OUR SMALLER FOREFATHERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 3 May 1932, Page 5

OUR SMALLER FOREFATHERS

. —<3>— ; At Hythe (Kent) Parish Church there * are about 12C0 human skulls and 8000 - thigh bones in an ambulatory. Pro- 7 fessor F. G. Parsons, lecturer in - Anatomy at St. Thomas’s Hospital, A London, has examined them. Some ■ skulls, lie says, bear traces of wounds A which have healed, and some of the ' thigh bones have been broken and well set. The discoveries indicate that life in ~ the Middle Ages was not so dangerous as it has been painted. Tlie size of the hones confirms the belief generally held A. that our forefathers were a smaller race than ourselves. It has been calculated • from the Hythe remains that the aver- A age height of the men was sft- sin, and • of the women sft lin—roughly three T inches less than tlie modern average. « The teeth reveal few signs of decay, but many are almost flat, which indicates ~ tliat- the inhabitants of 15th century ..) llythe were fond of knawing hones and ;* eating tough meat. Rheumatism, it «£ appears, was prevalent. Over 50 per cent, of the skulls examined were of people who had died between their twentieth and fortieth birthdays.