Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [191]
when only sixteen and a half years old.
In giants, as a rule, the great stature is due to excessive growth of the lower extremities, the size of the head and that of the trunk being nearly the same as those of a man or boy of the same age. On the other hand, in a natural dwarf the proportions are fairly uniform, the head, however, being always larger in proportion to the body, just as we find in infants. Indeed, the proportions of "General Tom Thumb" were those of an ordinary infant of from thirteen to fifteen months old.
Figure 156 shows a portrait of two well-known exhibitionists of about the same age, and illustrates the possible extremes of anomalies in stature
Recently, the association of acromegaly with gigantism has been noticed, and in these instances there seems to be an acquired uniform enlargement of all the bones of the body. Brissaud and Meige describe the case of a male of forty-seven who presented nothing unusual before the age of sixteen, when he began to grow larger, until, having reached his majority, he measured 7 feet 2 inches in height and weighed about 340 pounds. He remained well and very strong until the age of thirty-seven, when he overlifted, and following this he developed an extreme deformity of the spine and trunk, the latter "telescoping into itself" until the nipples were on a level with the anterior superior spines of the ilium. For two years he suffered with debility, fatigue, bronchitis, night-sweats, headache, and great thirst. Mentally he was dull; the bones of the face and extremities showed the hypertrophies characteristic of acromegaly, the soft parts not being involved. The circumference of the trunk at the nipples was 62 inches, and over the most prominent portion of the kyphosis and pigeon-breast, 74 inches. The authors agree with Dana and others that there is an intimate relation between acromegaly and gigantism, but they go further and compare both to the growth of the body. They call attention to the striking resemblance to acromegaly of the disproportionate growth of the boy at adolescence, which corresponds so well to Marie's terse description of this disease: "The disease manifests itself by preference in the bones of the extremities and in the extremities of the bones," and conclude with this rather striking and aphoristic proposition: "Acromegaly is gigantism of the adult; gigantism is acromegaly of adolescence."
The many theories of the cause of gigantism will not be discussed here, the reader being referred to volumes exclusively devoted to this subject.
Celebrated Giants.--Mention of some of the most famous giants will be made, together with any associate points of interest.
Becanus, physician to Charles V, says that he saw a youth 9 feet high and a man and a woman almost 10 feet. Ainsworth says that in 1553 the Tower of London was guarded by three brothers claiming direct descent from Henry VIII, and surnamed Og, Gog, and Magog, all of whom were over 8 feet in height. In his "Chronicles of Holland" in 1557 Hadrianus Barlandus said that in the time of John, Earl of Holland, the giant Nicholas was so large that men could stand under his arms, and his shoe held 3 ordinary feet. Among the yeoman of the guard of John Frederick, Duke of Hanover, there was one Christopher Munster, 8 1/2 feet high, who died in 1676 in his forty-fifth year. The giant porter of the Duke of Wurtemberg was 7 1/2 feet high. "Big Sam," the porter at Carleton Palace, when George IV was Prince of Wales, was 8 feet high. The porter of Queen Elizabeth, of whom there is a picture in Hampton Court, painted by Zucchero, was 7 1/2 feet high; and Walter Parson, porter to James I, was about the same height. William Evans, who served Charles I, was nearly 8 feet; he carried a dwarf in his pocket.
In the seventeenth century, in order to gratify the Empress of Austria, Guy-Patin made a congress of all the giants and dwarfs in the Germanic Empire. A peculiarity of this congress was that the giants complained to the authorities that the dwarfs teased them in such a manner as to make their lives
In giants, as a rule, the great stature is due to excessive growth of the lower extremities, the size of the head and that of the trunk being nearly the same as those of a man or boy of the same age. On the other hand, in a natural dwarf the proportions are fairly uniform, the head, however, being always larger in proportion to the body, just as we find in infants. Indeed, the proportions of "General Tom Thumb" were those of an ordinary infant of from thirteen to fifteen months old.
Figure 156 shows a portrait of two well-known exhibitionists of about the same age, and illustrates the possible extremes of anomalies in stature
Recently, the association of acromegaly with gigantism has been noticed, and in these instances there seems to be an acquired uniform enlargement of all the bones of the body. Brissaud and Meige describe the case of a male of forty-seven who presented nothing unusual before the age of sixteen, when he began to grow larger, until, having reached his majority, he measured 7 feet 2 inches in height and weighed about 340 pounds. He remained well and very strong until the age of thirty-seven, when he overlifted, and following this he developed an extreme deformity of the spine and trunk, the latter "telescoping into itself" until the nipples were on a level with the anterior superior spines of the ilium. For two years he suffered with debility, fatigue, bronchitis, night-sweats, headache, and great thirst. Mentally he was dull; the bones of the face and extremities showed the hypertrophies characteristic of acromegaly, the soft parts not being involved. The circumference of the trunk at the nipples was 62 inches, and over the most prominent portion of the kyphosis and pigeon-breast, 74 inches. The authors agree with Dana and others that there is an intimate relation between acromegaly and gigantism, but they go further and compare both to the growth of the body. They call attention to the striking resemblance to acromegaly of the disproportionate growth of the boy at adolescence, which corresponds so well to Marie's terse description of this disease: "The disease manifests itself by preference in the bones of the extremities and in the extremities of the bones," and conclude with this rather striking and aphoristic proposition: "Acromegaly is gigantism of the adult; gigantism is acromegaly of adolescence."
The many theories of the cause of gigantism will not be discussed here, the reader being referred to volumes exclusively devoted to this subject.
Celebrated Giants.--Mention of some of the most famous giants will be made, together with any associate points of interest.
Becanus, physician to Charles V, says that he saw a youth 9 feet high and a man and a woman almost 10 feet. Ainsworth says that in 1553 the Tower of London was guarded by three brothers claiming direct descent from Henry VIII, and surnamed Og, Gog, and Magog, all of whom were over 8 feet in height. In his "Chronicles of Holland" in 1557 Hadrianus Barlandus said that in the time of John, Earl of Holland, the giant Nicholas was so large that men could stand under his arms, and his shoe held 3 ordinary feet. Among the yeoman of the guard of John Frederick, Duke of Hanover, there was one Christopher Munster, 8 1/2 feet high, who died in 1676 in his forty-fifth year. The giant porter of the Duke of Wurtemberg was 7 1/2 feet high. "Big Sam," the porter at Carleton Palace, when George IV was Prince of Wales, was 8 feet high. The porter of Queen Elizabeth, of whom there is a picture in Hampton Court, painted by Zucchero, was 7 1/2 feet high; and Walter Parson, porter to James I, was about the same height. William Evans, who served Charles I, was nearly 8 feet; he carried a dwarf in his pocket.
In the seventeenth century, in order to gratify the Empress of Austria, Guy-Patin made a congress of all the giants and dwarfs in the Germanic Empire. A peculiarity of this congress was that the giants complained to the authorities that the dwarfs teased them in such a manner as to make their lives