Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [188]
The child cried if pressure was applied to the tumor and there was every evidence that the tumor was a testicle. Hutcheson, quoted by Russell, has given a curious case in an English seaman who, as was the custom at that time, was impressed into service by H.M.S. Druid in 1807 from a trading ship off the coast of Africa. The man said he had been examined by dozens of ship-surgeons, but was invariably rejected on account of rupture in both groins. The scrotum was found to be an empty bag, and close examination showed that the testicles occupied the seats of the supposed rupture. As soon as the discovery was made the man became unnerved and agitated, and on re-examining the parts the testicles were found in the scrotum. When he found that there was no chance for escape he acknowledged that he was an impostor and gave an exhibition in which, with incredible facility, he pulled both testes up from the bottom of the scrotum to the external abdominal ring. At the word of command he could pull up one testicle, then another, and let them drop simultaneously; he performed other like feats so rapidly that the movements could not be distinguished.
In this connection Russell speaks of a man whose testicle was elevated every time the east wind blew, which caused him a sense of languor and relaxation; the same author describes a man whose testicles ascended into the inguinal canal every time he was in the company of women.
Inversion of the testicle is of several varieties and quite rare, it has been recognized by Sir Astley Cooper, Boyer, Maisonneuve, Royet, and other writers.
The anomalies of the vas deferens and seminal vesicles are of little interest and will be passed with mention of the case of Weber, who found the seminal vesicles double; a similar conformation has been seen in hermaphrodites.
CHAPTER VII.
ANOMALIES OF STATURE, SIZE, AND DEVELOPMENT.
Giants.--The fables of mythology contain accounts of horrible monsters, terrible in ferocity, whose mission was the destruction of the life of the individuals unfortunate enough to come into their domains. The ogres known as the Cyclops, and the fierce anthropophages, called Lestrygons, of Sicily, who were neighbors of the Cyclops, are pictured in detail in the "Odyssey" of Homer. Nearly all the nations of the earth have their fairy tales or superstitions of monstrous beings inhabiting some forest, mountain, or cave; and pages have been written in the heroic poems of all languages describing battles between these monsters and men with superhuman courage, in which the giant finally succumbs.
The word giant is derived indirectly from the old English word "geant," which in its turn came from the French of the conquering Normans. It is of Greek derivation, "gigas", or the Latin, "gigas." The Hebrew parallel is "nophel," or plural, "nephilim."
Ancient Giants.--We are told in the Bible a that the bedstead of Og, King of Basham, was 9 cubits long, which in English measure is 16 1/2 feet. Goliath of Gath, who was slain by David, stood 6 cubits and a span tall--about 11 feet. The body of Orestes, according to the Greeks, was 11 1/2 feet long. The mythical Titans, 45 in number, were a race of Giants who warred against the Gods, and their descendants were the Gigantes. The height attributed to these creatures was fabulous, and they were supposed to heap up mountains to scale the sky and to help them to wage their battles. Hercules, a man of incredible strength, but who is said to have been not over 7 feet high, was dispatched against the Gigantes.
Pliny describes Gabbaras, who was brought to Rome by Claudius Caesar from Arabia and was between 9 and 10 feet in height, and adds that the remains of Posio and Secundilla, found in the reign of Augustus Caesar in the Sallustian Gardens, of which they were supposed to be the guardians, measured 10 feet 3 inches each. In common with Augustine, Pliny believed that the stature of man has degenerated, but from the remains of the ancients so far discovered it would appear that the modern stature is about the same as the ancient.
In this connection Russell speaks of a man whose testicle was elevated every time the east wind blew, which caused him a sense of languor and relaxation; the same author describes a man whose testicles ascended into the inguinal canal every time he was in the company of women.
Inversion of the testicle is of several varieties and quite rare, it has been recognized by Sir Astley Cooper, Boyer, Maisonneuve, Royet, and other writers.
The anomalies of the vas deferens and seminal vesicles are of little interest and will be passed with mention of the case of Weber, who found the seminal vesicles double; a similar conformation has been seen in hermaphrodites.
CHAPTER VII.
ANOMALIES OF STATURE, SIZE, AND DEVELOPMENT.
Giants.--The fables of mythology contain accounts of horrible monsters, terrible in ferocity, whose mission was the destruction of the life of the individuals unfortunate enough to come into their domains. The ogres known as the Cyclops, and the fierce anthropophages, called Lestrygons, of Sicily, who were neighbors of the Cyclops, are pictured in detail in the "Odyssey" of Homer. Nearly all the nations of the earth have their fairy tales or superstitions of monstrous beings inhabiting some forest, mountain, or cave; and pages have been written in the heroic poems of all languages describing battles between these monsters and men with superhuman courage, in which the giant finally succumbs.
The word giant is derived indirectly from the old English word "geant," which in its turn came from the French of the conquering Normans. It is of Greek derivation, "gigas", or the Latin, "gigas." The Hebrew parallel is "nophel," or plural, "nephilim."
Ancient Giants.--We are told in the Bible a that the bedstead of Og, King of Basham, was 9 cubits long, which in English measure is 16 1/2 feet. Goliath of Gath, who was slain by David, stood 6 cubits and a span tall--about 11 feet. The body of Orestes, according to the Greeks, was 11 1/2 feet long. The mythical Titans, 45 in number, were a race of Giants who warred against the Gods, and their descendants were the Gigantes. The height attributed to these creatures was fabulous, and they were supposed to heap up mountains to scale the sky and to help them to wage their battles. Hercules, a man of incredible strength, but who is said to have been not over 7 feet high, was dispatched against the Gigantes.
Pliny describes Gabbaras, who was brought to Rome by Claudius Caesar from Arabia and was between 9 and 10 feet in height, and adds that the remains of Posio and Secundilla, found in the reign of Augustus Caesar in the Sallustian Gardens, of which they were supposed to be the guardians, measured 10 feet 3 inches each. In common with Augustine, Pliny believed that the stature of man has degenerated, but from the remains of the ancients so far discovered it would appear that the modern stature is about the same as the ancient.