Pedagogical Anthropology by Maria Montessori (best novels of all time TXT) 📕

Fig. 157.—The shaded portion represents the eccentricity of the curve, due to the presence of cretins.

Whenever a binomial curve constructed from a large number of individuals is found to be eccentric; and shows, e.g., in the case of stature, a deviation toward the low statures, it reveals (see De Helguero's curves) the presence of a heterogeneous intermixture of subjects, for example, of children among adults, or, as in the case demonstrated by De Helguero, an intermixture of pathological individuals with normal persons (Fig. 157).

The binomial curve obtained by De Helguero from the inhabitants of Piedmont included, as a matter of fact, a great number of cretins; they formed within the great normal mass of men, a little mass of individuals having a stature notably inferior to the normal.

By correcting the eccentric curve on the left of the accompanying figure, and by tracing a dotted line equal and symmetrical to the right side, we obtain a normal binomial curve; well, this curve will actually be reproduced if we subtract all the cretins from the whole mass of individuals.

The section distinguished by parallel lines represents that portion of the curve which departs from the normal toward the low statures, and is due to the cretins; it may be transformed into a small dotted binomial curve at the base, which is constructed from the statures of the cretins alone.

Accordingly, the symmetrical binomial curve gives us a mean average value in relation to a specified measurement.

What has been said regarding stature serves as an example; but it may be repeated for all the anthropometric measurements, as Viola has proved by actual experiment.

The sitting stature, the thoracic perimeter, the dimensions of an entire limb or of each and every segment of it; every particular which it has seemed worth while to take into consideration, comports itself in the same manner; and this is also true of all the measurements of the head and face.

That is to say, if we make a seriation of measurements relating to the sitting stature of an indeterminate number of individuals, we find a numerical prevalence of those corresponding to the medial measurement marked upon the axis of the abscissæ; and the number of individuals will continue to decrease with perceptible symmetry on each side of the centre, i.e., toward the higher and lower statures. If we take into consideration the significance of the sitting stature, this binomial curve relates to individuals who possess a normal physiological mass (the bust; centre of density) and to individuals who fall below or exceed that mass. We have already, in speaking of the types of stature, taken the bust under consideration in relation to the limbs, in order to judge the more or less favourable reciprocal development; but here we obtain an absolute datum of normality, independent of proportional relations to the body as a whole; in other words, there exists a physiological mass for the human body which is normal in itself. The individuals whose sitting stature corresponds to the medial measure of the binomial curve, are precisely those who have the normal development of bust.

The same thing repeats itself in the case of the thoracic perimeter, or the weight, or the length of the leg, or the cranial circumference, etc.

Hence we have a means of obtaining the normal medial measurements by the seriation of a number of measurements actually obtained from living individuals the number of whom should be sufficiently large to enable us to construct a perceptibly symmetrical and regular binomial curve.

Such medial measurements, although they correspond to the true mean average (as we have already seen), are not for this reason unreal, like arithmetical means which represent a synthetic entirety that does not correspond to the single individuals actually existing; the medial measurements obtained by seriation are, on the contrary, measurements that really belong to living individuals; namely, to that group of individuals that possess this particular measurement. Therefore, it is not a combination, or fusion, or abstraction.

But individuals who have one medial measurement, do not necessarily have all the other medial measurements; that is to say, the individuals who find that they belong on the medial abscissæ in relation to stature, do not find themselves similarly placed in relation to the sitting stature, or the thoracic perimeter, or the weight, or the cranial circumference, etc. Indeed, it is impossible that all the bodily measurements of the same individual should be medial measurements: or, to express it better, there has not been found up to the present among living individuals, in the whole wide world, a man so constructed.

Such a man would represent anthropologically the medial man.

It is also very rare to find a man quite lacking in medial measurements: everyone has a few central measurements and certain others that are eccentric.

At the same time it must be admitted that there are men who have many, and even a large majority, of the central measurements; while the rest of their measurements are eccentric or paracentral.

One of the objections which used to be made was that if we should wish to unite all the medial measurements, they would not fit together, or rather, that a man could not be constructed from them; but that the result would be a monstrosity. Nevertheless, this assertion or objection has proved to be absolutely fantastic and contrary to the actual fact.

Professor Viola has observed that men who have a very large number of medial measurements are singularly handsome.

More than that: the medial man reconstructed from medial measurements really gathered from living persons, has the identical proportions of the famous statues of Greek art.

Here, for example, in Figs. 158 and 159, facing page (464), we have the medial man and the Apollo; even to the eye of the observer, they show a marked similarity in proportions. The medial man is very nearly the portrait of an exceedingly handsome young Roman, studied by Viola; this person possessed a great majority of the mean average measurements; but some of his measurements did not correspond to the normal averages, and accordingly Viola had them corrected by an artist under the guidance of anthropological biometry; and the figure thus corrected is represented in the drawing here given. Well, this drawing corresponds perfectly to the proportions of the Apollo.

Consequently, the mean average measurements do not pass unnoticed; it is not alone the anthropological instrument or mathematical reconstruction that reveals them; when presented to the eye of the intelligent man, they notify him that they exist, they arouse in him an æsthetic emotion, they give him the alluring impression of the beautiful.

When the mean average measurements are found accumulated in large numbers in the same person, they render that person the centre of a mysterious fascination, the admiration of all other men.

Now, this coincidence of the beautiful with the average is equivalent to a coincidence of the beautiful with normality. "This unforeseen demonstration," says Viola, "throws a vivid light upon the hitherto obscure problem of the æsthetic sense.... If a man evolves according to normal laws, his proportions arouse an exceptional æsthetic enjoyment."

Anyone having an eye trained to recognise the beautiful, is able through his æsthetic sensations, to pick out normality from the great crowd of biological errors, which is precisely what the scientist does with great weariness of measurements and calculations. In fact, the great artists recognise the beautiful parts of a number of beautiful individuals, and they unite them all together in a single work of art. The Greeks did this, they reconstructed the medial man, on a basis of actual observation, and by extracting all the normalities, all the measurements most prevalent in individuals, and forming from them a single ideal man. The Greek artists were observers; we might call them the positivists in art. Their art is supreme and immortal, because they simultaneously interpreted what is beautiful and what is true in life.

In short, medial measurements are true measurements, actually existing in individuals. No one can acquire a true æsthetic