones and in the head; an elastic swelling of the entire skin; enfeebled heart action, and anemia; and on the psychic side, loss of memory, taciturnity, melancholy. After the lapse of some time the patient showed such further symptoms as the shedding of the cuticle of the skin, whitening of the hair and fades cretinica. But when Sick undertook to operate upon the thyroid of a child of ten, the deleterious effects of interrupting the above- mentioned function of the gland manifested itself in an arrest of CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 153 development; at the age of twenty-eight the patient operated on by Sick was a cretin (idiotic dwarf) 1.27 metres tall (average stature at age of ten = 1.28 m.). Since that time certain diseases have been recognised that call to mind the condition of patients who have undergone an operation for removal of the thyroid glands, and in which the subjects have suffered from hypothyroidea, or insuffi- cient development of the thyroid. Such individuals were characterised by nanism, solid edema of the skin, arrest of psychic development, and absence of develop- ment of puberty; this malady has taken its place in medical treatises under the name of myxedema; and, when serious, is ac- companied by nanism and myxedematous idiocy. But in mild cases it may result in a simple myxedematous infantilism. The other glands of internal secretion are also associated with the phenomena of growth. First in importance is the thymus which is found highly developed in the embryo and in the child at birth, and thereafter diminishes in volume, until it almost disappears after the attainment of puberty. In the psychological laboratories of Luciani, at Rome, the first experiments were con- ducted upon dogs, for the purpose of determining what alterations in growth would result as a consequence of the removal of the thymus. The dogs thus operated on were weak; furthermore they became atrophied, accompanied by roughness of the skin and changes in pigmentation. After this, experiments were made in the Pediatric Clinic at Padua, under the direction of Professor Cervesato, in the application of thymic organotherapy (that is, the use of animal thymus as medicine) with notable success in the case of atrophic children (infantile atrophy occurs in early infancy; this form is known popularly in Italy as the "monkey sickness." Nursing children become extremely thin, cease to grow in length, the little face becomes elongated and skeleton-like, and is frequently covered with a thick down). Stoppato also obtained analogous results in infantile atrophy and anemia. Hence it is evident that the very rapid growth in the embryo is associated with the functional action of the thymus. And this is also true of the very rapid growth during the first years of a child's life. The pituitary gland, or cerebral hypophysis, has also functions associated with the general nervous tone and trophism (or nourish- ment) of the tissues, and especially of the osseous system. There 154 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY is a disease known as acromegalia (Marie's disease) which is characterised by an abnormal and inharmonic growth of the skeleton, especially in the limbs and the jaw; the hands and feet become enormously enlarged, while the jaw lengthens and thickens (an unhealthy formation on which the common people of Italy have bestowed the name of "horse sickness," because of the appearance assumed by the face). Such patients complain of general and progressive debility of their psychic activities. In such cases, an autopsy shows an alteration of the pituitary gland, often due to malignant tumors (sarcoma). The suprarenal capsules also bear a relation to general trophism and particularly to the pigmentation of the skin. It was already noted by Cassan and Meckel that the negro races show a greater volumetric development of the suprarenal capsules; when in 1885 Addison for the first time discovered a form of disease associated with alterations of the suprarenal capsules, characterised by an intensely brown colouration of the skin (bronzed-skin disease), general debility of the nervous and muscular systems, progressive anemia and mental torpor; the malady ends in death. In the case of animals operated on for physiological experiments, not one of them has been able to survive. Some interesting observations have been made by Zander on the connection between the development of the nervous system and the suprarenal glands. He found that there was an insuffi- cient development of these glands in individuals having terato- logical (monstrous) misshapements of the brain, as in the case of hemicephalus (absence of one-half the brain), Cyclops, etc. There exists between all the ductless glands, or those of internal secretion, an organic sympathy: in other words, if one of them is injured the others react, frequently to the extent of assuming a vicarious (compensating) functional action. What their functional mechanism is, that is, whether the secretions act as formative stimulants or enzymes, ferments of growth, or whether as antitoxines to the toxines elaborated by various organs in the process of regression, is a question still controverted and in any case cannot enter within the limits of our field. It is enough for us to know that the general growth of the organism and its morphological harmony, depend not only as regards the skeleton, but equally in relation to the cutaneous CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 155 system and its pigmentation, the development of the muscles, the heart, the blood, the brain, and the trophic functions of the nervous system, upon some formative and protective action of all these little glands of " internal secretion," with which are associated the psychic activities and even the life itself of each individual, as though within the embryonic crucible there must have been certain substances that acted by stimulating the genetic forces and directing the trophism of the tissues toward a predetermined morphology. To-day it is held that even the mother's milk contains these for- mative principles, or enzymes, suited to stimulate the tissues of her own child in the course of their formation; consequently, it pro- duces results which no other milk in all nature can replace. Alterations in these glands of "internal secretion" may there- fore produce an arrest of development and, in mild cases, forms of infantilism. But the gland which in this connection is of first importance is the thyroid. Now there is one form of arrest of the trophic rhythm of growth which may be due to hereditary causes effecting the formative glands (myxedematous infantilism), or to exceptional causes occur- ring in the individual himself in the course of formation, either at the moment of conception, or at some later moment, as may hap- pen even during the period of infancy (dystrophic infantilism of various origin). In all these cases, however, according to Hertoghe, the excep- tional causes, deleterious to growth, would first of all exercise their influence upon the glands of internal secretion and especially upon the thyroid. In order to make clear, in connection with such complex patho- logical problems, the cases which are important from the point of view of pedagogy and the school, let us divide them into : Myxedematous infantilism, due to congenital insufficiency of the thyroid gland from hereditary causes, and Dystrophic infantilism, associated with various causes dele- terious to individual development and acting secondarily upon the glands of internal secretion (syphilis, tuberculosis, alcoholism, malaria, pellagra, etc.). Myxedematous infantilism is characterised by short stature, by excessive development of the adipose system, and by arrest of mental development (including speech). Such infantiles very 156 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY frequently have a special morphology of the face, that suggests the mongol type, and characteristic malformations of the hands (little fingers atrophied). . When treated with extracts of the thyroid glands of animals, they improve notably; they become thinner, they gain in stature, their mentality develops to the extent of permitting them to study and to work. Certain mongoloids treated by De Sanctis in the Asylum-School at Rome were im- proved to the point of being able to attend the high-school and therefore were restored to their family and to society as useful individuals all of which are facts that are of singular importance to us as educators ! Medical care working hand in hand with peda- gogy may save from parasitism individual human beings who otherwise would be lost. We ought to be convinced from such evidence of the necessity of special schools for deficients, wholly separated from the elementary schools, and where medical care combined with a specially adapted pedagogic treatment may trans- form the school into a true "home of health and education." The plan of a "school with a prolonged schedule of hours," includ- ing two meals and a medical office, as was conceived and organised by Prof. Sante de Sanctis in Rome, has been proved to answer admirably to this social need; because without wholly removing the children from their families, and therefore without exposing them to the disadvantages of a boarding school, it provides them with all the assistance necessary to their special needs. Dystrophic Infantilism. Given a case of infantilism, discover- able by the teacher through the general measurements of the body and psychic examination, it is interesting to investigate the dele- terious causes. It may be the result of poisoning, as for example from alcohol. Alcohol has such a direct influence upon the arrest of development that in England jockeys are produced by making the lads drink a great deal of alcohol. Children who drink alcohol do not grow in stature, and similarly the embryo grows in a less degree when the mother indulges in alcohol during pregnancy; some Swiss women deliberately resort to this means, in order that a smaller child may lessen the pain of child-birth. But alcohol not only diminishes the stature, but destroys the harmony of the different parts; that is, in the development of the body it arrests both the volumetric and the morphological growth. Furthermore, alcohol produces in children an arrest of mental development. An acquaintance CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 157 with this principle of hygiene should be looked upon by the teacher less as a piece of special knowledge than as a social duty. From the point of view of the educator, the fight against alcoholism should have no assignable limits! It would be vain for him to perfect his didactic methods in order to educate a child that drank wine or other still worse alcoholic liquors. It would be better if the efforts which he meant to dedicate to such educative work could be all turned to a propaganda directed toward the parents of such children, or toward the children themselves, to induce them to abstain from so pernicious a habit! We may also consider in the category of poisonings certain chronic maladies which act upon the organism with special toxic (poisonous) effects. In the foremost rank of such maladies belongs Syphilis. This disease is ranked among the principal causes of abortion; in other words, the foetus which results from a syphilitic conception lacks vitality, and often fails to complete the cycle of intrauterine life. But even granting that the foetus survives and attains its complete development, the child after birth grows tardily, and very often remains an infantile. It is well known that syphilis has been transmitted to new-born infants at the time of birth, in consequence of which these infants may in turn transmit syphilis to their wet-nurses. In such cases they are really sick and need medical treatment from the hour of their birth. Just as in the adult patient, syphilis has several successive stages, an acute primary stage, with plain manifestations of hard ulcers, erythema diffused over the skin of the entire body, glandular infiltrations, etc., and then secondary and tertiary manifestations that eventually become chronic and exhibit almost imperceptible symptoms; so in the case of children, syphilis may be transmitted in various degrees of virulence. In the acute stage the result will be abortion or the child will be still-born, or else the new-born child will plainly exhibit ulcerations and erythema, but at other periods of the disease, the child may bear far less evident signs of its affliction, as for instance a special form of corrosion in the enamel of its teeth; the cervical pleiades or enlargement of certain little lymphatic glands like the beads of a rosary, distinguishable by touch in the posterior region of the neck; certain cranial mal- formations (prominent nodules on the parietal bones, Parrot's nodes) ; and in the child's whole personality an under-development 158 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY in respect to its age. In cases like these the teacher's observations may be of real social value, because the child has shown no symp- toms of such a nature as to cause the parents to have recourse to a physician, and it is the child's scholarship (using the word in the broad sense of the way in which the child reacts in the environment of school, the profit he derives from study, etc.) that may reveal an abnormal development to an intelligent teacher. The first indication is a stature below what is normal at a given age. Such observations ought to be obligatory upon teachers who are in sympathy with the new ideas, for they alone can be the arbiters of the rising generations. It is being said on all sides, to be sure, with optimistic assurance that argues a deficiency of critical insight and common sense, that an adequate education of the mothers ought to enlighten all women in regard to the laws of growth in children and the abnormalities that are remediable. But of what class of mothers are we supposed to be speaking? Certainly not of the great mass of working women and illiterates! certainly not of the women who have been constrained to hard toil from childhood up, and later on condemned to abortion because of such unjust labor, while their spirit is brutalized and their memory loses even the last lingering notion of an alphabet! It will always be easier and more practical, in every way, to enlighten twenty-five thousand teachers regarding these principles than to enlighten many millions of mothers; not to mention that if we wished to enlighten these mothers in a practical way regarding the principles of the hygiene of generation, we should still have to in- voke the services of that very class whose assigned task in society is precisely that of educating the masses! The teacher can and should learn at least how to suspect the presence of hereditary syphilis in his pupils, in order to be able to invoke the aid of the physician, leaving to the latter the completion of the task, namely, the eventual cure. It is well known that iodide of potassium and its substitutes, especially if used at an early stage, can cure syphilitic children and therefore save innocent boys and girls from eventual definite arrest of development and from all the resultant human and social misery. Another cause that is deleterious to development is Tuberculosis. Although it has now been demonstrated that tuberculosis is not hereditary, as an active disease that is, we cannot inherit in our organism localised colonies of the tuberculo- CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 159 sis bacillus, because the bacilli cannot pass through the placenta into the foetus during the period of gestation nevertheless a predis- position to infection from the bacillus can be inherited. A predisposition which consists in a special form of weakened resistance of the tissues, rendering them incapable of immunity, and a skeletal formation which is distinguished by a narrowness of the chest, and a consequent smallness of lungs, which, being unable to take in sufficient air, constitute a locus minoris resistentice (locality of less resistance) to localisation of the bacilli. Now, since our environment is highly infected by the bacilli of tuberculo- sis, we must all necessarily meet with it, we must all have repeat- edly received into our mouths and ah* passages Koch's bacilli, alive and virulent; and yet the strong organism remains immune, while the weak succumbs. Consequently those who are predisposed by heredity are almost fated to become tuberculous, and in this sense the malady presents the appearance of being truly hereditary. But such organic weakness in a child predisposed to tuberculosis is manifested not only by possible attacks of various forms of the disease localised in the glands (scrofula) or the bones, but also by a delayed development of the whole personality. Now, the environment of school and the educative methods still in vogue in our schools, not only are not adapted to correct such a predisposition, but what is more, the school itself creates this predisposition! In fact, the sitting posture or rather, that of stooping over the desk, to write and the prolonged confine- ment in a closed environment, impede the normal development of the thorax and of all the physical powers in general. Many a work on pedagogic anthropology has already shown that the most studious scholars, the prize-winners, etc., have a wretched chest measure, and a muscular force so low as to threaten ruin to their constitutions. Consequently, children who are predisposed to tuberculosis ought unquestionably to be removed from our schools and cared for and educated in favourable environments. While we are still impotent in the face of fatalities due to this deplorable disease, we are not ignorant of the means needed to save a predisposed child and transform him into a robust and resistant lad. Such knowledge, to be sure, was applied to mankind only as a second thought ; for the first men to apply and then to teach such means of defence were the owners of cattle and the veterinaries. The 160 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY owners of cattle discovered that if a calf was born of a tuber- culous cow, it could be saved and become an excellent head of cattle, if only it was subjected to a very simple procedure; the calf must be removed from its mother and given over to be nursed by another cow in the open country; and it must remain in the open pastures for some time after it its weaned. By taking similar precautions in the case of children, it has been shown that the son of a tuberculous woman, if entrusted to a wet-nurse in the open country, and brought up on an abundance of nourishing food until his sixth year in the freedom of the fields, can be made as robust as any naturally sound child. From this we get the principle of schools in the open air, or of schools in the woods, or on the sea-shore, for the benefit of weak, anemic children, pre- disposed to tuberculosis. Such a sojourn constitutes the " School- Sanatorium," the lack of which is so grievously felt by the parents of feeble children, and that might so easily be instituted in our mild and luxuriant peninsula, so rich in hillsides and sea-coast! Malaria. One of the chief causes of mortality and of biological pauperism in many regions of Italy is malaria. This scourge rages even to the very gates of Rome. The country folk of these abandoned tracts pine away in misery and at the same time in illiteracy, while their blood is impoverished by disease, and a notable percentage of the children are victims of arrested development. These unfortunates, forgotten by civilisation, are destined to roam the fields, bearing with them, till the day of their death, a deceptive appearance of youth, and an infantile incapacity for work, an object-lesson of misery and barbarity! Among the means of fighting malaria, the spread of civilisation and the school ought to find a place. Even the quinine given freely by the govern- ment is distributed with difficulty among these unhappy people, brutalised by hunger and fever; and some message from civil- isation ought to precede the remedy for the material ill. A far- sighted institution is that of Sunday classes founded by Signor Celli and his wife in the abandoned malarial districts. In these classes, the teachers from elementary schools give lessons every Sunday, spreading the principles of civic life, at the same time that they distribute quinine to the children. If we stop to think that wherever malaria is beaten back, it means a direct conquest of fertile lands and of robust men, and hence of wealth, we must realise at once the immense importance CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 161 of this sort of school and this sort of struggle, which may be com- pared to the ancient wars of conquest, when new territories and strong men constituted the prize of battles won, and the grandeur of the victorious nations. Pellagra. Pellagra is still another scourge diffused over many regions of Italy. It is well known that this disease, whose patho- logical etiology is still obscure, has some connection with a diet of mouldy grain. Pellagra runs a slow course, beginning almost unnoticed in the first year, with a simple cutaneous eruption, which the peasants sometimes attribute to the sun. The second year disturbances of the stomach and intestines begin, aggravated by a diet of spoiled corn; but it is usually not until the third year that pellagra reveals itself through its symptoms of great nervous derangements, with depression of muscular, psychic and sexual powers, together with melancholia, amounting to a true and special form of psychosis (insanity) leading to homicide, even of those nearest and dearest (mothers murdering their children) and to suicide. This established cycle of the disease is not invariable. Instead of representing successive stages, these symptoms may often be regarded merely as representing the prevailing phenomena in various forms of pellagra; in any case, it constitutes a malady that runs a slow course during which the same patient is liable to many relapses. While the malady is running its course, the patients may continue their usual physiological and social life, and even reproduce them- selves. So that it is not an infrequent case when we find mothers, suffering from pellagra, nursing an offspring generated in sickness and condemned to manifold forms of arrested development, both physical and mental. Against a disease so terrible that it strikes the individual and the species, it is now a matter of common knowledge that there is an exceedingly simple remedy: it consists in a strongly nitrog- enous diet (i. e. meat) and that, too, only temporarily. In fact, in the districts where the pellagra rages, various charitable organ- isations have been established, among others the economic kitchens for mothers, which by distributing big rations of meat effect a cure, within a few months, not only of the sick mothers but of their children as well. The real battle against pellagra must be won through agrarian reforms: but in the meantime the local authorities could in no 162 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY small degree aid the unhappy population with their counsel, by enlightening the peasants regarding the risks they run, as well as by informing them of the various forms of organised aid actually established in the neighbourhood and often unknown to the public or feared by them, because of the ignorance and prejudice with which they are profoundly imbued! Pauperism, Denutrition, Hypertrophy. We may define all the causes hitherto considered that are deleterious to growth, as tox- ical dystrophies, since not only alcohol, but the several diseases above discussed syphilis, tuberculosis, malaria, pellagra produce forms of chronic intoxication. But besides all these various forms of dystrophies, we may also cite cases of infantilism due purely to defective nutrition, and family poverty. Physiological misery may produce an arrest of growth in children. But just as denutrition associated with pauperism (social misery, economic poverty, lack of nourishment) may cause an organism in course of development to arrest its processes of evolu- tion through lack of material, the same result is equally apt to be produced by any one of a great variety of causes liable to produce organic denutrition, physiological poverty. For example, too frequent pregnancies of the child's mother, which have resulted in impoverishing the maternal organism, causing deficiency of milk, etc. Infant Illnesses. In the same way, organic impoverishment is caused by certain maladies of the digestive system which impede the normal assimilation of nutritive matter: dysentery, for in- stance; and the effects may be still more disastrous if symptoms of this kind are accompanied by feverish conditions, as in typhus. There are cases, however, in which the arrest of development is not to be attributed to some wasting disease, or to the denutrition resulting from it; but rather to some acute illness occurring in early childhood (pneumonia, etc.), after which the child ceased to pro- gress in accordance with his former obviously normal development. Anangioplastic Infantilism. Another form of infantilism is associated with a malformation of the heart and blood-vessels, that is to say, the heart and aorta together with the entire circu- latory system are of small dimensions; the calibre of the arteries is less than normal. In such a case the restriction of the entire vascular system and the scantiness of circulation of the blood constitute an impediment to the normal growth of the organism. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 163 Although in such cases the explanation of the cause of the phenom- enon is purely mechanical, nevertheless such abnormality of the heart and veins is to be classed as a teratological (monstrous) malformation, determined by original anomalies of the ductless glands, similar to what is found in cases of cephalic and cerebral monstrosities. In this form of infantilism the patient shows not only the usual fundamental characteristics already noted, but also symptoms of anemia as obstinate to all methods of treatment as chlorosis is; in addition to which they often show congenital malformations of the heart, in every way similar in their effects to valvular affections such as may result from pathological causes (chief of which are mitral and aortic stenosis, which consist of a stricture of the valves connected with the left ventricle of the heart). Accordingly, children who show forms of mitral infantilism are inferior to their actual age not only in their whole psychosomatic appearance, but they are noticeably weak, pale and suffering from shortness of breath and disturbances of the circulation. In such cases, neither pedagogy nor hygiene can counteract the arrest of development; but it is well that the attention of teachers should be called to such cases, in order that cruel errors may be prevented, which would unconsciously do additional harm to individuals al- ready burdened by nature with physiological wretchedness. In conclusion: The normal growth of the organism is asso- ciated with the functional action of certain glands known as glands "of internal secretion, " such as the thymus and thyroid, first of all, as well as the suprarenal capsules and the cerebral hypophysis. This group of formative glands presides not only over the entire growth of the body, but also over the intimate modeling of its structure; so that a lesion or deficiency in any of them results not only in nanism and an arrest of mental development, but in various forms of general dystrophy. That the organism is associated in the course of its trans- formations with the functional action of specific glands is shown by the development of puberty, which consists in a series of trans- formations of the entire organism, but is associated with the es- tablishment of functional activity of glands that were hitherto immature: the genital glands (ovaries, testicles). These glands also are functionally in close sympathy with the entire group of formative glands: so much so that, if the glands of in- 164 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY ternal secretion are injured, the genital glands usually fail to attain normal development (infantilism). Now, the transfor- mations which take place in the organism at the period of puberty might be produced at other periods if the functional action of the generative glands should show itself at a different epoch. That is, these transformations are not associated with the age of the organism, but with the development of specific glands. There are cases of the genital glands maturing at abnormal ages; or of local maladies that have hastened the appearance of the phenomena of puberty in children of tender years. A notable case is that de- scribed by Dr. Sacchi,* of a nine-year old boy, who had grown normally up to the age of five and a half, both in his physiological organism and in his psychic personality. At the age of five and a half, the child's father noticed a physical and moral alteration; the child's voice grew deeper, his character more serious, and the skeletal and muscular systems grew rapidly, while on certain portions of the body, as for example on the face, a fine down appeared. At the age of seven the child had attained a stature that was gigantic for his age; he was very diligent and studious and did not care to play with his comrades. At nine, he had a stature of 1.45 metres (the normal stature being 1.22), a weight of 44 kilograms (normal = 24); his muscles were highly developed, his powers of traction and compression being equal to those of a man; his chin was covered with a thick beard five centi- metres long. When he was examined by a physician, the latter discovered a tumor in the left testicle. After an operation, the child lost his beard and regained his childish voice; his character became more timid and sensitive; he began once more to enjoy his comrades and take part in boyish games. His muscular force underwent a notable diminution. Rickets. It is important not to confound any of the various forms of infantilism with rickets. Rickets is a well-defined malady whose special point of attack is the osseous system in course of formation; but it leaves the nervous system and the genital system unimpaired. The sufferer from rickets may be a person of in- telligence, capable of attaining the highest distinctions in art or in politics; he is normal in his genital powers, so that he is capable of normal reproduction, without, in many cases, transmitting any taint of rickets to his descendants. * Cited by Marro. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 165 Nevertheless this disease, like all constitutional maladies, occurs only in individuals who are weakly. Among the characteristics of rickets, the one which assumes first importance is inferiority of stature in comparison with the normal man. In this connection I quote the following figures from Bonnifay:* Age Stature in centimetres Rachitic children Normal children 11 months 66.5 70.7 75.8 76.8 91-93 105.0 110.6 118.4 121.6 69.4 74.8 83.0 91.9 101.25 106.8 115.3 119.0 124.4 2 years . 23 years 34 years 56 years 67 years 78 years 8-9 years 9-10 years But together with diminution of stature there exist in rickets various deformities of the skeleton, especially in the bones of the cranium, in the vertebral column and in the frame of the thorax; although even the pelvis and the limbs have been known to show the characteristic deformities. An objective knowledge of the first symptoms of rickets ought to be regarded as indispensable on the part of mistresses in chil- dren's asylums, and in any case to form an important chapter in pedagogic anthropology. For it is well known that in the early stages of rickets the child may be so guided in its growth as to save it from deformities of the skeleton, even though a definite limita- tion of the stature may not be prevented. That is to say, that through the intervention of hygiene and pedagogy the rachitic child may be saved from becoming a cripple or a hunchback, and will simply remain an individual of low stature; with certain signs and proportions of the skeleton indicative of the attack through which he has passed. Even in very severe cases it is at least possible to minimize the deformity of the thorax and the curvature of the vertebral column. * Cited by Figueira, Semejotica Infantile, p. 121. 166 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY The precursory signs of rickets in a child are: a characteristic muscular weakness, frequently accompanied by excessive develop- ment of adipose tissue, giving an illusory impression of abundant nutrition; delay in the development of the teeth and in locomo- tion, which from the very beginning may be accompanied by curva- ture of the long bones of the legs. The bregmatic fontanelle of the cranium closes later than at the normal period, and is larger than in normal cases, just as the entire cerebral cranium is abnormally developed in volume, while the facial portion remains small, especially in regard to the jaw bones. One of the most salient characteristics, however, is the peculiar enlargement of the articular heads of the long bones, easily recog- nizable in the size of the wrists: the enlargement is also found in the extremities of the ribs, which at their points of union on each side of the sternum form a succession of little lumps, like the beads of a rosary. In conjunction with these characteristics, it is to be noted, at all ages, as appears from the figures given by Bonnifay, that there is a notable diminution of stature. The treatment of rickets is medical and pedagogical combined. Children of this type should be removed from the public school, where the school routine might have a fatally aggravating effect upon the pathological condition of such children. In fact, gym- nastics based upon marching and exercising in an erect position, together with a prolonged sitting posture, are likely to produce weaknesses of the skeleton and deformities, even where there are no symptoms of rickets! The establishment of infant asylums for rachitic children is one of the most enlightened movements of the modern school. We Italians are certainly not the last to found such institutions, and Padua possesses one of the oldest and most perfect asylums of this sort of which Europe can boast. Asylums for rachitic chil- dren ought to have a special school equipment, so far as concerns the benches and the apparatus for medical and orthopedic gymnastics; furthermore they should be provided with a pharmaceutical stock of remedies suited to building up the osseous system and the organ- ism in general; and a school refectory should be provided, adapted to the condition of the children. The methods of instruction should rigorously avoid any form of fatigue, and instead provide the child with psychic stimuli designed to overcome a sluggishness due to the mental prostration to which he is for the most part CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 167 subject. As regards their situation, these asylums for rachitic children may be advantageously located upon the sea-coast. The Stature of Abnormals. The name of abnormals is applied to the entire series of individuals who are not normal: hence the categories already considered (infantilism, gigantism, rachitis) are included by implication. The group of abnormals, however, in- cludes besides a long series of other classes, neuropathies, epileptics, and degenerates. Under the head of abnormals may also be included those who are abnormal in character, such as criminals, etc. It is not irra- tional to group together the different types of abnormals, for the purpose of anthropological research, in contrast with those who are normal. In America, for instance, such studies are conducted on a large scale, precisely for the purpose of showing the deviation of abnormal dimensions of the body from normal dimensions, not only in the definitive development of the body, but also during growth. The abnormals depart from the mean measurements, now rising above and again falling below, as though they were intermittently impelled by the biological impulse of their organ- ism, which at one time manifests a hypergenesis and at another a hypogenesis. A clear illustration of these facts is afforded by MacDonald's diagram (see page 168): the solid line which rises regularly represents the growth in stature of normal individuals; the dotted line which forms a zig-zag, now rising rapidly above the normal line and then falling very much below it, represents the growth in stature of the abnormals. Naturally such a chart must be interpreted by comparison with the standards of mean measurements gathered at successive ages from a large number of different children. It shows that normal children are nearly uniform among themselves, and in relation to the years of their growth: while abnormal children differ greatly one from another and do not accord with the mean stature of the age they represent. Regarding the stature of criminals there can be nothing special to say : criminals do not represent an anthropological entity. They belong to a large extent, whenever the criminal act has a psycho- physiological basis, to various categories of abnormals. From the victim of rickets to the infantile, to the submicrocephalic, to the ultra-macroscele or ultra-brachyscele, all abnormal organisms may contribute to the number of those predisposed to the social phenom- 168 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Xac- Donald enon of criminality. And it is for this reason that we may say in general that the stature of abnormals is sometimes above and sometimes below the normal, but with a prevailing tendency to fall below. Moral and Pedagogic Considerations. The objection may be raised that a medico-pedagogic system of treatment, designed to prevent a threatened arrest of development or to minimise its progressive symptoms, demands on the part of society an excessive effort, out of proportion to the end in view. To cure or ameliorate the condition of the weak may even be regarded as a principle of social ethics that is contrary to nature, whose laws lead inexorably to the selection of the strong and to the elimination of all those who are unfitted for the struggle for life. Sparta has furnished us with a practical example that is very far from the principles which scientific pedagogy is to-day seek- ing to formulate as a new neces- sity of social progress. But we are too far removed from the triumphant civilisation of Greece, to recur to the author- ity of her example: the principle sanctioned to-day by modern civilisation, that of " respect for human life," forbids the violent elimination of the weak: Mount Taygetus is no longer a possible fate for innocent babes in a social environment the civic spirit of which has abolished the death penalty for criminals. Consequently, since the weak have a right to live, as many of them as naturally survive are destined to be- come a burden, as parasites, upon the social body of normal citizens; and they furnish a living picture of physiological wretch- edness, a spectacle of admonitory misery, inasmuch as it repre- sents an effect of social causes constituting the collective errors of human ethics. Ignorance of the hygiene of generation, maladies Stature vf normal persons Staturt of abnormal persons FIG. 35. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 169 due to the vices and the ignorance of men, such as syphilis, other maladies such as tuberculosis, malaria and pellagra, representing so many scourges raging unchecked among the people, are the actual causes that are undermining the social structure, and mani- festing themselves visibly through their pernicious fruit : the birth of weaklings. To forget the innocent results of such causes, as we forget the causes themselves, would be to run the risk of plung- ing precipitously into an abyss of perdition. It is precisely these disastrous effects upon posterity that ought to warn us and shed light upon the errors through which we are passing lightly and unconsciously. Accordingly, to gather in all the weaklings is equivalent to erecting a barrier against the social causes which are enfeebling posterity: since it is impossible to conceive that if the existence of such a danger were once demonstrated, society would rest until every effort had been made to guard against the possibility of its recurrence. In addition to such motives for human prophylaxis, a more immediate interest should lead us to the pedagogic protection of weak children. The establishment of special schools for defective children, sanatarium-schools for tuberculous children, rural schools for those afflicted with malaria and pellagra, infant asylums for rachitic children, is a work of many-sided utility. They constitute a fundamental and radical purification of the schools for normal children : in fact, so long as intellectual and moral defectives and children suffering from infantilism and rachitis intermingle with healthy pupils, we cannot say that there really exist any schools for normal children, in which pedagogy may be allowed a free progress in the art of developing the best forces in the human race. Still another useful side to the question is that of putting a stop to the physiological ruin of individual weaklings. Very small would be the cost of schools for defective children, asylums for the rachitic, tonics, quinine, the iodide treatment, school refectories for little children afflicted with hereditary taints and organic disease: very small indeed, in comparison to the disastrous losses that society must one day suffer at the hands of these future criminals and parasites gathered into prisons, insane asylums and hospitals, in comparison to the harm that may be done by one single victim of tuberculosis by spreading the homicidal bacilli around him. It is a principal of humanity as well as of economy to utilise all human 170 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY forces, even when they are represented by beings who are appar- ently negligible. To every man, no matter how physiologically wretched, society should stretch a helping hand, to raise him. In North America the following principle has the sanction of social custom: that the task of improving physiological condi- tions and at the same time of instilling hope and developing inferior mentalities to the highest possible limit constitutes an inevitable human duty. Accordingly it remains for the science of pedagogy to accom- plish the high task of human redemption, which must take its start from those miracles that the twentieth century has already initiated in almost every civilised country: straightening the crippled, giving health to the sick, awakening the intelligence in the weak-minded much as hearing is restored to the deaf and speech to the mutes such is the work which modern progress demands of the teacher. Because such straightening of mind and body naturally lies within the province of those who have the opportunity to give succor to the human being still in the course of development; while after a defect has reached its complete development in an individual, no manner of help can ever modify the harm that has resulted from lack of intelligent treatment. The prevention of the irremediable constitutes a large part of the work which is incumbent upon us as educators. SUMMARY OF STATURE We have been considering stature as the linear index of the whole complex development of the body, taking it in relation to two other factors, the one internal or biological, and the other external or social. These two factors, indeed, unite in forming the character of the individual in his final develop- ment; and in each of them education may exert its influence, both in connection with the hygiene of generation and through reforms instituted in the school. In the following table are summed up the different points of view from which we have studied stature in its biological character- istics and in its variations: CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 171 Ethnic varieties and limits of oscillation Biological varieties Variations due to adaptation Pathological variations Mechanical Physical Psychic Infantilism Stature in different races; extreme limits. Stature of the Italian people; and its geographical distribution. Limits of stature: medium, tall, low. Difference of stature in the sexes. Stature at different ages (growth). Transitory or physiological. Permanent, often accompanied by deformities. (Causes: the atti- tudes required by the work.) Physiological { Nutrition. Heat. Light. Electricity. Psychic stimuli. Myxedematous. from alcohol, from syphilis. Dystrophic j from tuberculosis, from malaria, from pellagra. Denutrition. Rachitis Hypotrophic { . Anangioplastic SUMMARY OF THE SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES ILLUSTRATED IN THE COURSE OF THE EXPOSITION OF OUR SUBJECT When an anthropological datum is of such fundamental im- portance as the stature, its limits of oscillation must be established, and its terminology must be founded upon such limits expressed in figures that have been measured and established by scientists (medium, tall, low). The stature is the most important datum in pedagogic anthro- pology, because it represents the linear index of the development of the body, and for us educators is also the index of the child's normal growth. Bio-pathological Laws. In cases of total arrest of development of the personality (infantilism) the first characteristic symptom usually consists in a diminution of stature in relation to age; the morphological evolution, as well as the psychic, fails to progress in proportion to the age of the subject; but it corresponds to the mean bodily proportions belonging to the age which would be normal for the actual stature of the subject. 172 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY WEIGHT The weight is a measure which should be taken in conjunction with the stature; because, while the stature is a linear index of the development of the body, the weight represents a total measure of its mass; and the two taken together give the most complete expression of the bio-physiological development of the organism. Furthermore the weight permits us to follow the oscillations of development; it provides educators with an index, a level of ex- cellence, or the reverse, of their methods as educators, and of the hygienic conditions of the school or of the pedagogic methods in use. The fact is, that if a child is ill, or languid, etc., his stature re- mains unchanged; it may grow more slowly, or be arrested in growth; but it can never diminish. The weight, on the contrary, can be lost and regained in a short time, in response to the most varied conditions of fatigue, of malnutrition, of illness, of mental anxiety. We might even call it the experimental datum of the excellence of the child's development. Another advantage which the measure of weight has over that of stature is that- it may serve as an exponent of health from the very hour of the child's birth; while stature does not exist in the new- born child, and begins to be formed (according to the definition given) only after the first year of its life, that is, when the child has acquired an erect position and the ability to walk steadily. Variations. Weight is one of the measures that have been most thoroughly studied, because it is not a fruit of the recently founded science of pedagogic anthropology; but it enters into the practice of pediatricians (specialists in children's diseases) and of obstetricians (specialists in child-birth), while even the general practitioner can offer precious contributions from his experience. According to Winckel, and practically all pediatricians agree with him, "the weight of a child, if taken regularly, is the best thermometer of its health; it easily expresses in terms of figures what the nursing child cannot express in words."* The new-born child weighs from three to four kilograms; but oscillations in weight from 2,500 to 5,000 grams are considered normal. Some obstetricians have noted weights in new-born chil- 1 Cited by FIGUEIRA. (Rio Janeiro) in his volume, Elementi di Semejotica infantile, 1906. From this volume, which contains the result of the most modern investigations in pediatry, I have taken a number of data regarding the weight of children. dren that are enormous, true gigantism, which, however, while pos- sible, are altogether exceptional; nine and even eleven kilograms. The oscillations in weight of the child at birth, within normal limits, may have been determined by general biological factors, as for example the sex (the female child weighing less than the male), and the race (especially in regard to the stature of the parents) : but the factors which influence the weight of the new-born child in a decisive manner are those regarding the hygiene of generation. 1. "The children which have the greater weight are those born of mothers between the ages of twenty-five and thirty." (Mathews Duncan.) Let us recall what we have said regarding stature; at the end of the twenty-fifth year, that is, at the end of the period of growth, man is admirably ripe for the function of reproduction ; and we ought further to recall the views cited regarding the mortal- ity of children conceived at this age which is so favourable to parenthood; and finally the note in regard to celebrated men, almost always begotten at this age. 2. " First-born children have in general a weight inferior to that of those born later (1,729 first-born children gave an average of 3,254 grams: while 1,727 born of the second or subsequent conceptions gave an average of 3,412 gr." (Ingerslevs). Let us remember that celebrated men are scarcely ever the fiirst-born. 3. "Very short intervals between successive pregnancies interfere with this progression in weight; long intervals on the contrary do not interfere with it" (Wernicke). In other words, too frequent pregnancy is unfavourable to the result of the conception. 4. "Mothers who, at the birth of their first child weigh less than fifty-five kilograms and are under twenty years of age, have children of inferior weight, who are less predisposed to normal growth" (Schafer). Let us recall what we have said regarding the form and the scanty weight in the case of macrosceles; and also in regard to the age of procreation in its relation to stature. 5. "Women who toil at wearisome work up to the final hour give birth to children inferior in weight to those born of mothers who have given themselves up to rest and quiet for some time before the expected birth" (Pinard). All these considerations which refer to normal individuals, represent a series of hygienic laws regarding maternity, which may 12 174 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY be summed up as follows: excellence in procreation belongs to those mothers who have already attained the age at which the individual organism has completed its development, and before it has entered upon its involutive period; the mother must herself have a normal weight; the pregnancies must be separated by long intervals; and during the last weeks of pregnancy it is necessary that the mother should have the opportunity of complete rest. The increase in weight of the new-born child during the first days of its life, may constitute a valuable prognostic of the child's life. That is to say, through its successive gains it reveals the vitality, the state of health of this new human being. Here also the pediatrists can furnish us with valuable experi- mental data, which serve to formulate the "laws of growth." These are: 1. From the moment of a child's birth, throughout the first two days, it suffers a loss in weight of about 200 grams, due to various causes, such as the emission of substances accumulated in the intestines during the intrauterine life (meconium), and the difficulties of adaptation to a new environment and to nutrition. But by the end of the first week a normal child should have regained its original weight; so that after the seventh day the normal child weighs the same as at the moment of birth. On the contrary, children born prematurely, or those having at the time of birth a weight below the average, or those that are affected with latent syphilis, or are weak from any other cause whatever, regain their original weight only by the end of the second week. Accordingly, in one or two weeks the family may form a prog- nosis regarding future life of the new-born child : a matter of funda- mental and evident importance. Furthermore, an antecedent detail of this sort may be valuable in the progressive history of subjects who, having attained the age for attendance at school, come to be passed upon by the teachers. To this end, in the more progressive countries, the carnet maternel, or mother's note-book, has begun to come into fashion, for the use of mothers belonging to the upper social classes (as, for instance, in England) : it consists of a book of suitable design, in the form of an album, and more or less de luxe in quality, in which the most minute notes are to be registered regarding the lives of the children from the moment of their birth onward. Various CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 175 authors, especially in France, now give models for the maternal registration of the child's physiological progress; true biographic volumes that would form a precious supplement to the biographic charts of the schools : and the efforts of the family would round out and complete those of the school for the protection of the lives of the new generations. Such assistance, however, is only an ideal, because nothing short of a great and far distant social progress could place all mothers (the working women, and the illiterate of Italy) in a position to compile their carnet maternel. Auvard advocates, for registering the weight of the child during the first days of its life, a table in which the successive days from the first to the forty-fifth are marked along a horizontal line, while a vertical column gives a series of weights, with 25-gram intervals, covering a range of 700 grams, the multiples of a hundred being left blank, to be determined by the actual weight of the child and filled in by the mother or whoever takes her place. In such a table, the graphic sign indicating the changes in weight ought to fall rapidly and rise again to the point of departure by the seventh day, if the child is robust. Another law of growth which may serve as a prognostic docu- ment in the child's physiological history is the following: 2. "Children nourished at their mother's breast double their weight at the fifth month and triple it at the twelfth." In other words, before the middle of its first year a healthy child, normally nourished, will have doubled its weight. On the contrary, "Artificial feeding retards this doubling of weight in children, which is attained only by the end of the first year; so that the weight is not tripled until some time in the course of the second year." And this gives us pretty safe principles on which to judge of the FIG. 36. 176 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY personality in the course of formation, at an epoch when stature does not yet exist. Undoubtedly a great moral and social progress would be accom- plished through a wide dissemination of very simple and economical carnets maternels; which should contain not only tables designed to facilitate the keeping of the required records, but also a state- ment of the laws of infant hygiene; or at least, simple and clear explanations of the significance of such phenomena, in relation to the life and health of the child; and also as to the causes which produce weakness in new-born children; or in other words, advice regarding the fundamental laws of the hygiene of generation. All that would be needed, in such case, would be a progressive exposition by means of the carnets, through lessons made as simple and as objective as possible, such as the weighing of small babies, to make the much desired ''education of the mothers" both possible and practical. But without this practical means; without this new sort of syllabarium on hand, to serve as a constant and luminous guide for married women, I do not believe that we shall have much success with the scattered lectures, obscure and soon forgotten, that at present are being multiplied in an attempt to reach the mothers of the lower classes. In conclusion, I note this last contribution that comes to us from the pediatrists: 3. "There are certain maladies that cause a daily and very notable loss in weight"; they are the intestinal maladies; there may be an average loss of from 180 to 200 grams a day; but even in cases of simple loss of appetite (dyspepsia) the weight may decrease by about 35 grams a day. But when a child suffering from acute febrile intestinal trouble (cholera infantum), loses a tenth of his weight in twenty-four hours, the illness is mortal. Now from the point of view of the educator this fact ought to be of serious interest, because we very frequently find among the recorded details of sickly children, or those suffering from arrested or retarded development, a mention of some intestinal malady incurred in early infancy. Still one further observation: Meunier has noted a fact of extreme importance: that while children are passing through the period of incubation of an infectious disease, and before they show any symptoms likely to cause a suspicion of the latent illness, they CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 177 sustain a daily loss in weight, from the fourth or fifth day after exposure to contagion until the appearance of decisive symptoms. In children between one and four years old, the daily loss is about fifty grams, and the total about 300; but such a loss may rise as high as 700 gr. The most numerous observations were taken in cases of measles. Now, there is no need of explaining the prophylactic impor- ance of observations such as these! A child who for a period of twenty days is in a state of incubation, is called upon to struggle, with all the forces of immunity that his organism possesses, against a cause of disease which has already invaded him ; yet no external sign betrays this state of physical conflict. Consequently, the child's organism continues to sustain the customary loss of energy due to the activities of its daily life, and by doing so lessens its- own powers of immunity. To prescribe rest, if nothing more, for a child suspected of passing through the period of incubation would in many cases mean the saving of a life, and at the same time would protect his companions from infection, which is com- municable even during the period of incubation. In our biographic records of defective children, which include the great majority of the weakly ones, we find in many cases a characteristic tendency to relapses in all kinds of infective diseases, from which they regularly recovered. Such organisms, feeble by predisposition, yet sufficiently strong to recover from a long series of illnesses, were exhausted in respect to those biological forces on which the normal growth of the individual depends, by this sort of internal struggle between the organic tissues and the invading microbes. No scheme of special hygiene for children of this type can help us, either in the home or at school; the daily variations in weight, on the contrary, might constitute a valuable guide for the protection of such feeble organisms ; at the first signs of a dimi- nution in weight, such children ought to be subjected to absolute repose. The use of the weighing-machine, both at home and in school cannot be too strongly recommended. In America the pedagogic custom has already been established of recording the weight of the pupils regularly once a month; but instead of once a month, the weight ought to be taken every day. The children might be taught to take their own weight by means of self-registering scales, and to compare it with that of the preceding day, thus learning 178 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY to keep watch of themselves: and this would constitute both a physical exercise and an exercise in practical living. The weight may be considered by itself, as a measurement of the body; and it may be considered in its relation to comparative mean measurements given by the authorities; just as it may also be considered, in the case of the individual, in its relation to the stature. a. The weight, taken by itself, is not a homogeneous or rigor- ously scientific measurement. In the same manner as the stature, it represents a sum of parts differing from one another, the differ- ence in this instance being that of specific gravity. As a matter of fact, it makes a great difference whether a large proportion of the weight of an individual is adipose tissue, or brain, or striped muscles. Each of the various organs has its own special specific gravity, as appears from the following table: Specific Gravity Tubular bones 1.93 Spongy bones . . 1.24 Cartilage 1.10 f from . . 1.10 Muscles < , to 1.30 Tendons 1.16 . f from. . 1.10 Epidermis < , 1 to 1.19 1 from 1.28 Hair< , to. . 1.34 Liver 1.07 Kidneys . . . 1.04 Brain 1.039 Cerebrum 1.036 Cerebellum 1.032 Adipose tissue 0.97 All these specific gravities are low; we weigh but little more than water; and for that reason it is easy for us to swim. But because of the difference in their composition, the total weight of the body gives us no idea of its constituent parts. Take for example the question of increase in weight. We can compare the mean figures given by the authorities with the ascer- tained weight of some particular child of a given age, so as to keep an empirical check upon the normality of its growth. But since we know that an individual in the course of evolution undergoes CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 179 profound alterations in the volumetric proportions of the different organs in respect to one another, we cannot obtain from the total weight any light upon this extremely important alteration in pro- portions. Thus, for example, Qu4telet gives the following figures of increase in weight for the two sexes: Weight Weight Age Males Females Age Males Females 9 3.20 2.91 15 46.41 41.30 1 10.0 9.30 16 53.39 44.44 2 12.0 11.40 17 57.40 49.08 3 13.21 12.45 18 61.26 53.10 4 15.07 14.18 19 63.32 5 16.70 15.50 20 65.0 54.46 6 18.04 16.74 7 20.16 18.45 25 68.29 55.08 8 22.26 19.82 30 68.90 55.14 9 24.09 22.44 40 68.81 56.65 10 26.12 24.24 50 67.45 58.45 11 27.85 26.25 60 65.50 56.73 12 31.0 30.54 70 63.03 53.72 13 35.32 34.65 80 61.22 51.52 14 40.50 38.10 INCREASE IN WEIGHT OF BODY ACCORDING TO SUTILS Age Weight of body in grams Increase At birth 3000 1 month 3750 750 2 months 4450 700 3 months 5100 650 4 months 5700- 600 5 months 6250 550 6 months 6750 500 7 months 7200 450 8 months -. 7600 400 9 months . 8000 400 10 months 8350 350 11 months 8700 350 12 months 9000 300 180 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY But these figures give no idea of the laws of growth that govern each separate organ, and that have been studied by Vierordt. Ac- cording to this authority, the total weight of the body increases nineteen-fold from birth to complete development. Certain duct- less glands, on the contrary, diminish in weight in the course of growth; the thymus, for instance, is reduced to half what it v/eighed originally. Furthermore, the various organs all differ in such varying de- grees, as compared with their respective weights at birth, that it facilitates comparison to reduce the weight of each separate organ to a scale of 1. On this basis we find that when complete develop- ment is attained, the eyes weigh 1.7; the brain 3.7; the medulla oblongata (spinal marrow) 7; the liver 13; the heart 15; the spleen 18; the intestines, stomach and lungs 20; the skeleton 26; the system of striped muscles 48. And these widely different augmentations are not uniform in their progress, nor is the complete development of each organ at- tained at the same epoch. As a matter of fact, the brain acquires one-half its final weight at the end of the first year of age; the organs of vegetative life attain half their weight at the beginning of the period preceding puberty (eleventh year). To offset the lack of indications regarding such increases in weight, we have a guide in the morphology of growth, which reveals how differently the various parts of the body develop. However empirical it may be from an analytical point of view, the datum of weight is a valuable index, and represents, taken by itself, a synthetic anthropological measure of prime importance. It obeys certain laws of growth which are themselves of great interest ; namely, there exist two periods of rapid growth : at birth and during puberty; while at various periods in childhood, between the ages of three and nine, there are alternations of greater and lesser growth analogous to those already noted in relation to stature. Accordingly, the weight confirms the fact that the organism does not proceed uniformly in its evolution, but passes through crises of development during which the forces of the organism are all de- voted to its rapid transformation; such periods represent epochs at which the organism is more predisposed to maladies, more sub- ject to mortality and less capable of performing work (compare the observations already made in relation to stature). CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 181 Index of Weight. Accordingly, weight and stature stand in a certain mutual relationship, but the correspondence between them is not perfect. In the study of individual physiological de- velopment it is necessary to know the anthropological relation be- tween weight and stature; in other words, the ponderal index. Without this, we cannot get a true idea of the weight of an in- dividual. For instance, if two persons have the same weight, 65 kilograms for example, and one of them has a stature of 1.85 metres and the other of 1.55 m. ; it is evident that the first of these two will be very thin, because his weight is insufficient, while the second, on the contrary, will have an excessive weight. A stout, robust child will weigh less, in an absolute sense, than an adult man who is extremely thin and emaciated; but relatively to the mass of his body, he will weigh more. Now this relative weight or index of weight, the ponderal index, gives us precisely this idea of relative embonpoint, of the more or less flourishing state of nutrition that any given individual is enjoying. Hence it is a relation of great physiological importance, especially when we are dealing with children. The calculation of the ponderal index ought to be analogous to that of other indexes; what has to be found is its relation to the stature reduced to a scale of 100. In this case, however, we find ourselves facing a mathematical difficulty, because volumetric meas- urements are not comparable to linear measurements. Conse- quently it is necessary to reduce the measurement of weight by extracting its cube root, and to establish the following equation: St: IOQ : X whence Pi = o The application of this formula necessitates a troublesomely complicated calculation, which it would be impracticable to work out in the case of a large number of subjects. But as it happens, tables of calculations in relation to the ponderal index already ex- ist, thanks to the labours of Livi* and it remains only to consult them, as one would a table of logarithms, by finding the figure cor- responding to the required stature, as indicated above in the hori- zontal line, and the weight as indicated in the vertical column. Some authors have thought that they were greatly simplifying *Lm: Antropometria. 182 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY B the relation between weight and stature by calculating the pro- portional weight of a single centimetre of stature and assuming that they had thus reduced the relation itself to a ratio based upon a single linear measurement (one centimetre), analogous to the ratio established by the reduction of the total stature to a scale of 100. But evidently such a calculation is based upon two fun- damental errors, namely : first, no comparison is ever possible be- tween a linear measure and a measure of volume; and secondly, the relation which we are trying to determine is that between synthetic measurements, i.e., measurements of the whole, and not of parts. In the aforesaid method of computing (which is accepted by such weighty authorities as Godin and Niceforo), the number ex- pressing the weight in grams is divided by the stature expressed in centimetres, and the quotient gives the average weight of one centimetre of stature ex- pressed in grams. This method, which sounds plausible, may easily be proved to be fallacious, by the following illustration, given by Livi in his treatise already cited (Fig. 37). The two rectangles A and B represent longitudinal sections of two cylin- ders, which are supposed to represent respectively (in A] the body of a child so fat that he is as broad as he is long (the rectangle A is very nearly square), and (in B} that of a man of tall stature and so ex- tremely thin that he very slightly surpasses the child in the dimensions of width and thickness (note the length and narrowness of rectangle B). Evidently the ponderal index of A is very high and that of B is very low. But if we calculate the proportional weight of one centimetre of stature, it will always be greater in the man than in the child, and consequently we obtain a relation contrary to that of the ponderal index. Let us make still another counterproof by means of figures; let us take an adult with a stature of 1.70 metres and a weight of 19 kilograms; and a three-year-old child 0.90 m. tall and weighing 55 kg. (the normal weight of a child of four). In the case of the adult one centimetre of stature will weigh - - grams = 382 grams; while one centimetre of the child's height will weigh -=166 yu FIG. 37. CERTAIN PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 183 grams. In other words, one average centimetre of the child's stat- ure weighs less than one centimetre of the adult, as it naturally should, while the ponderal index on the contrary is 23.6 in the case of the adult, and 27.4 in that of the child. The reciprocal relations between stature and weight vary from year to year. In babyhood, the child is so plump that the fat forms the familiar dimpled " chubbiness, " and Bichat's adipose "fat-pads" give the characteristic rotundity to the childish face ; while the adult is much more slender. A new-born syphilitic child which, with a normal length of 50 centimetres, weighed only two kg. and consequently would be extremely thin would have the same identical ponderal index as an adult who, with a stature of 1.65 m., weighed 100 kg. The evolution of the ponderal index forms a very essential part in the transformations of growth; and it shows interesting character- istics in relation to the different epochs in the life of the individual. In this connection, Livi gives the following figures, for males and for females; from which it appears that at some periods of life we are stouter, and at others more slender; and that men and women do not have the same proportional relation between mass and stature. Indices Indices Age in Males Females Age in Males Females years years 29.7 29.6 15 23.1 23.4 1 30.9 30.5 16 23.4 23.6 2 28.7 28.9 17 23.1 23.7 3 27.5 27.3 18 23.2 24.1 4 26.5 26.6 19 23.4 24.1 5 25.8 25.6 20 23.5 24.1 6 25.1 24.8 7 24.4 24.1 25 23.7 24.1 8 24.0 23.8 30 23.8 24.1 9 23.5 23.5 40 23.9 24.7 10 23.1 23.2 50 24.3 25.3 11 22.8 23.3 60 24.6 25.3 12 23.1 23.6 70 24.5 24.9 13 23.4 23.5 80 24.4 24.7 14 23.1 23.3 184 PEDAGOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY It may be said in general, so far as regards the age, that the following is the established law of individual evolution: during the first year the ponderal index increases, after which it diminishes up to the period immediately preceding puberty (eleventh year for males, tenth year for females), the period at which boys and girls are exceedingly slender. After this, throughout the entire period of puberty, the ponderal index seems to remain remarkably constant, oscillating around a fixed figure. At the close of this pe- riod (seventeenth year for males, fourteenth for females), the pon- deral index resumes its upward course (corresponding to the period in which the transverse dimensions of the skeleton increase, and in which the individual, as the phrase goes, fills out), and it con- tinues to rise well into mature life (the individual takes on flesh)} until in old age, the ponderal index begins to fall again (the soft tissues shrink, the cartilages ossify, the whole person is shrunken and wasted.) t 2 J 4 ) 6 ? 8 9 /0 // tf /J /4 /f /