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OF THE DIVISIONS OF THE HUMAN BODY. 57
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON ANATOMY.
There is a multitude of facts in anatomy, which I
have not thought necessary to the purpose
of this
work. The curious student will find them in many
treatises. I give what I deem most important for the
objects
I have in view.
The average stature of men at birth is 1-64 feet, (one
foot and 64 hundredths) ; at 2 years, 2-60 ; at 4, 3-04 ; at
6, 3-44; at 9, 4-00; at 15, 5-07; at 20, 5-49; at 40,
5-52; after which age it slightly diminishes, from the
curving of the spine and solidification of cartilages.
Women at birth are 1 foot 61 hundredths ; at 2 years,
2-56; at 4, 3-00; at 6, 3-38; at 9, 3-92; at 15, 4-92;
at 20,5-16; at 40, 5-18.
The average weight is, of men at birth, 7-06
pounds; at 15, 96-40; at 20, 132-46; at 40, 140-42.
That of women is, at birth, 6-42 ; at 15, 89-04 ; at 20,
115-30; at 40, 121-81.
Men and women at mature age weigh twenty times
as much as at birth, and their stature is three and a
quarter times greater.
A calcined human body weighs only 8 ounces ;
mere drying reduces it to one-tenth of its weight.
Thus nine-tenths of the whole body are water. .
The nerves of sensation arise from the posterior
column of the spinal cord, those of motion from the an
terior. The fibers from the brain cross each other in
the medulla oblongata, so that paralysis of the right side
of the body corresponds
with a diseased condition of
the left side of the brain. What is called a nerve, con
sists of a great number of fibers, coming
from different