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. The beautiful

alabaster sarcophagus discovered near Thebes in 1817 and now in Sir

John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London measures 9 feet 4

inches long. This unique example, the finest extant, is well worth

inspection by visitors in London.

Herodotus says the shoes of Perseus measured an equivalent of about 3

feet, English standard. Josephus tells of Eleazar, a Jew, among the

hostages sent by the King of Persia to Rome, who was nearly 11 feet

high. Saxo, the grammarian, mentions a giant 13 1/2 feet high and says

he had 12 companions who were double his height. Ferragus, the monster

supposed to have been slain by Roland, the nephew of Charlemagne, was

said to have been nearly 11 feet high. It was said that there was a

giant living in the twelfth century under the rule of King Eugene II of

Scotland who was 11 1/2 feet high.

There are fabulous stories told of the Emperor Maximilian. Some

accounts say that he was between 8 1/2 and 9 feet high, and used his

wife's bracelet for a finger-ring, and that he ate 40 pounds of flesh a

day and drank six gallons of wine. He was also accredited with being a

great runner, and in his earlier days was said to have conquered

single-handed eight soldiers. The Emperors Charlemagne and Jovianus

were also accredited with great height and strength.

In the olden times there were extraordinary stories of the giants who

lived in Patagonia. Some say that Magellan gave the name to this

country because its inhabitants measured 5 cubits. The naturalist

Turner says that on the river Plata near the Brazilian coast he saw

naked savages 12 feet high; and in his description of America, Thevenot

confirms this by saying that on the coast of Africa he saw on a boat

the skeleton of an American giant who had died in 1559, and who was 11

feet 5 inches in height. He claims to have measured the bones himself.

He says that the bones of the leg measured 3 feet 4 inches, and the

skull was 3 feet and 1 inch, just about the size of the skull of

Borghini, who, however, was only of ordinary height. In his account of

a voyage to the Straits of Magellan, Jacob Lemaire says that on

December 17, 1615, he found at Port Desire several graves covered with

stones, and beneath the stones were skeletons of men which measured

between 10 and 11 feet. The ancient idea of the Spaniards was that the

men of Patagonia were so tall that the Spanish soldiers could pass

under their arms held out straight; yet we know that the Patagonians

exhibit no exaggeration of height--in fact, some of the inhabitants

about Terra del Fuego are rather diminutive. This superstition of the

voyagers was not limited to America; there were accounts of men in the

neighborhood of the Peak of Teneriffe who had 80 teeth in their head

and bodies 15 feet in height.

Discoveries of "Giants' Bones."--Riolan, the celebrated anatomist, says

that there was to be seen at one time in the suburbs of Saint Germain

the tomb of the giant Isoret, who was reputed to be 20 feet tall; and

that in 1509, in digging ditches at Rouen, near the Dominicans, they

found a stone tomb containing a monstrous skeleton, the skull of which

would hold a bushel of corn; the shin-bone measured about 4 feet,

which, taken as a guide, would make his height over 17 feet. On the

tomb was a copper plate which said that the tomb contained the remains

of "the noble and puissant lord, the Chevalier Ricon de Vallemont."

Plater, the famous physician, declares that he saw at Lucerne the true

human bones of a subject that must have been at least 19 feet high.

Valence in Dauphine boasted of possessing the bones of the giant

Bucart, the tyrant of the Vivarias, who was slain by his vassal, Count

de Cabillon. The Dominicans had the shin-bone and part of the

knee-articulation, which, substantiated by the frescoes and

inscriptions in their possession, showed him to be 22 1/2 feet high.

They claimed to have an os frontis in the medical school of Leyden

measuring 9.1 X 12.2 X .5 inches, which they deduce must have belonged

to a man 11 or 12 feet high.

It is said that while digging in France in 1613 there was disinterred

the body of a giant bearing the title "Theutobochus Rex," and that the

skeleton measured 25 feet long, 10 feet across the shoulders, and 5

feet from breast to back. The shin-bone was about 4 feet long, and the

teeth as large as those of oxen. This is likely another version of the

finding of the remains of Bucart.

Near Mezarino in Sicily in 1516 there was found the skeleton of a giant

whose height was at least 30 feet; his head was the size of a hogshead,

and each tooth weighed 5 ounces; and in 1548 and in 1550 there were

others found of the height of 30 feet. The Athenians found near their

city skeletons measuring 34 and 36 feet in height. In Bohemia in 758 it

is recorded that there was found a human skeleton 26 feet tall, and the

leg-bones are still kept in a medieval castle in that country. In

September, 1691, there was the skull of a giant found in Macedonia

which held 210 pounds of corn.

General Opinions.--All the accounts of giants originating in the

finding of monstrous bones must of course be discredited, as the

remains were likely those of some animal. Comparative anatomy has only

lately obtained a hold in the public mind, and in the Middle Ages

little was known of it. The pretended giants' remains have been those

of mastodons, elephants, and other animals. From Suetonius we learn

that Augustus Caesar pleased himself by adorning his palaces with

so-called giants' bones of incredible size, preferring these to

pictures or images. From their enormous size we must believe they were

mastodon bones, as no contemporary animals show such measurements.

Bartholinus describes a large tooth for many years exhibited as the

canine of a giant which proved to be nothing but a tooth of a

spermaceti whale (Cetus dentatus), quite a common fish. Hand described

an alleged giant's skeleton shown in London early in the eighteenth

century, and which was composed of the bones of the fore-fin of a small

whale or of a porpoise.

The celebrated Sir Hans Sloane, who treated this subject very

learnedly, arrived at the conclusion that while in most instances the

bones found were those of mastodons, elephants, whales, etc., in some

instances accounts were given by connoisseurs who could not readily be

deceived. However, modern scientists will be loath to believe that any

men ever existed who measured over 9 feet; in fact, such cases with

authentic references are extremely rare Quetelet considers that the

tallest man whose stature is authentically recorded was the "Scottish

Giant" of Frederick the Great's regiment of giants. This person was not

quite 8 feet 3 inches tall. Buffon, ordinarily a reliable authority,

comes to a loose conclusion that there is no doubt that men have lived

who were 10, 12, and even 15 feet tall; but modern statisticians cannot

accept this deduction from the references offered.

From the original estimation of the height of Adam (Henrion once

calculated that Adam's height was 123 feet and that of Eve 118) we

gradually come to 10 feet, which seemed to be about the favorite height

for giants in the Middle Ages. Approaching this century, we still have

stories of men from 9 to 10 feet high, but no authentic cases. It was

only in the latter part of the last century that we began to have

absolutely authentic heights of giants, and to-day the men showing

through the country as measuring 8 feet generally exaggerate their

height several inches, and exact measurement would show that but few

men commonly called giants are over 7 1/2 feet or weigh over 350

pounds. Dana says that the number of giants figuring as public

characters since 1700 is not more than 100, and of these about 20 were

advertised to be over 8 feet. If we confine ourselves to those

accurately and scientifically measured the list is surprisingly small.

Topinard measured the tallest man in the Austrian army and found that

he was 8 feet 4 1/2 inches. The giant Winckelmeyer measured 8 feet 6

inches in height. Ranke measured Marianne Wehde, who was born in

Germany in the present century, and found that she measured 8 feet 4

1/4 inches 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 miserable.

Plater speaks of a girl in Basle, Switzerland, five years old, whose

body was as large as that of a full-grown woman and who weighed when a

year old as much as a bushel of wheat. He also mentions a man living in

1613, 9 feet high, whose hand was 1 foot 6 inches long. Peter van den

Broecke speaks of a Congo negro in 1640 who was 8 feet high. Daniel,

the porter of Cromwell, was 7 feet 6 inches high; he became a lunatic.

Frazier speaks of Chilian giants 9 feet tall. There is a chronicle

which says one of the Kings of Norway was 8 feet high. Merula says

that in 1538 he saw in France a Flemish man over 9 feet. Keysler

mentions seeing Hans Brau in Tyrol in 1550, and says that he was nearly

12 feet high.

Jonston mentions a lad in Holland who was 8 feet tall. Pasumot mentions

a giant of 8 feet.

Edmund Mallone was said to have measured 7 feet 7 inches. Wierski, a

Polander, presented to Maximilian II, was 8 feet high. At the age of

thirty-two there died in 1798 a clerk of the Bank of England who was

said to have been nearly 7 1/2 feet high. The Daily Advertiser for

February 23, 1745, says that there was a young colossus exhibited

opposite the Mansion House in London who was 7 feet high, although but

fifteen years old. In the same paper on January 31, 1753, is an account

of MacGrath, whose skeleton is still preserved in Dublin. In the reign

of George I, during the time of the Bartholomew Fair at Smithfield,

there was exhibited an English man seventeen years old who was 8 feet

tall.

Nicephorus tells of Antonius of Syria, in the reign of Theodosius, who

died at the age of twenty-five with a height of 7 feet 7 inches.

Artacaecas, in great favor with Xerxes, was the tallest Persian and

measured 7 feet. John Middleton, born in 1752 at Hale, Lancashire,

humorously called the "Child of Hale," and whose portrait is in

Brasenose College, Oxford, measured 9 feet 3 inches tall. In his

"History of Ripton," in Devonshire, 1854, Bigsby gives an account of a

discovery in 1687 of a skeleton 9 feet long. In 1712 in a village in

Holland there died a fisherman named Gerrit Bastiaansen who was 8 feet

high and weighed 500 pounds. During Queen Anne's reign there was shown

in London and other parts of England a most peculiar anomaly--a German

giantess without hands or feet who threaded a needle, cut gloves, etc.

About 1821 there was issued an engraving of Miss Angelina Melius,

nineteen years of age and 7 feet high, attended by her page, Senor Don

Santiago de los Santos, from the Island of Manilla, thirty-live years

old and 2 feet 2 inches high. "The Annual Register" records the death

of Peter Tuchan at Posen on June 18, 1825, of dropsy of the chest. He

was twenty-nine years old and 8 feet 7 inches in height; he began to

grow at the age of seven. This monster had no beard; his voice was

soft; he was a moderate eater. There was a giant exhibited in St.

Petersburg, June, 1829, 8 feet 8 inches in height, who was very thin

and emaciated.

Dr. Adam Clarke, who died in 1832, measured a man 8 feet 6 inches tall.

Frank Buckland, in his "Curiosities of Natural History," says that

Brice, the French giant, was 7 feet 7 inches. Early in 1837 there was

exhibited at Parma a young man formerly in the service of the King of

the Netherlands who was 8 feet 10 inches high and weighed 401 pounds.

Robert Hale, the "Norfolk Giant," who died in Yarmouth in 1843 at the

age of forty-three, was 7 feet 6 inches high and weighed 452 pounds.

The skeleton of Cornelius McGrath, now preserved in the Trinity College

Museum, Dublin, is a striking example of gigantism. At sixteen years he

measured 7 feet 10 inches.

O'Brien or Byrne, the Irish giant, was supposed to be 8 feet 4 inches

in height at the time of his death in 1783 at the age of twenty-two.

The story of his connection with the illustrious John Hunter is quite

interesting. Hunter had vowed that he would have the skeleton of

O'Brien, and O'Brien was equally averse to being boiled in the

distinguished scientist's kettle. The giant was tormented all his life

by the constant assertions of Hunter and by his persistence in locating

him. Finally, when, following the usual early decline of his class of

anomalies, O'Brien came to his death-bed, he bribed some fishermen to

take his body after his death to the middle of the Irish Channel and

sink it with leaden weights. Hunter, it is alleged, was informed of

this and overbribed the prospective undertakers and thus secured the

body. It has been estimated that it cost Hunter nearly 500 pounds

sterling to gain possession of the skeleton of the "Irish Giant." The

kettle in which the body was boiled, together with some interesting

literature relative to the circumstances, are preserved in the Museum

of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and were exhibited at the

meeting of the British Medical Association in 1895 with other Hunterian

relics. The skeleton, which is now one of the features of the Museum,

is reported to measure 92 3/4 inches in height, and is mounted

alongside that of Caroline Crachami, the Sicilian dwarf, who was

exhibited as an Italian princess in London in 1824. She did not grow

after birth and died at the age of nine.

Patrick Cotter, the successor of O'Brien, and who for awhile exhibited

under this name, claiming that he was a lineal descendant of the famous

Irish King, Brian Boru, who he declared was 9 feet in height, was born

in 1761, and died in 1806 at the age of forty-five. His shoe was 17

inches long, and he was 8 feet 4 inches tall at his death.

In the Museum of Madame Tussaud in London there is a wax figure of

Loushkin, said to be the tallest man of his time. It measures 8 feet 5

inches, and is dressed in the military uniform of a drum-major of the

Imperial Preobrajensky Regiment of Guards. To magnify his height there

is a figure of the celebrated dwarf, "General Tom Thumb," in the palm

of his hand. Figure 158 represents a well-known American giant, Ben

Hicks who was called "the Denver Steeple."

Buffon refers to a Swedish giantess who he affirms was 8 feet 6 inches

tall. Chang, the "Chinese Giant," whose smiling face is familiar to

nearly all the modern world, was said to be 8 feet tall. In 1865, at

the age of nineteen, he measured 7 feet 8 inches. At Hawick, Scotland,

in 1870, there was an Irishman 7 feet 8 inches in height, 52 inches

around the chest, and who weighed 22 stone. Figure 159 shows an

American giantess known as "Leah, the Giantess." At the age of nineteen

she was 7 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 165 pounds.

On June 17, 1871, there were married at Saint-Martins-in-the-Field in

London Captain Martin Van Buren Bates of Kentucky and Miss Anna Swann

of Nova Scotia, two celebrated exhibitionists, both of whom were over 7

feet. Captain Bates, familiarly known as the "Kentucky Giant," years

ago was a familiar figure in many Northern cities, where he exhibited

himself in company with his wife, the combined height of the two being

greater than that of any couple known to history. Captain Bates was

born in Whitesburg, Letcher County, Ky., on November 9, 1845. He

enlisted in the Southern army in 1861, and though only sixteen years

old was admitted to the service because of his size. At the close of

the war Captain Bates had attained his great height of 7 feet 2 1/2

inches. His body was well proportioned and his weight increased until

it reached 450 pounds. He traveled as a curiosity from 1866 to 1880,

being connected with various amusement organizations. He visited nearly

all the large cities and towns in the United States, Canada, Great

Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Russia.

While in England in 1871 the Captain met Miss Anna H. Swann, known as

the "Nova Scotia Giantess," who was two years the junior of her giant

lover. Miss Swann was justly proud of her height, 7 feet 5 1/2 inches.

The two were married soon afterward. Their combined height of 14 feet

8 inches marked them as the tallest married couple known to mankind.

Captain Bates' parents were of medium size. His father, a native of

Virginia, was 5 feet 10 inches high and weighed 160 pounds. His mother

was 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 125 pounds. The height of the

father of Mrs. Anna Swann Bates was 6 feet and her mother was 5 feet

and 2 inches high, weighing but 100 pounds.

A recent newspaper dispatch says: "Captain M. V. Bates, whose

remarkable height at one time attracted the attention of the world, has

recently retired from his conspicuous position and lives in comparative

obscurity on his farm in Guilford, Medina County, O., half a mile east

of Seville."

In 1845 there was shown in Paris Joachim Eleiceigui, the Spanish giant,

who weighed 195 kilograms (429 pounds) and whose hands were 42 cm. (16

1/2 inches) long and of great beauty. In 1882 at the Alhambra in London

there was a giantess by the name of Miss Marian, called the "Queen of

the Amazons," aged eighteen years, who measured 2.45 meters (96 1/2

inches). William Campbell, a Scotchman, died at Newcastle in May 1878.

He was so large that the window of the room in which the deceased lay

and the brick-work to the level of the floor had to be taken out, in

order that the coffin might be lowered with block and tackle three

stories to the ground. On January 27, 1887, a Greek, although a Turkish

subject, recently died of phthisis in Simferopol. He was 7 feet 8

inches in height and slept on three beds laid close together.

Giants of History.--A number of persons of great height, particularly

sovereigns and warriors, are well-known characters of history, viz.,

William of Scotland, Edward III, Godefroy of Bouillon, Philip the Long,

Fairfax, Moncey, Mortier, Kleber; there are others celebrated in modern

times. Rochester, the favorite of Charles II; Pothier, the jurist;

Bank, the English naturalist; Gall, Billat-Savarin, Benjamin Constant,

the painter David, Bellart, the geographer Delamarche, and Care, the

founder of the Gentleman's Magazine, were all men of extraordinary

stature.

Dwarfs.--The word "dwarf" is of Saxon origin (dwerg, dweorg) and

corresponds to the "pumilio" or "nanus" of the Romans. The Greeks

believed in the pygmy people of Thrace and Pliny speaks of the

Spithamiens. In the "Iliad" Homer writes of the pygmies and Juvenal

also describes them; but the fantasies of these poets have given these

creatures such diminutive stature that they have deprived the

traditions of credence. Herodotus relates that in the deserts of Lybia

there were people of extreme shortness of stature. The Bible mentions

that no dwarf can officiate at the altar. Aristotle and Philostratus

speak of pygmy people descended from Pygmaeus, son of Dorus. In the

seventeenth century van Helmont supposed that there were pygmies in the

Canary Islands, and Abyssinia, Brazil, and Japan in the older times

were repeatedly said to contain pygmy races. Relics of what must have

been a pygmy race have been found in the Hebrides, and in this country

in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Dr. Schweinfurth, the distinguished African traveler, confirms the

statements of Homer, Herodotus, and Aristotle that there was a race of

pygmies near the source of the Nile. Schweinfurth says that they live

south of the country occupied by the Niam-Niam, and that their stature

varies from 4 feet to 4 feet 10 inches. These people are called the

Akkas, and wonderful tales are told of their agility and cunning,

characteristics that seem to compensate for their small stature.

In 1860 Paul DuChaillu speaks of the existence of an African people

called the Obongos, inhabiting the country of the Ashangos, a little to

the south of the equator, who were about 1.4 meters in height. There

have been people found in the Esquimaux region of very diminutive

stature. Battel discovered another pygmy people near the Obongo who are

called the Dongos. Kolle describes the Kenkobs, who are but 3 to 4

feet high, and another tribe called the Reebas, who vary from 3 to 5

feet in height. The Portuguese speak of a race of dwarfs whom they call

the Bakka-bakka, and of the Yogas, who inhabit territory as far as the

Loango. Nubia has a tribe of dwarfs called the Sukus, but little is

known of them. Throughout India there are stories of dwarf tribes

descended from the monkey-God, or Hoonuman of the mythologic poems.

In the works of Humboldt and Burgoa there is allusion to the tradition

of a race of pygmies in the unexplored region of Chiapas near the

Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Central America. There is an expedition of

anthropologists now on the way to discover this people. Professor Starr

of Chicago on his return from this region reported many colonies of

undersized people, but did not discover any pygmy tribes answering to

the older legendary descriptions. Figure 160 represents two dwarf

Cottas measuring 3 feet 6 inches in height.

The African pygmies who were sent to the King of Italy and shown in

Rome resembled the pygmy travelers of Akka that Schweinfurth saw at the

court of King Munza at Monbuttu. These two pygmies at Rome were found

in Central Africa and were respectively about ten and fifteen years

old. They spoke a dialect of their own and different from any known

African tongue; they were partly understood by an Egyptian sergeant, a

native of Soudan, who accompanied them as the sole survivor of the

escort with which their donor, Miani, penetrated Monbuttu. Miani, like

Livingstone, lost his life in African travel. These dwarfs had grown

rapidly in recent years and at the time of report, measured 1.15 and

1.02 meters. In 1874 they were under the care of the Royal Geographical

Society of Italy. They were intelligent in their manner, but resented

being lionized too much, and were prone to scratch ladies who attempted

to kiss them.

The "Aztec Children" in 1851, at the ages of seven and six years,

another pair of alleged indigenous pygmies, measured 33 3/4 and 29 1/2

inches in height and weighed 20 3/4 and 17 pounds respectively. The

circumference of their heads did not equal that of an ordinary infant

at birth.

It is known that at one time the ancients artificially produced dwarfs

by giving them an insufficient alimentation when very young. They soon

became rachitic from their deprivation of lime-salts and a great number

perished, but those who survived were very highly prized by the Roman

Emperors for their grotesque appearance. There were various recipes for

dwarfing children. One of the most efficient in the olden times was

said to have been anointing the backbone with the grease of bats,

moles, dormice, and such animals; it was also said that puppies were

dwarfed by frequently washing the feet and backbone, as the consequent

drying and hardening of the parts were alleged to hinder their

extension. To-day the growth of boys intended to be jockeys is kept

down by excessive sweating.

Ancient Popularity of Dwarfs.--At one time a dwarf was a necessary

appendage of every noble family. The Roman Emperors all had their

dwarfs. Julia, the niece of Augustus, had a couple of dwarfs, Conopas

and Andromeda, each of whom was 2 feet 4 inches in height. It was the

fashion at one time to have dwarfs noted for their wit and wisdom.

Philos of Cos, tutor of Ptolemy Philadelphus, was a dwarf, as were

Carachus, the friend of Saladin; Alypius of Alexandria, who was only 2

feet high; Lucinus Calvus, who was only 3 feet high, and aesop, the

famous Greek fabulist. Later in the Middle Ages and even to the last

century dwarfs were seen at every Court. Lady Montagu describes the

dwarfs at the Viennese Court as "devils bedaubed with diamonds." They

had succeeded the Court Jester and exercised some parts of this ancient

office. At this time the English ladies kept monkeys for their

amusement. The Court dwarfs were allowed unlimited freedom of speech,

and in order to get at truths other men were afraid to utter one of the

Kings of Denmark made one of his dwarfs Prime Minister.

Charles IX in 1572 had nine dwarfs, of which four had been given to him

by King Sigismund-Augustus of Poland and three by Maximilian II of

Germany. Catherine de Medicis had three couples of dwarfs at one time,

and in 1579 she had still five pygmies, named Merlin, Mandricart,

Pelavine, Rodomont, and Majoski. Probably the last dwarf in the Court

of France was Balthazar Simon, who died in 1662.

Sometimes many dwarfs were present at great and noble gatherings. In

Rome in 1566 the Cardinal Vitelli gave a sumptuous banquet at which the

table-attendants were 34 dwarfs. Peter the Great of Russia had a

passion for dwarfs, and in 1710 gave a great celebration in honor of

the marriage of his favorite, Valakoff, with the dwarf of the Princess

Prescovie Theodorovna. There were 72 dwarfs of both sexes present to

form the bridal party. Subsequently, on account of dangerous and

difficult labor, such marriages were forbidden in Russia.

In England and in Spain the nobles had the portraits of their dwarfs

painted by the celebrated artists of the day. Velasquez has represented

Don Antonio el Ingles, a dwarf of fine appearance, with a large dog,

probably to bring out the dwarf's inferior height. This artist also

painted a great number of other dwarfs at the Court of Spain, and in

one of his paintings he portrays the Infanta Marguerite accompanied by

her male and female dwarfs. Reproductions of these portraits have been

given by Garnier. In the pictures of Raphael, Paul Veronese, and

Dominiquin, and in the "Triumph of Caesar" by Mantegna, representations

of dwarfs are found, as well as in other earlier pictures representing

Court events. At the present time only Russia and Turkey seem to have

popular sympathy for dwarfs, and this in a limited degree.

Intellectual Dwarfs.--It must be remarked, however, that many of the

dwarfs before the public have been men of extraordinary-intelligence,

possibly augmented by comparison. In a postmortem discussed at a

meeting of the Natural History Society at Bonn in 1868 it was

demonstrated by Schaufhausen that in a dwarf subject the brain weighed

1/19 of the body, in contradistinction to the average proportion of

adults, from 1 to 30 to 1 to 44. The subject was a dwarf of sixty-one

who died in Coblentz, and was said to have grown after his thirtieth

year. His height was 2 feet 10 inches and his weight 45 pounds. The

circumference of the head was 520 mm. and the brain weighed 1183.33 gm.

and was well convoluted. This case was one of simple arrest of

development, affecting all the organs of the body; he was not virile.

He was a child of large parents; had two brothers and a sister of

ordinary size and two brothers dwarfs, one 6 inches higher and the

other his size.

Several personages famous in history have been dwarfs. Attila, the

historian Procopius, Gregory of Tours, Pepin le Bref, Charles III, King

of Naples, and Albert the Grand were dwarfs. About the middle of the

seventeenth century the French episcopacy possessed among its members a

dwarf renowned for his intelligence. This diminutive man, called

Godeau, made such a success in literature that by the grace of

Richelieu he was named the Archbishop of Grasse. He died in 1672. The

Dutch painter Doos, the English painter Gibson (who was about 3 feet in

height and the father of nine infants by a wife of about the same

height), Prince Eugene, and the Spanish Admiral Gravina were dwarfs.

Fleury and Garry, the actors.

Hay, a member of Parliament from Sussex in the last century;

Hussein-Pasha, celebrated for his reforms under Selim III; the Danish

antiquarian and voyager, Arendt, and Baron Denon were men far below the

average size Varro says that there were two gentlemen of Rome who from

their decorations must have belonged to an Equestrian Order, and who

were but 2 Roman cubits (about 3 feet) high. Pliny also speaks of them

as preserved in their coffins.

It may be remarked that perhaps certain women are predisposed to give

birth to dwarfs. Borwilaski had a brother and a sister who were dwarfs.

In the middle of the seventeenth century a woman brought forth four

dwarfs, and in the eighteenth century a dwarf named Hopkins had a

sister as small as he was. Therese Souvray, the dwarf fiancee of Bebe,

had a dwarf sister 41 inches high. Virey has examined a German dwarf

of eight who was only 18 inches tall, i.e., about the length of a

newly-born infant. The parents were of ordinary size, but had another

child who was also a dwarf.

There are two species of dwarfs, the first coming into the world under

normal conditions, but who in their infancy become afflicted with a

sudden arrest of development provoked by some malady; the second are

born very small, develop little, and are really dwarfs from their

birth; as a rule they are well conformed, robust, and intelligent.

These two species can be distinguished by an important characteristic.

The rachitic dwarfs of the first class are incapable of perpetuating

their species, while those of the second category have proved more than

once their virility. A certain number of dwarfs have married with women

of normal height and have had several children, though this is not, it

is true, an indisputable proof of their generative faculties; but we

have instances in which dwarfs have married dwarfs and had a family

sometimes quite numerous. Robert Skinner (25 inches) and Judith (26

inches), his wife, had 14 infants, well formed, robust, and of normal

height.

Celebrated Dwarfs.--Instances of some of the most celebrated dwarfs

will be cited with a short descriptive mention of points of interest in

their lives:--

Vladislas Cubitas, who was King of Poland in 1305, was a dwarf, and was

noted for his intelligence, courage, and as a good soldier. Geoffrey

Hudson, the most celebrated English dwarf, was born at Oakham in

England in 1619. At the age of eight, when not much over a foot high,

he was presented to Henriette Marie, wife of Charles I, in a pie; he

afterward became her favorite. Until he was thirty he was said to be

not more than 18 inches high, when he suddenly increased to about 45

inches. In his youth he fought several duels, one with a turkey cock,

which is celebrated in the verse of Davenant. He became a popular and

graceful courtier, and proved his bravery and allegiance to his

sovereign by assuming command of a royalist company and doing good

service therein. Both in moral and physical capacities he showed his

superiority. At one time he was sent to France to secure a midwife for

the Queen, who was a Frenchwoman. He afterward challenged a gentleman

by the name of Croft to fight a duel, and would accept only deadly

weapons; he shot his adversary in the chest; the quarrel grew out of

his resentment of ridicule of his diminutive size. He was accused of

participation in the Papist Plot and imprisoned by his political

enemies in the Gate House at Westminster, where he died in 1682 at the

advanced age of sixty-three. In Scott's "Peveril of the Peak" Hudson

figures prominently. This author seemed fond of dwarfs.

About the same epoch Charles I had a page in his court named Richard

Gibson, who was remarkable for his diminutive size and his ability as a

miniature painter. This little artist espoused another of his class,

Anne Shepherd, a dwarf of Queen Henriette Marie, about his size (45

inches). Mistress Gibson bore nine children, five of whom arrived at

adult age and were of ordinary proportions. She died at the age of

eighty; her husband afterward became the drawing master of Princesses

Mary and Anne, daughters of James II; he died July 23, 1690, aged

seventy-five years.

In 1730 there was born of poor fisher parents at Jelst a child named

Wybrand Lokes. He became a very skilful jeweler, and though he was of

diminutive stature he married a woman of medium height, by whom he had

several children. He was one of the smallest men ever exhibited,

measuring but 25 1/2 inches in height. To support his family better, he

abandoned his trade and with great success exhibited himself throughout

Holland and England. After having amassed a great fortune he returned

to his country, where he died in 1800, aged seventy. He was very

intelligent, and proved his power of paternity, especially by one son,

who at twenty-three was 5 feet 3 inches tall, and robust.

Another celebrated dwarf was Nicolas Ferry, otherwise known as Bebe. He

was born at Plaine in the Vosges in 1741; he was but 22 cm. (8 1/2

inches) long, weighed 14 ounces at birth, and was carried on a plate to

the church for baptism. At five Bebe was presented to King Stanislas of

Poland. At fifteen he measured 29 inches. He was of good constitution,

but was almost an idiot; for example, he did not recognize his mother

after fifteen days' separation. He was quite lax in his morals, and

exhibited no evidences of good nature except his lively attachment for

his royal master, who was himself a detestable character. He died at

twenty-two in a very decrepit condition, and his skeleton is preserved

in the Museum of Natural History in Paris. Shortly before his death

Bebe became engaged to a female dwarf named Therese Souvray, who at one

time was exhibited in Paris at the Theatre Conti, together with an

older sister. Therese lived to be seventy-three, and both she and her

sister measured only 30 inches in height. She died in 1819.

Aldrovandus gives a picture of a famous dwarf of the Duc de Crequi who

was only 30 inches tall, though perfectly formed; he also speaks of

some dwarfs who were not over 2 feet high.

There was a Polish gentleman named Joseph Borwilaski, born in 1739 who

was famed all over Europe. He became quite a scholar, speaking French

and German fairly well. In 1860, at the age of twenty-two, and 28

inches in height, he married a woman of ordinary stature, who bore him

two infants well conformed. He was exhibited in many countries, and

finally settled at Durham, England, where he died in 1837 at the almost

incredible age of ninety-eight, and is buried by the side of the

Falstaffian Stephen Kemble. Mary Jones of Shropshire, a dwarf 32 inches

tall and much deformed, died in 1773 at the age of one hundred. These

two instances are striking examples of great age in dwarfs and are

therefore of much interest. Borwilaski's parents were tall in stature

and three of his brothers were small; three of the other children

measured 5 feet 6 inches. Diderot has written a history of this family.

Richeborg, a dwarf only 23 inches in height, died in Paris in 1858 aged

ninety years. In childhood he had been a servant in the House of

Orleans and afterward became their pensioner. During the Revolution he

passed in and out of Paris as an infant in a nurse's arms, thus

carrying dispatches memorized which might have proved dangerous to

carry in any other manner.

At St. Philip's, Birmingham, there is the following inscription on a

tomb: "In memory of Mannetta Stocker, who quitted this life on the 4th

day of May, 1819, at the age of thirty-nine years, the smallest woman

in the kingdom, and one of the most accomplished." She was born in

Krauma, in the north of Austria, under normal conditions. Her growth

stopped at the age of four, when she was 33 inches tall. She was shown

in many villages and cities over Europe and Great Britain; she was very

gay, played well on the piano, and had divers other accomplishments.

In 1742 there was shown in London a dwarf by the name of Robert

Skinner, .63 meters in height, and his wife, Judith, who was a little

larger. Their exhibition was a great success and they amassed a small

fortune; during twenty-three years they had 14 robust and well-formed

children. Judith died in 1763, and Robert grieved so much after her

that he himself expired two years later.

Figure 161 shows a female dwarf with her husband and child, all of whom

were exhibited some years since in the Eastern United States. The

likeness of the child to the mother is already noticeable.

Buffon speaks of dwarfs 24, 21, and 18 inches high, and mentions one

individual, aged thirty-seven, only 16 inches tall, whom he considers

the smallest person on record. Virey in 1818 speaks of an English child

of eight or nine who was but 18 inches tall. It had the intelligence of

a child of three or four; its dentition was delayed until it was two

years old and it did not walk until four. The parents of this child

were of ordinary stature.

At the "Cosmorama" in Regent Street in 1848 there was a Dutch boy of

ten exhibited. He was said to be the son of an apothecary and at the

time of his birth weighed nine pounds. He continued to grow for six

months and at the expiration of that time weighed 12 pounds; since

then, however, he had only increased four pounds. The arrest of

development seemed to be connected with hydrocephalus; although the

head was no larger than that of a child of two, the anterior fontanelle

was widely open, indicating that there was pressure within. He was

strong and muscular; grave and sedate in his manner; cheerful and

affectionate; his manners were polite and engaging; he was expert in

many kinds of handicraft; he possessed an ardent desire for knowledge

and aptitude for education.

Rawdon described a boy of five and a half, at the Liverpool Infirmary

for Children, who weighed 10 1/2 pounds and whose height was 28 or 29

inches. He uttered no articulate sound, but evidently possessed the

sense of hearing. His eyes were large and well formed, but he was

apparently blind. He suckled, cut his teeth normally, but had tonic

contractions of the spine and was an apparent idiot.

Hardie mentions a girl of sixteen and a half whose height was 40 inches

and weight 35 1/2 pounds, including her clothes. During intrauterine

life her mother had good health and both her parents had always been

healthy. She seemed to stop growing at her fourth year. Her intellect

was on a par with the rest of her body. Sometimes she would talk and

again she would preserve rigid silence for a long time. She had a

shuffling walk with a tendency to move on her toes. Her temporary teeth

were shed in the usual manner and had been replaced by canines and

right first molar and incisors on the right side. There was no

indication of puberty except a slight development of the hips. She was

almost totally imbecile, but could tell her letters and spell short

words. The circumference of the head was 19 inches, and Ross pointed

out that the tendon-reflexes were well marked, as well as the

ankle-clonus; he diagnosed the case as one of parencephalus. Figure

162 represents a most curious case of a dwarf named Carrie Akers, who,

though only 34 inches tall, weighed 309 pounds.

In recent years several dwarfs have commanded the popular attention,

but none so much as "General Tom Thumb," the celebrated dwarf of

Barnum's Circus. Charles Stratton, surnamed "Tom Thumb," was born at

Bridgeport, Conn., on January 11, 1832; he was above the normal weight

of the new-born. He ceased growing at about five months, when his

height was less than 21 inches. Barnum, hearing of this phenomenon in

his city, engaged him, and he was shown all over the world under his

assumed name. He was presented to Queen Victoria in 1844, and in the

following year he was received by the Royal Family in France. His

success was wonderful, and even the most conservative journals

described and commented on him. He gave concerts, in which he sang in a

nasal voice; but his "drawing feat" was embracing the women who visited

him. It is said that in England alone he kissed a million females; he

prided himself on his success in this function, although his features

were anything but inviting. After he had received numerous presents and

had amassed a large fortune he returned to America in 1864, bringing

with him three other dwarfs, the "Sisters Warren" and "Commodore Nutt."

He married one of the Warrens, and by her had one child, Minnie, who

died some months after birth of cerebral congestion. In 1883 Tom Thumb

and his wife, Lavinia, were still living, but after that they dropped

from public view and have since died.

In 1895 the wife of a dwarf named Morris gave birth to twins at

Blaenavon, North Wales. Morris is only 35 inches in height and his wife

is even smaller. They were married at Bartholmey Church and have since

been traveling through England under the name of "General and Mrs.

Small," being the smallest married couple in the world. At the latest

reports the mother and her twins were doing well.

The Rossow Brothers have been recently exhibited to the public. These

brothers, Franz and Carl, are twenty and eighteen years respectively.

Franz is the eldest of 16 children and is said to weigh 24 pounds and

measure 21 inches in height; Carl is said to weigh less than his

brother but is 29 inches tall. They give a clever gymnastic exhibition

and are apparently intelligent. They advertise that they were examined

and still remain under the surveillance of the Faculty of Gottingen.

Next to the success of "Tom Thumb" probably no like attraction has been

so celebrated as the "Lilliputians," whose antics and wit so many

Americans have in late years enjoyed. They were a troupe of singers and

comedians composed entirely of dwarfs; they exhibited much talent in

all their performances, which were given for several years and quite

recently in all the large cities of the United States. They showed

themselves to be worthy rivals for honors in the class of

entertainments known as burlesques. As near as could be ascertained,

partly from the fact that they all spoke German fluently and originally

gave their performance entirely in German, they were collected from the

German and Austrian Empires.

The "Princess Topaze" was born near Paris in 1879. According to a

recent report she is perfectly formed and is intelligent and vivacious.

She is 23 1/2 inches tall and weighs 14 pounds. Her parents were of

normal stature.

Not long since the papers recorded the death of Lucia Zarete, a Mexican

girl, whose exact proportions were never definitely known; but there is

no doubt that she was the smallest midget ever exhibited In this

country. Her exhibitor made a fortune with her and her salary was among

the highest paid to modern "freaks."

Miss H. Moritz, an American dwarf, at the age of twenty weighed 36

pounds and was only 22 inches tall.

Precocious development is characterized by a hasty growth of the

subject, who at an early period of life attains the dimensions of an

adult. In some of these instances the anomaly is associated with

precocious puberty, and after acquiring the adult growth at an early

age there is an apparent cessation of the development. In adult life

the individual shows no distinguishing characters.

The first to be considered will be those cases, sometimes called

"man-boys," characterized by early puberty and extraordinary

development in infancy. Histories of remarkable children have been

transmitted from the time of Vespasian. We read in the "Natural

History" of Pliny that in Salamis, Euthimedes had a son who grew to 3

Roman cubits (4 1/2 feet) in three years; he was said to have little

wit, a dull mind, and a slow and heavy gait; his voice was manly, and

he died at three of general debility. Phlegon says that Craterus, the

brother of King Antigonus, was an infant, a young man, a mature man, an

old man, and married and begot children all in the space of seven

years. It is said that King Louis II of Hungary was born so long before

his time that he had no skin; in his second year he was crowned, in his

tenth year he succeeded, in his fourteenth year he had a complete

beard, in his fifteenth he was married, in his eighteenth he had gray

hair, and in his twentieth he died. Rhodiginus speaks of a boy who when

he was ten years impregnated a female. In 1741 there was a boy born at

Willingham, near Cambridge, who had the external marks of puberty at

twelve months, and at the time of his death at five years he had the

appearance of an old man. He was called "prodigium Willinghamense." The

Ephemerides and some of the older journals record instances of penile

erection immediately after birth.

It was said that Philip Howarth, who was born at Quebec Mews, Portman

Square, London, February 21, 1806, lost his infantile rotundity of form

and feature after the completion of his first year and became pale and

extremely ugly, appearing like a growing boy. His penis and testes

increased in size, his voice altered, and hair grew on the pubes. At

the age of three he was 3 feet 4 1/2 inches tall and weighed 51 1/4

pounds. The length of his penis when erect was 4 1/2 inches and the

circumference 4 inches; his thigh-measure was 13 1/2 inches, his

waist-measure 24 inches, and his biceps 7 inches. He was reported to be

clever, very strong, and muscular. An old chronicle says that in

Wisnang Parish, village of Tellurge, near Tygure, in Lordship Kiburge,

there was born on the 26th of May, 1548, a boy called Henry Walker, who

at five years was of the height of a boy of fourteen and possessed the

genitals of a man. He carried burdens, did men's work, and in every way

assisted his parents, who were of usual size.

There is a case cited by the older authors of a child born in the Jura

region who at the age of four gave proof of his virility, at seven had

a beard and the height of a man. The same journal also speaks of a boy

of six, 1.62 meters tall, who was perfectly proportioned and had

extraordinary strength. His beard and general appearance, together with

the marks of puberty, gave him the appearance of a man of thirty.

In 1806 Dupuytren presented to the Medical Society in Paris a child 3

1/2 feet high, weighing 57 pounds, who had attained puberty.

There are on record six modern cases of early puberty in boys, one of

whom died at five with the signs of premature senility; at one year he

had shown signs of enlargement of the sexual organs. There was another

who at three was 3 feet 6 3/4 inches high, weighed 50 pounds, and had

seminal discharges. One of the cases was a child who at birth resembled

an ordinary infant of five months. From four to fifteen months his

penis enlarged, until at the age of three it measured when erect 3

inches. At this age he was 3 feet 7 inches high and weighed 64 pounds.

The last case mentioned was an infant who experienced a change of voice

at twelve months and showed hair on the pubes. At three years he was 3

feet 4 1/2 inches tall and weighed 51 1/4 pounds. Smith, in Brewster's

Journal, 1829, records the case of a boy who at the age of four was

well developed; at the age of six he was 4 feet 2 inches tall and

weighed 74 pounds; his lower extremities were extremely short

proportionally and his genitals were as well developed as those of an

adult. He had a short, dark moustache but no hair on his chin, although

his pubic hair was thick, black, and curly. Ruelle describes a child of

three and a quarter years who was as strong and muscular as one at

eight. He had full-sized male organs and long black hair on the pubes.

Under excitement he discharged semen four or five times a day; he had a

deep male voice, and dark, short hair on the cheek and upper lip.

Stone gives an account of a boy of four who looked like a child of ten

and exhibited the sexual organs of a man with a luxuriant growth of

hair on the pubes. This child was said to have been of great beauty and

a miniature model of an athlete. His height was 4 feet 1/4 inch and

weight 70 pounds; the penis when semiflaccid was 4 1/4 inches long; he

was intelligent and lively, and his back was covered with the acne of

puberty. A peculiar fact as regards this case was the statement of the

father that he himself had had sexual indulgence at eight. Stone

parallels this case by several others that he has collected from

medical literature. Breschet in 1821 reported the case of a boy born

October 20, 1817, who at three years and one month was 3 feet 6 3/4

inches tall; his penis when flaccid measured 4 inches and when erect 5

1/4 inches, but the testicles were not developed in proportion. Lopez

describes a mulatto boy of three years ten and a half months whose

height was 4 feet 1/2 inch and weight 82 pounds; he measured about the

chest 27 1/2 inches and about the waist 27 inches; his penis at rest

was 4 inches long and had a circumference of 3 1/2 inches, although the

testes were not descended. He had evidences of a beard and his axillae

were very hairy; it is said he could with ease lift a man weighing 140

pounds. His body was covered with acne simplex and had a strong

spermatic odor, but it was not known whether he had any venereal

appetite.

Johnson mentions a boy of seven with severe gonorrhea complicated with

buboes which he had contracted from a servant girl with whom he slept.

At the Hopital des Enfans Malades children at the breast have been

observed to masturbate. Fournier and others assert having seen

infantile masturbators, and cite a case of a girl of four who was

habitually addicted to masturbation from her infancy but was not

detected until her fourth year; she died shortly afterward in a

frightful state of marasmus. Vogel alludes to a girl of three in whom

repeated attacks of epilepsy occurred after six months' onanism. Van

Bambeke mentions three children from ten to twenty months old, two of

them females, who masturbated.

Bidwell describes a boy of five years and two months who during the

year previous had erections and seminal emissions. His voice had

changed and he had a downy moustache on his upper lip and hair on the

pubes; his height was 4 feet 3 1/2 inches and his weight was 82 1/2

pounds. His penis and testicles were as well developed as those of a

boy of seventeen or eighteen, but from his facial aspect one would take

him to be thirteen. He avoided the company of women and would not let

his sisters nurse him when he was sick.

Pryor speaks of a boy of three and a half who masturbated and who at

five and a half had a penis of adult size, hair on the pubes, and was

known to have had seminal emissions. Woods describes a boy of six years

and seven months who had the appearance of a youth of eighteen. He was

4 feet 9 inches tall and was quite muscular. He first exhibited signs

of precocious growth at the beginning of his second year and when three

years old he had hair on the pubes. There is an instance in which a boy

of thirteen had intercourse with a young woman at least a dozen times

and succeeded in impregnating her. The same journal mentions an

instance in which a boy of fourteen succeeded in impregnating a girl of

the same age. Chevers speaks of a young boy in India who was sentenced

to one year's imprisonment for raping a girl of three.

Douglass describes a boy of four years and three months who was 3 feet

10 1/2 inches tall and weighed 54 pounds; his features were large and

coarse, and his penis and testes were of the size of those of an adult.

He was unusually dull, mentally, quite obstinate, and self-willed. It

is said that he masturbated on all opportunities and had vigorous

erections, although no spermatozoa were found in the semen issued. He

showed no fondness for the opposite sex. The history of this rapid

growth says that he was not unlike other children until the third year,

when after wading in a small stream several hours he was taken with a

violent chill, after which his voice began to change and his sexual

organs to develop.

Blanc quotes the case described by Cozanet in 1875 of Louis Beran, who

was born on September 29, 1869, at Saint-Gervais, of normal size. At

the age of six months his dimensions and weight increased in an

extraordinary fashion. At the age of six years he was 1.28 meters high

(4 feet 2 1/3 inches) and weighed 80 pounds. His puberty was

completely manifested in every way; he eschewed the society of children

and helped his parents in their labors. Campbell showed a lad of

fourteen who had been under his observation for ten years. When fifteen

months old this prodigy had hair on his pubes and his external genitals

were abnormally larger end at the age of two years they were fully

developed and had not materially changed in the following years. At

times he manifested great sexual excitement. Between four and seven

years he had seminal discharges, but it was not determined whether the

semen contained spermatozoa. He had the muscular development of a man

of twenty-five. He had shaved several years. The boy's education was

defective from his failure to attend school.

The accompanying illustration represents a boy of five years and three

months of age whose height at this time was 4 feet and his physical

development far beyond that usual at this age, his external genitals

resembling those of a man of twenty. His upper lip was covered by a

mustache, and the hirsute growth elsewhere was similarly precocious.

The inscription on the tombstone of James Weir in the Parish of

Carluke, Scotland, says that when only thirteen months old he measured

3 feet 4 inches in height and weighed 5 stone. He was pronounced by the

faculty of Edinburgh and Glasgow to be the most extraordinary child of

his age. Linnaeus saw a boy at the Amsterdam Fair who at the age of

three weighed 98 pounds. In Paris, about 1822, there was shown an

infant Hercules of seven who was more remarkable for obesity than

general development. He was 3 feet 4 inches high, 4 feet 5 inches in

circumference, and weighed 220 pounds. He had prominent eyebrows, black

eyes, and his complexion resembled that of a fat cook in the heat.

Borellus details a description of a giant child. There is quoted from

Boston a the report of a boy of fifteen months weighing 92 pounds who

died at Coney Island. He was said to have been of phenomenal size from

infancy and was exhibited in several museums during his life.

Desbois of Paris mentions an extraordinary instance of rapid growth in

a boy of eleven who grew 6 inches in fifteen days.

Large and Small New-born Infants.--There are many accounts of new-born

infants who were characterized by their diminutive size. On page 66 we

have mentioned Usher's instance of twins born at the one hundred and

thirty-ninth day weighing each less than 11 ounces; Barker's case of a

female child at the one hundred and fifty-eighth day weighing 1 pound;

Newinton's case of twins at the fifth month, one weighing 1 pound and

the other 1 pound 3 1/2 ounces; and on page 67 is an account of Eikam's

five-months' child, weighing 8 ounces. Of full-term children Sir

Everard Home, in his Croonian Oration in 1824, speaks of one borne by a

woman who was traveling with the baggage of the Duke of Wellington's

army. At her fourth month of pregnancy this woman was attacked and

bitten by a monkey, but she went to term, and a living child was

delivered which weighed but a pound and was between 7 and 8 inches

long. It was brought to England and died at the age of nine, when 22

inches high. Baker mentions a child fifty days' old that weighed 1

pound 13 ounces and was 14 inches long. Mursick describes a living

child who at birth weighed but 1 3/4 pounds. In June, 1896, a baby

weighing 1 3/4 pounds was born at the Samaritan Hospital, Philadelphia.

Scott has recorded the birth of a child weighing 2 1/2 pounds, and

another 3 1/4 pounds. In the Chicago Inter-Ocean there is a letter

dated June 20, 1874, which says that Mrs. J. B. McCrum of Kalamazoo,

Michigan, gave birth to a boy and girl that could be held in the palm

of the hand of the nurse. Their aggregate weight was 3 pounds 4 ounces,

one weighing 1 pound 8 ounces, the other 1 pound 12 ounces. They were

less than 8 inches long and perfectly formed; they were not only alive

but extremely vivacious.

There is an account of female twins born in 1858 before term. One

weighed 22 1/2 ounces, and over its arm, forearm, and hand one could

easily pass a wedding-ring. The other weighed 24 ounces. They both

lived to adult life; the larger married and was the mother of two

children, which she bore easily. The other did not marry, and although

not a dwarf, was under-sized; she had her catamenia every third week.

Post describes a 2-pound child.

On the other hand, there have been infants characterized by their

enormous size at birth. Among the older writers, Cranz describes an

infant which at birth weighed 23 pounds; Fern mentions a fetus of 18

pounds; and Mittehauser speaks of a new-born child weighing 24 pounds.

Von Siebold in his "Lucina" has recorded a fetus which weighed 22 1/2

pounds. It is worthy of comment that so great is the rarity of these

instances that in 3600 cases, in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, only one

child reached 11 pounds.

There was a child born in Sussex in 1869 which weighed 13 1/2 pounds

and measured 26 1/2 inches. Warren delivered a woman in Derbyshire of

male twins, one weighing 17 pounds 8 ounces and the other 18 pounds.

The placenta weighed 4 pounds, and there was an ordinary pailful of

liquor amnii. Both the twins were muscular and well formed; the parents

were of ordinary stature, and at last reports the mother was rapidly

convalescing. Burgess mentions an 18-pound new-born child; end Meadows

has seen a similar instance. Eddowes speaks of the birth of a child at

Crewe, a male, which weighed 20 pounds 2 ounces and was 23 inches long.

It was 14 1/2 inches about the chest, symmetrically developed, and

likely to live. The mother, who was a schoolmistress of thirty-three,

had borne two previous children, both of large size. In this instance

the gestation had not been prolonged, the delivery was spontaneous, and

there was no laceration of the parts.

Chubb says that on Christmas Day, 1852, there was a child delivered

weighing 21 pounds. The labor was not severe and the other children of

the family were exceptionally large. Dickinson describes a woman, a

tertipara, who had a most difficult labor and bore an extremely large

child. She had been thirty-six hours in parturition, and by

evisceration and craniotomy was delivered of a child weighing 16

pounds. Her first child weighed 9 pounds, her second 20, and her third,

the one described, cost her her life soon after delivery.

There is a history of a Swedish woman in Boston who was delivered by

the forceps of her first child, which weighed 19 3/4 pounds and which

was 25 3/4 inches long. The circumference of the head was 16 3/4

inches, of the neck 9 3/4, and of the thigh 10 3/4 inches.

Rice speaks of a child weighing 20 1/4 pounds at birth. Johnston

describes a male infant who was born on November 26, 1848, weighing 20

pounds, and Smith another of the same weight. Baldwin quotes the case

of a woman who after having three miscarriages at last had a child that

weighed 23 pounds. In the delivery there was extensive laceration of

the anterior wall of the vagina; the cervix and perineum, together with

an inch of the rectum, were completely destroyed.

Beach describes a birth of a young giant weighing 23 3/4 pounds. Its

mother was Mrs. Bates, formerly Anna Swann, the giantess who married

Captain Bates. Labor was rather slow, but she was successfully

delivered of a healthy child weighing 23 3/4 pounds and 30 inches long.

The secundines weighed ten pounds and there were nine quarts of

amniotic fluid.

There is a recent record of a Cesarian section performed on a woman of

forty in her twelfth pregnancy and one month beyond term. The fetus,

which was almost exsanguinated by amputation, weighed 22 1/2 pounds.

Bumm speaks of the birth of a premature male infant weighing 4320 gm.

(9 1/2 pounds) and measuring 54 cm. long. Artificial labor had been

induced at the thirty-fifth week in the hope of delivering a living

child, the three preceding infants having all been still-born on

account of their large size. Although the mother's pelvis was wide, the

disposition to bear huge infants was so great as to render the woman

virtually barren.

Congenital asymmetry and hemihypertrophy of the body are most peculiar

anomalies and must not be confounded with acromegaly or myxedema, in

both of which there is similar lack of symmetric development. There

seems to be no satisfactory clue to the causation of these

abnormalisms. Most frequently the left side is the least developed, and

there is a decided difference in the size of the extremities.

Finlayson reports a case of a child affected with congenital unilateral

hypertrophy associated with patches of cutaneous congestion. Logan

mentions hypertrophy in the right half of the body in a child of four,

first noticed shortly after birth; Langlet also speaks of a case of

congenital hypertrophy of the right side. Broca and Trelat were among

the first observers to discuss this anomaly.

Tilanus of Munich in 1893 reported a case of hemihypertrophy in a girl

of ten. The whole right half of the body was much smaller and better

developed than the left, resulting in a limping gait. The electric

reaction and the reflexes showed no abnormality. The asymmetry was

first observed when the child was three. Mobius and Demme report

similar cases.

Adams reports an unusual case of hemihypertrophy in a boy of ten.

There was nothing noteworthy in the family history, and the patient had

suffered from none of the diseases of childhood. Deformity was

noticeable at birth, but not to such a degree relatively as at a later

period. The increased growth affected the entire right half of the

body, including the face, but was most noticeable in the leg, thigh,

and buttock. Numerous telangiectatic spots were scattered irregularly

over the body, but most thickly on the right side, especially on the

outer surface of the leg. The accompanying illustration represents the

child's appearance at the time of report.

Jacobson reports the history of a female child of three years with

nearly universal giant growth (Riesenwuchs). At first this case was

erroneously diagnosed as acromegaly. The hypertrophy affected the face,

the genitals, the left side of the trunk, and all the limbs.

Milne records a case of hemihypertrophy in a female child of one year.

The only deviation from uniform excess of size of the right side was

shown in the forefinger and thumb, which were of the same size as on

the other hand; and the left side showed no overgrowth in any of its

members except a little enlargement of the second toe. While

hypertrophy of one side is the usual description of such cases, the

author suggests that there may be a condition of defect upon the other

side, and he is inclined to think that in this case the limb, hand, and

foot of the left side seemed rather below the average of the child's

age. In this case, as in others previously reported, there were

numerous telangiectatic spots of congestion scattered irregularly over

the body. Milne also reported later to the Sheffield Medico-Chirurgical

Society an instance of unilateral hypertrophy in a female child of

nineteen months. The right side was involved and the anomaly was

believed to be due to a deficiency of growth of the left side as well

as over-development of the right. There were six teeth on the right

side and one on the left.

Obesity.--The abnormality of the adipose system, causing in consequence

an augmentation of the natural volume of the subject, should be

described with other anomalies of size and stature. Obesity may be

partial, as seen in the mammae or in the abdomen of both women and men,

or it may be general; and it is of general obesity that we shall

chiefly deal. Lipomata, being distinctly pathologic formations, will be

left for another chapter.

The cases of obesity in infancy and childhood are of considerable

interest, and we sometimes see cases that have been termed examples of

"congenital corpulency." Figure 167 represents a baby of thirteen

months that weighed 75 pounds. Figure 168 shows another example of

infantile obesity, known as "Baby Chambers." Elliotson describes a

female infant not a year old which weighed 60 pounds. There is an

instance on record of a girl of four who weighed 256 pounds Tulpius

mentions a girl of five who weighed 150 pounds and had the strength of

a man. He says that the acquisition of fat did not commence until some

time after birth. Ebstein reports an instance given to him by Fisher

of Moscow of a child in Pomerania who at the age of six weighed 137

pounds and was 46 inches tall; her girth was 46 inches and the

circumference of her head was 24 inches. She was the offspring of

ordinary-sized parents, and lived in narrow and sometimes needy

circumstances. The child was intelligent and had an animated expression

of countenance.

Bartholinus mentions a girl of eleven who weighed over 200 pounds.

There is an instance recorded of a young girl in Russia who weighed

nearly 200 pounds when but twelve. Wulf, quoted by Ebstein, describes a

child which died at birth weighing 295 ounces. It was well proportioned

and looked like a child three months old, except that it had an

enormous development of fatty tissue. The parents were not excessively

large, and the mother stated that she had had children before of the

same proportions. Grisolles mentions a child who was so fat at twelve

months that there was constant danger of suffocation; but, marvelous to

relate, it lost all its obesity when two and a half, and later was

remarkable for its slender figure. Figure 169 shows a girl born in

Carbon County, Pa., who weighed 201 pounds when nine years old.

McNaughton describes Susanna Tripp, who at six years of age weighed 203

pounds and was 3 feet 6 inches tall and measured 4 feet 2 inches around

the waist. Her younger sister, Deborah, weighed 119 pounds; neither of

the two weighed over 7 pounds at birth and both began to grow at the

fourth month. On October, 1788, there died at an inn in the city of

York the surprising "Worcestershire Girl" at the age of five. She had

an exceedingly beautiful face and was quite active. She was 4 feet in

height and larger around the breast and waist; her thigh measured 18

inches and she weighed nearly 200 pounds. In February, 1814, Mr. S.

Pauton was married to the only daughter of Thomas Allanty of Yorkshire;

although she was but thirteen she was 13 stone weight (182 pounds). At

seven years she had weighed 7 stone (98 pounds). Williams mentions

several instances of fat children. The first was a German girl who at

birth weighed 13 pounds; at six months, 42 pounds; at four years, 150

pounds; and at twenty years, 450 pounds. Isaac Butterfield, born near

Leeds in 1781, weighed 100 pounds in 1782 and was 3 feet 13 inches

tall. There was a child named Everitt, exhibited in London in 1780, who

at eleven months was 3 feet 9 inches tall and measured around the loins

over 3 feet. William Abernethy at the age of thirteen weighed 22 stone

(308 pounds) and measured 57 inches around the waist. He was 5 feet 6

inches tall. There was a girl of ten who was 1.45 meters (4 feet 9

inches) high and weighed 175 pounds. Her manners were infantile and her

intellectual development was much retarded. She spoke with difficulty

in a deep voice; she had a most voracious appetite.

At a meeting of the Physical Society of Vienna on December 4, 1894,

there was shown a girl of five and a half who weighed 250 pounds. She

was just shedding her first teeth; owing to the excess of fat on her

short limbs she toddled like an infant. There was no tendency to

obesity in her family. Up to the eleventh month she was nursed by her

mother, and subsequently fed on cabbage, milk, and vegetable soup. This

child, who was of Russian descent, was said never to perspire.

Cameron describes a child who at birth weighed 14 pounds, at twelve

months she weighed 69 pounds, and at seventeen months 98 pounds. She

was not weaned until two years old and she then commenced to walk. The

parents were not remarkably large. There is an instance of a boy of

thirteen and a half who weighed 214 pounds. Kaestner speaks of a child

of four who weighed 82 pounds, and Benzenberg noted a child of the same

age who weighed 137. Hildman, quoted by Picat, speaks of an infant

three years and ten months old who had a girth of 30 inches. Hillairet

knew of a child of five which weighed 125 pounds. Botta cites several

instances of preternaturally stout children. One child died at the age

of three weighing 90 pounds, another at the age of five weighed 100

pounds, and a third at the age of two weighed 75 pounds.

Figure 170 represents Miss "Millie Josephine" of Chicago, a recent

exhibitionist, who at the reputed age of thirteen was 5 feet 6 inches

tall and weighed 422 pounds.

General Remarks.--It has been chiefly in Great Britain and in Holland

that the most remarkable instances of obesity have been seen,

especially in the former country colossal weights have been recorded.

In some countries corpulency has been considered an adornment of the

female sex. Hesse-Wartegg refers to the Jewesses of Tunis, who when

scarcely ten years old are subjected to systematic treatment by

confinement in narrow, dark rooms, where they are fed on farinaceous

foods and the flesh of young puppies until they are almost a shapeless

mass of fat. According to Ebstein, the Moorish women reach with

astonishing rapidity the desired embonpoint on a diet of dates and a

peculiar kind of meal.

In some nations and families obesity is hereditary, and generations

come and go without a change in the ordinary conformation of the

representatives. In other people slenderness is equally persistent, and

efforts to overcome this peculiarity of nature are without avail.

Treatment of Obesity.--Many persons, the most famous of whom was

Banting, have advanced theories to reduce corpulency and to improve

slenderness; but they have been uniformly unreliable, and the whole

subject of stature-development presents an almost unexplored field for

investigation. Recently, Leichtenstein, observing in a case of myxedema

treated with the thyroid gland that the subcutaneous fat disappeared

with the continuance of the treatment, was led to adopt this treatment

for obesity itself and reports striking results. The diet of the

patient remained the same, and as the appetite was not diminished by

the treatment the loss of weight was evidently due to other causes than

altered alimentation. He holds that the observations in myxedema, in

obesity, and psoriasis warrant the belief that the thyroid gland

eliminates a material having a regulating influence upon the

constitution of the panniculus adiposus and upon the nutrition of the

skin in general. There were 25 patients in all; in 22 the effect was

entirely satisfactory, the loss of weight amounting to as much as 9.5

kilos (21 pounds). Of the three cases in which the result was not

satisfactory, one had nephritis with severe Graves' disease, and the

third psoriasis. Charrin has used the injections of thyroid extract

with decided benefit. So soon as the administration of the remedy was

stopped the loss of weight ceased, but with the renewal of the remedy

the loss of weight again ensued to a certain point, beyond which the

extract seemed powerless to act. Ewald also reports good results from

this treatment of obesity.

Remarkable Instances of Obesity.--From time immemorial fat men and

women have been the object of curiosity and the number who have

exhibited themselves is incalculable. Nearly every circus and dime

museum has its example, and some of the most famous have in this way

been able to accumulate fortunes.

Athenaeus has written quite a long discourse on persons of note who in

the olden times were distinguished for their obesity. He quotes a

description of Denys, the tyrant of Heraclea, who was so enormous that

he was in constant danger of suffocation; most of the time he was in a

stupor or asleep, a peculiarity of very fat people. His doctors had

needles put in the back of his chairs to keep him from falling asleep

when sitting up and thus incurring the danger of suffocation. In the

same work Athenaeus speaks of several sovereigns noted for their

obesity; among others he says that Ptolemy VII, son of Alexander, was

so fat that, according to Posidonius, when he walked he had to be

supported on both sides. Nevertheless, when he was excited at a

repast, he would mount the highest couch and execute with agility his

accustomed dance.

According to old chronicles the cavaliers at Rome who grew fat were

condemned to lose their horses and were placed in retirement. During

the Middle Ages, according to Guillaume in his "Vie de Suger," obesity

was considered a grace of God.

Among the prominent people in the olden time noted for their embonpoint

were Agesilas, the orator Licinius Calvus, who several times opposed

Cicero, the actor Lucius, and others. Among men of more modern times we

can mention William the Conqueror; Charles le Gros; Louis le Gros;

Humbert II, Count of Maurienne; Henry I, King of Navarre; Henry III,

Count of Champagne; Conan III, Duke of Brittany; Sancho I, King of

Leon; Alphonse II, King of Portugal; the Italian poet Bruni, who died

in 1635; Vivonne, a general under Louis XIV; the celebrated German

botanist Dillenius; Haller; Frederick I, King of Wurtemberg, and Louis

XVIII.

Probably the most famous of all the fat men was Daniel Lambert, born

March 13, 1770, in the parish of Saint Margaret, Leicester. He did not

differ from other youths until fourteen. He started to learn the trade

of a die-sinker and engraver in Birmingham. At about nineteen he began

to believe he would be very heavy and developed great strength. He

could lift 500 pounds with ease and could kick seven feet high while

standing on one leg. In 1793 he weighed 448 pounds; at this time he

became sensitive as to his appearance. In June, 1809, he weighed 52

stone 11 pounds (739 pounds), and measured over 3 yards around the body

and over 1 yard around the leg. He had many visitors, and it is said

that once, when the dwarf Borwilaski came to see him, he asked the

little man how much cloth he needed for a suit. When told about 3/4 of

a yard, he replied that one of his sleeves would be ample. Another

famous fat man was Edward Bright, sometimes called "the fat man of

Essex." He weighed 616 pounds. In the same journal that records

Bright's weight is an account of a man exhibited in Holland who weighed

503 pounds.

Wadd, a physician, himself an enormous man, wrote a treatise on obesity

and used his own portrait for a frontispiece. He speaks of Doctor

Beddoes, who was so uncomfortably fat that a lady of Clifton called him

a "walking feather bed." He mentions Doctor Stafford, who was so

enormous that this epitaph was ascribed to him:--

"Take heed, O good traveler! and do not tread hard, For here lies Dr.

Stafford, in all this churchyard."

Wadd has gathered some instances, a few of which will be cited. At

Staunton, January 2, 1816, there died Samuel Sugars, Gent., who weighed

with a single wood coffin 50 stone (700 pounds). Jacob Powell died in

1764, weighing 660 pounds. It took 16 men to carry him to his grave.

Mr. Baker of Worcester, supposed to be larger than Bright, was interred

in a coffin that was larger than an ordinary hearse. In 1797 there was

buried Philip Hayes, a professor of music, who was as heavy as Bright

(616 pounds).

Mr. Spooner, an eminent farmer of Warwickshire, who died in 1775, aged

fifty-seven, weighed 569 pounds and measured over 4 feet across the

shoulders. The two brothers Stoneclift of Halifax, Yorkshire, together

weighed 980 pounds.

Keysler in his travels speaks of a corpulent Englishman who in passing

through Savoy had to use 12 chairmen; he says that the man weighed 550

pounds. It is recorded on the tombstone of James Parsons, a fat man of

Teddington, who died March 7, 1743, that he had often eaten a whole

shoulder of mutton and a peck of hasty pudding. Keysler mentions a

young Englishman living in Lincoln who was accustomed to eat 18 pounds

of meat daily. He died in 1724 at the age of twenty-eight, weighing 530

pounds. In 1815 there died in Trenaw, in Cornwall, a person known as

"Giant Chillcot." He measured at the breast 6 feet 9 inches and weighed

460 pounds. One of his stockings held 6 gallons of wheat. In 1822 there

was reported to be a Cambridge student who could not go out in the

daytime without exciting astonishment. The fat of his legs overhung his

shoes like the fat in the legs of Lambert and Bright. Dr. Short

mentions a lady who died of corpulency in her twenty-fifth year

weighing over 50 stone (700 pounds). Catesby speaks of a man who

weighed 500 pounds, and Coe mentions another who weighed 584 pounds.

Fabricius and Godart speak of obesity so excessive as to cause death.

There is a case reported from the French of a person who weighed 800

pounds. Smetius speaks of George Fredericus, an office-holder in

Brandenburgh, who weighed 427 pounds.

Dupuytren gives the history of Marie Francoise-Clay, who attained such

celebrity for her obesity. She was born in poverty, reached puberty at

thirteen, and married at twenty-five, at which age she was already the

stoutest woman of her neighborhood notwithstanding her infirmity. She

followed her husband, who was an old-clothes dealer, afoot from town to

town. She bore six children, in whom nothing extraordinary was noticed.

The last one was born when she was thirty-five years old. Neither the

births, her travels, nor her poverty, which sometimes forced her to beg

at church doors, arrested the progress of the obesity. At the age of

forty she was 5 feet 1 inch high and one inch greater about the waist.

Her head was small and her neck was entirely obliterated. Her breasts

were over a yard in circumference and hung as low as the umbilicus. Her

arms were elevated and kept from her body by the fat in her axillae.

Her belly was enormous and was augmented by six pregnancies. Her thighs

and haunches were in proportion to her general contour. At forty she

ceased to menstruate and soon became afflicted with organic heart

diseases.

Fournier quotes an instance of a woman in Paris who at twenty-four, the

time of her death, weighed 486 pounds. Not being able to mount any

conveyance or carriage in the city, she walked from place to place,

finding difficulty not in progression, but in keeping her equilibrium.

Roger Byrne, who lived in Rosenalis, Queen's County, Ireland, died of

excessive fatness at the age of fifty-four, weighing 52 stone. Percy

and Laurent speak of a young German of twenty who weighed 450 pounds.

At birth he weighed 13 pounds, at six months 42, and at four years 150

pounds. He was 5 feet 5 inches tall and the same in circumference.

William Campbell, the landlord of the Duke of Wellington in

Newcastle-on-Tyne, was 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 728 pounds. He

measured 96 inches around the shoulders, 85 inches around the waist,

and 35 inches around the calf. He was born at Glasgow in 1856, and was

not quite twenty-two when last measured. To illustrate the rate of

augmentation, he weighed 4 stone at nine months and at ten years 18

stone. He was one of a family of seven children. His appetite was not

more than the average, and he was moderate as regards the use of

liquors, but a great smoker Notwithstanding his corpulency, he was

intelligent and affable.

Miss Conley, a member of an American traveling circus, who weighed 479

pounds, was smothered in bed by rolling over on her face; she was

unable to turn on her back without assistance.

There was a girl who died at Plaisance near Paris in 1890 who weighed

470 pounds or more. In 1889 an impresario undertook to exhibit her; but

eight men could not move her from her room, and as she could not pass

through the door the idea was abandoned.

There was a colored woman who died near Baltimore who weighed 850

pounds, exceeding the great Daniel Lambert by 120 pounds. The journal

reporting this case quotes the Medical Record as saying that there was

a man in North Carolina, who was born in 1798, who was 7 feet 8 inches

tall and weighed over 1000 pounds, probably the largest man that ever

lived. Hutchison says that he Saw in the Infirmary at Kensington, under

Porter's care, a remarkable example of obesity. The woman was only just

able to walk about and presented a close resemblance to Daniel Lambert.

Obesity forced her to leave her occupation. The accumulation of fat on

the abdomen, back, and thighs was enormous.

According to a recent number of La Liberte, a young woman of

Pennsylvania, although only sixteen years old, weighs 450 pounds. Her

waist measures 61 inches in circumference and her neck 22 inches. The

same paper says that on one of the quays of Paris may be seen a

wine-shop keeper with whom this Pennsylvania girl could not compare. It

is said that this curiosity of the Notre-Dame quarter uses three large

chairs while sitting behind her specially constructed bar. There is

another Paris report of a man living in Switzerland who weighs more

than 40 stone (560 pounds) and eats five times as much as an ordinary

person. When traveling he finds the greatest difficulty in entering an

ordinary railway carriage, and as a rule contents himself in the

luggage van. Figure 171 represents an extremely fat woman with a

well-developed beard. To end this list of obese individuals, we mention

an old gentleman living in San Francisco who, having previously been

thin, gained 14 pounds in his seventieth year and 14 pounds each of

seven succeeding years.

Simulation of Obesity.--General dropsy, elephantiasis, lipomata,

myxedema, and various other affections in which there is a hypertrophic

change of the connective tissues may be mistaken for general obesity;

on the other hand, a fatty, pendulous abdomen may simulate the

appearances of pregnancy or even of ovarian cyst.

Dercum of Philadelphia has described a variety of obesity which he has

called "adiposis dolorosa," in which there is an enormous growth of

fat, sometimes limited, sometimes spread all over the body, this

condition differing from that of general lipomatosis in its rarity, in

the mental symptoms, in the headache, and the generally painful

condition complained of. In some of the cases examined by Dercum he

found that the thyroid was indurated and infiltrated by calcareous

deposits. The disease is not myxedema because there is no peculiar

physiognomy, no spade-like hands nor infiltrated skin, no alteration of

the speech, etc. Dercum considers it a connective-tissue dystrophy--a

fatty metamorphosis of various stages, possibly a neuritis. The first

of Dercum's cases was a widow of Irish birth, who died both alcoholic

and syphilitic. When forty-eight or forty-nine her arms began to

enlarge. In June, 1887, the enlargement affected the shoulders, arms,

back, and sides of the chest. The parts affected were elastic, and

there was no pitting. In some places the fat was lobulated, in others

it appeared as though filled with bundles of worms. The skin was not

thickened and the muscles were not involved. In the right arm there was

unendurable pain to the touch, and this was present in a lesser degree

in the left arm. Cutaneous sensibility was lessened. On June 13th a

chill was followed by herpes over the left arm and chest, and later on

the back and on the front of the chest. The temperature was normal.

The second case was a married Englishwoman of sixty-four. The enlarged

tissue was very unevenly distributed, and sensibility was the same as

in the previous case. At the woman's death she weighed 300 pounds, and

the fat over the abdomen was three inches thick. The third case was a

German woman in whom were seen soft, fat-like masses in various

situations over either biceps, over the outer and posterior aspect of

either arm, and two large masses over the belly; there was excessive

prominence of the mons veneris. At the autopsy the heart weighed 8 1/2

ounces, and the fat below the umbilicus was seven inches thick.

Abnormal Leanness.--In contrast to the fat men are the so-called

"living skeletons," or men who have attained notice by reason of

absence of the normal adipose tissue. The semimythical poet Philotus

was so thin that it was said that he fastened lead on his shoes to

prevent his being blown away,--a condition the opposite of that of

Dionysius of Heraclea, who, after choking to death from his fat, could

hardly be moved to his grave.

In March, 1754, there died in Glamorganshire of mere old age and

gradual decay a little Welshman, Hopkin Hopkins, aged seventeen years.

He had been recently exhibited in London as a natural curiosity; he had

never weighed over 17 pounds, and for the last three years of his life

never more than 12 pounds. His parents still had six children left, all

of whom were normal and healthy except a girl of twelve, who only

weighed 18 pounds and bore marks of old age.

There was a "living skeleton" brought to England in 1825 by the name of

Claude Seurat. He was born in 1798 and was in his twenty-seventh year.

He usually ate in the course of a day a penny roll and drank a small

quantity of wine. His skeleton was plainly visible, over which the skin

was stretched tightly. The distance from the chest to the spine was

less than 3 inches, and internally this distance was less. The

pulsations of the heart were plainly visible. He was in good health and

slept well. His voice was very weak and shrill. The circumference of

this man's biceps was only 4 inches. The artist Cruikshank has made

several drawings of Seurat.

Calvin Edson was another living skeleton. In 1813 he was in the army at

the battle of Plattsburg, and had lain down in the cold and become

benumbed. At this time he weighed 125 pounds and was twenty-five years

old. In 1830 he weighed but 60 pounds, though 5 feet 4 inches tall. He

was in perfect health and could chop a cord of wood without fatigue; he

was the father of four children.

Salter speaks of a man in 1873 who was thirty-two years of age and only

weighed 49 pounds. He was 4 feet 6 inches tall: his forehead measured

in circumference 20 1/2 inches and his chest 27 inches. His genitals,

both internal and external, were defectively developed. Figure 175

represents the well-known Ohio "living skeleton," J. W. Coffey, who has

been exhibited all over the Continent. His good health and appetite

were proverbial among his acquaintances.

In some instances the so-called "living skeletons" are merely cases of

extreme muscular atrophy. As a prominent example of this class the

exhibitionist, Rosa Lee Plemons at the age of eighteen weighed only 27

pounds. Figure 177 shows another case of extraordinary atrophic

condition of all the tissues of the body associated with

nondevelopment. These persons are always sickly and exhibit all the

symptoms of progressive muscular atrophy, and cannot therefore be

classed with the true examples of thinness, in which the health is but

slightly affected or possibly perfect health is enjoyed.