MANKIND GETTING SMALLER.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17706, 7 March 1923, Page 5

MANKIND GETTING SMALLER.

A French statistician has been studying the average heights of men at different periods of tho world's history, and has reached some alarming conclusions. The recorded facts extend over nearly three centuries. .It is found that in 1610 the average- height of men in Europe was nearly sft tiin. In 1700 it was sft Gin. In 1620 it was sft oin and a fraction. At the present time it is sft 3Jin. It is easy to deduce from these figures arate of regular and gradual decline in human stature. By this calculation it is determined that the staturo of the first men attained the surprising average of lCft 9in. The race had already deteriorated in the days of Og, and Croliath was quite a degenerate offspring of the giantsComing down to later time, wo find' that at the beginning of our era tho average height of man was 9ft, and in the time of Charlemagne it was Bft Bin. But tho most astonishing result of this man-stifdy comes from the application of the same law of diminution. It is conclusively shown that in 4000 A.D. "the height of the average man will ba hut 15 inches, and in a few thousand years more the end of the world will come, for men will get so short that there will he nothing left of them-.