CHAPTER IX.

THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT AND TRAINING ON THE PHYSIQUE.

T will probably appear to the reader as if it would be impos

IT.

sible for any marked change to take place in the human form during the short space of even the longest life-time. But, happily, the fact can be readily established by examination of probably the largest body in existence of accurate statistics on any one subject.

After the great civil war in America was over the government of the United States made a compilation of remarkable surgical and other matter, and collection of interesting and useful military material used in the war. Only one class, however, of that statistical information is that with which we have special concern. It must be remembered that, as the information was derived from investigations relating to a body of men numbering over a million, the idea is precluded of the error involved in generalizations from a few cases. The object of the introduction of the obtained information here, and some other which will follow, is to show that, if certain existing but not imposed conditions have produced determinate results on the body, then we have it in our power, by voluntarily imposing the same or similar conditions, to reproduce like results.

It was ascertained that, although the sailors enlisted in the war were, as a class, shorter than the soldiers as a class, their legs were longer than those of the soldiers by over inch. Their arms, on the other hand, being over an inch shorter than those of the soldiers, were disproportionately short as compared with the soldier standard, even after making due allowance for the difference in stature between the two classes. The sailors measured more around the neck and less around the waist and hips

than did the soldiers, and the sailors had higher insteps than the soldiers had. It was also discovered that men who had been born and bred in the Western States were taller than those born and bred in the Eastern States, and that residence in cities was prejudicial to height.

Some of our readers may be of sufficient experience to be able to make reflections for themselves on the basis of the points which have been noted. But, assuming that all have not that experience, it will be well here briefly to discuss some of them. The differences between the sailors and the soldiers could not have arisen from changed conditions during the war, for measurements are made upon enlistment. The facts are very striking, however, taken as they stand, showing that difference of occupation, with a slight infusion of heredity, can produce such differences. We say a slight infusion of heredity advisedly, because such is the shifting of occupation in modern times of son from father that there are rarely now, as formerly, occupations engag ing even two successive generations of a family. The son of a sailor or of a soldier may be anything else, and is more likely to follow some other occupation than that of his father. The soldiers of whom we are now speaking were, at the time when they enlisted, not soldiers at all. At that period of time they represented merely landsmen drawn from a wide extent of country, and, to a certain degree, from different nationalities. The comparison, as it stood, was therefore simply between sailors, who are necessarily professional, and landsmen, who at that period were not soldiers nor at any subsequent period professional ones, though many became veterans as fine as any in the world. Each class therefore had acquired, more especially during the youth of its component individuals, characteristics which represent, in a general way, the aggregate effect on the body of occupation on land

or sea.

It was observed by every one during the war that, excepting

where the Confederates were pitted against Western men, their infantry generally outspeeded the Union infantry in marching. Now, although one obvious reason of this was that they marched with less baggage, there is still a large margin to be accounted for by the assignment of some other cause. It seems to us that familiarity with the physique of the Southerner as compared with that of the Northerner explains the difference, the former being long-limbed and spare compared with the latter, and on that account being able to beat the soldiers of the East in marching; while he found his match, in that respect, in the soldiers of the West.

The difference between the Sioux and the Apaches in the character of their development has such relation to their physical surroundings and habits, that it makes one of the best possible. illustrations of difference of form produced by different conditions. The country of the Apaches is not adapted to riding: the country of the Sioux is. The Apaches have but few horses and are not known as riders, while the Sioux are among the finest riders in the world. The Apaches are long-legged, spare, and lithe, and indefatigable on their feet; while the Sioux are comparatively short-legged, are not addicted to pedestrian exercise, and ride like centaurs. An officer of the regular army once described to us a fight which his company, guarding a supply-train, had had on the plains with some Sioux seeking to capture it. The train, closing up to make as short as possible the line to be defended, passed slowly and steadily along, the soldiers taking shelter in squads within and without the wagons, while from various directions troops of savages came thundering down upon them, discharging their missiles, receiving the volleys in return, rescuing their wounded, and wheeling away only to renew their onslaught. On the wide sea of the plain, under the glittering sun, the slowly moving, stubbornly defended train, the masses of horsemen whirling around it amid the crack of rifles, pre

sented a ravishing spectacle of contrasted movement, in which circled the splendid horsemanship of a thousand mounted warriors.

Generation after generation these braves had ridden, so that, like the Arabs, horse and rider had come to be almost as one. On the other hand, the Apaches, generation after generation, have wandered afoot through the fastnesses of their region, sometimes on forced marches of almost incredible severity, in which women and children as well as men share. Hence, Sioux and Apaches have acquired physical attributes strictly in accordance with the physical conditions surrounding them. The Sioux, bigchested, robust, and comparatively short-legged; the Apaches, long-legged and wiry in form, illustrate the chief differences of those conditions.

A striking change in physique, accomplished within a brief period, always ensues in the average man after having been for some time subjected to military drill. If at the point of de. parture he happens to be a veritable rustic, he becomes a dif ferent being. The bumpkin is a slouching, shambling, roundshouldered wight. He is not, as are generally the city-bred, constrained by a certain degree of public requirement; nor is he, like them, rigidly subjected to a large amount of insensible imitation. Nevertheless, he has in him the making of a man, and generally of a physically better man than the city born and bred. What he needs to make him look like, as well as be, every inch a man is simply to be "set up " by drill and discipline. In countries where the relations are just between officers and men, he there, as the common soldier, often undergoes through drill a favorable change in physique and a higher tone through discipline. The results produced by these combined agencies is transforming. From a shuffling lout, who does not know how to use the limbs which nature has provided him with, a man issues forth whom his nearest of kin can scarcely recognize.

Where discipline and drill are not obtainable, some kind of manual and evolutionary movements are always possible, and for the latter dancing is far better than nothing. One need not be a specialist in anatomy and physiology to see that the great changes indicated are not produced without profound alterations. in the structure and functions of the body. The rounding shoulders are thrown back, the shoulder-blades disappear, and, the chest expanding, the lungs inhale deeper draughts of lifegiving air. The limbs, especially the legs, move with greater freedom within their natural bounds. The hands become more pliant, adroit, and serviceable. Beyond all that can be thus specified as acquired, is co-ordination of parts in prompt obedience to the directive mind and will. This makes the distinctive difference between the halting hesitancy of mind and body in the bumpkin, and the alertness of mind and of bodily action in the city-bred.

An officer of the regular army once told us that when he first went to West Point he was a strapping, awkward youth, so knock-kneed that, standing, he could not put his heels together by 2 or 3 inches. In the course of a year or two, however, he . said, his legs had become perfectly straight through the influence of foot and horseback exercise. We can, from personal observation, vouch for the accuracy of his observation that his legs had become straight, for their symmetry was so admirable as to be remarked. There once came under our direct observation, in a boy of from 12 to 14 years of age, such a change from being awkwardly high-shouldered, to his shoulders being rightly placed, that the change seemed marvelous; but it was only a phenomenon of development under favorable conditions.

Of course, similar influences to those which favorably affect the form in the male sex affect it also in like manner in the female sex. Not only are the acquirements of each, except those which are distinctively sexual, transmitted through