RT Journal
T1 NAtional expansion.
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1899
FD October 28
VO XXXIII
IS 18
SP 1108
OP 1108
DO 10.1001/jama.1899.02450700052013
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1899.02450700052013
AB It is said that the average American is increasing in girth, and that the typical Uncle Sam with his lank body in its swallow-tail and striped trousers is more than ever before a gross caricature of the national type. A New York paper claims that figures collected from clothing dealers show that while the average American of 1889 was easily fitted with a waistband of forty-six inches, which it was then thought would never be exceeded, in 1899 he requires one of forty-seven and a half inches. It goes on to make the calculation that, at this rate of increase, he will reach in 1909, a circumference of forty-nine or fifty inches, and that in A. D. 2899 the American girth will be sixteen feet. The above facts, not the deductions quoted, are credited to one of the scientific government bureaus, and it is stated that the increased consumption of