Family size,the physical environment,and socioeconomic effects across the stature distribution

A neglected area in historical stature studies is the relationship between stature and family size. Using robust statistics and a large 19th century data set, this study documents a positive relationship between stature and family size across the stature distribution. The relationship between material inequality and health is the subject of considerable debate, and there was a positive relationship between stature and wealth and an inverse relationship between stature and material inequality. After controlling for family size and wealth variables, the paper reports a positive relationship between the physical environment and stature.     

Body mass,wealth, and inequality in the 19th century: Joining the debate surrounding equality and health

We explore relationships among BMI variation, wealth, and inequality in the 19th century US. There was an inverse relationship between BMI and average state-level wealth and a small, inverse relationship with wealth inequality. After controlling for wealth and inequality, farmers had greater BMI values than workers in other occupations, and blacks had greater BMI values because of nutritional deprivation in utero.     

Non-parametric regression with BayesX: a flexible estimation of trends in human physical stature in 19th century America

The recently developed computer program BayesX provides a Bayesian approach to the estimation of non-parametric additive models. Such models can be useful in applications when the effect of metrical covariates (such as time) are to be estimated while controlling for other factors. In an application of this methodology, trends in the height of West Point cadets in the 19th century are estimated. The results indicate that the biological standard of living of the "middle class" increased relative to the rest of the American society during the Antebellum years.     

Physical stature of adult Tsimane’ Amerindians, Bolivian Amazon in the 20th century

We examine the association between exposure to the market and Western society on the height of adult Tsimane', a foraging-farming society in the Bolivian Amazon. As with other contemporary native peoples, we find little evidence of a significant secular change in height during 1920-1980. Female height bore a positive association with own schooling and fluency in spoken Spanish and with maternal modern human capital (schooling, writing ability, and fluency in spoken Spanish), but male heights bore no association with parental height or with modern human capital. The absence of a secular change likely reflects the persistence of traditional forms of social organization and production that protect health.     

Hypotheses and causes of body height progressions since mid 19th century--a scientific historical review. I: Discussion of causes since the end of the 19th century to mid 20th century, including references on body height development in the 19th century

This examination is trying to give a scientific historical survey of the hypothesis and the reasons for progression of height since the middle of the 19th century. These progressions of height are not based on a single reason, but were kept going by the addition of consecutive reasons. Physical relief is mainly responsible for the most recent phase of progression of height.     

The anthropometric history of Argentina, Brazil and Peru during the 19th and early 20th century

This anthropometric study focuses on the histories of three important Latin American countries - Brazil, Peru, and Argentina - during the 19th century, and tests hypotheses concerning their welfare trends. While non-farm Brazil and Lima, Peru, started at relatively low height levels, Brazil made substantial progress in nutritional levels from the 1860s to the 1880s. In contrast, Lima remained at low levels. Argentinean men were tall to begin with, but heights stagnated until 1910. The only exception were farmers and landowners, who benefited from the export boom.     

Iatrogenic molar borings in 18th and early 19th century Native American dentitions

Six iatrogenic dental borings were identified in four individuals of a Native American skeletal collection from an 18th and early 19th century Middle Columbia River burial site. The borings, all in maxillary first molars with severe dental attrition and secondary dentin, demonstrate striated walls and associated periapical alveolar lesions. An ethnographic review of the subsistence pattern during the burial period indicates a diet that is consistent in dental attrition with other riverine fisher-hunter-gathers. Histological changes of dental pulp tissue during the process of attrition may result in dental necrosis. Access into the pulp chamber is a technique used to drain necrotic fluid. A common Euro-American therapeutic dental practice of the 18th and 19th centuries for diseases of the pulp was dental extraction. Multiple dental borings indicate that the practice of molar drilling into the pulp chamber was an effective and independent technique used by the Wishram and Wasco people.     

Height, income, and nutrition in the Netherlands: the second half of the 19th century.

This paper explores the relationship between height and its determinants, paying explicit attention to the dynamic nature of the velocity of the growth profile. The relationship between height and some measures of income and nutrition is characterized by a changing lag pattern in 19th century the Netherlands.     

Age-dependent cortical bone loss in women from 18th and early 19th century London

Age-dependent cortical bone loss was investigated in an earlier British population. The study sample comprised female skeletons from the 18th/19th century crypt at Christ Church, Spitalfields, London. Bone loss was monitored using metacarpal radiogrammetry. Age at death was known exactly from coffin plates. Results indicated that peak cortical thickness was less than in modern subjects. Continuing periosteal apposition was evident throughout adulthood, and the rate of increase in metacarpal diameter resembled that in modern subjects. Bone loss from the endosteal surface was evident from the fifth decade onwards, and this outstripped the rate of subperiosteal gain so that there was a net loss of cortical bone with age. Cortical bone loss occurred at a similar rate to that in modern subjects. In contrast to modern populations, there was no evidence that loss of cortical bone was associated with increased propensity to fracture. The present results, together with those previously published for a British medieval skeletal assemblage, suggest that patterns of cortical bone loss in women have remained unchanged over at least the last millennium in Britain. Given the great changes in lifestyle which have occurred during this period, this suggests that lifestyle factors may be rather less important than is sometimes asserted in influencing the severity of osteoporosis, at least as far as loss of cortical bone is concerned.     

Stature, economy and migration during the 19th century: Comparative analysis of Haute-Vienne and Hautes-Alpes, France

Data sources are achieved records of men workers' passbooks and registry for work permits in two rural parts of Southern France. We obtained three samples: masons from Rancon, a Limousin village, local sedentary alpine workers and Italian immigrants. The results obtained provide two types of information. The first concerns adult height, which is thought to be a result of both a growth pattern and environmental factors. The second concerns growth rates at the end of adolescence. The results seem to contradict the statements made above concerning the relationships between misery, elevation and height. While the alpine inhabitants are shorter, the Limousin inhabitants are taller in sprite they live in a miserable environment. It appears that taller individuals select themselves into migration. Thus, this model would contradict the idea of a regional genetic base.     

Phenological dynamics of arrivals and departures on migratory birds in Cracov,Poland, and the environments in the 19th and 20th century

This study presents the results of phenological observations on arrival and departure terms of some migratory birds on the background of the thermal conditions course of Cracov and its vicinity during the 19th and 20th century. On the base of observations carried out in the years 1944–1978 it was found that some migratory birds had a tendency to change their arrival and departure terms. At the end of this period they were noticed to arrive earlier and to depart later than at the beginning. These differences were more marked when compared with data from the 19th century. In the author's opinion these changes observed in the investigated area during the last decades result from a tendency of a warming up of climate in the Northern Hemisphere.Presented at the Eighth International Congress of Biometeorology, 9–14 September 1979, Shefayim, Israel.