Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 281, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1912 — How to Grow Tall. [ARTICLE]

How to Grow Tall.

A man’s organs and those of bis bones which are not subjected to pressure grow continuously until he is forty years old; that is to say, the heart should become stronger, the capacity of the lungs increase, and the brain should develop steadily until the fourth decade of life. Also one should wear a larger hat at the age of forty than at thirty. A man ceases to grow tall, however, at the beginning of the third decade, because after that time the downward pressure exerted by the weight of the body while in the erect position compresses the vertebrae or small bones in the spine, the disks of cartilage between them, the pelvis, and the thigh bones, and the pressure overcomes the natural elasticity of the disks and the growth of these bones. However, a British scientist contends that were man a quadruped, and therefore freed from the downward pressure produced by his weight upon his spinal column, he would continue to grow in height for ten years longer than he does at present, since it has been found that bones not subjected to compression increase up to the fourth decade.