The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-11-26

four days after the battle Of Magenta), another Z
victory was gained by the French at the same
place, whtT, the Austrans we're completely routed.
Krchr .er disCourses of the skeleton Of the giant
SO mir .utcy described by BoccaccO) found In the
tourtt enth century, in a cave near Trapani in
Scily il was reported % be three hundred feet
ia length, and a single tooth was said TO have
weighed one hundred ounces; but when he
visited the place he was shown tic remains OF
mastodon. The same learned writer has given
comparative scale of i've reputcd giants, IN which
Goliath scarcely overtOps the ankle OF the skelc-
ton at Tmpani.
gigantic races i'm thc New World we're uotuncon-
mon, and the IdtagOuiaus were said by Byron
/ and the early GuyigatOrS 90 be over niue rect 10
height but more recent and more relitb'e voya-
| GERS assure as that the average stature OF the
/ Southern slyagCs averages about five feet and
/ eleven inches. In the year l1l2, DIR. Mlther, ia
/ the philosophical Transactions announced the
/ discovery Of enormous bones and teeth, which
/ had been found ia the State Of New York, and
. which ho regarded as evidence of the existence
] of giants but these remains were also found 20
/ be those Of a mastUdOn. Humboldt SAYS the
/ Guaguiists, in Ecuador, measured six aui one
/ half feet and that the payauuas were equally
/ tall while the Carribbecs Of Cumana, iu Vene-
huela, were the most gigantic people he had seen
/ in The New World.
There ia no fixed law by which the human
/ stature con invariably be determined; though
/ there is an average standard from which the
deviatiOns, either way, are not very consider
/ four and one-balf feet u little over six feet I;
but men and women are occasionally met with
Of a much greater stature. At the present time
the renowned T.. L. Barnum has on exhibition q
giant and gantess the former is represented as
measuring eight feet, and "MisB Anna Swan" as
eight feet and Uver"l p Taking away the dis
position 10 deal in the marvellous, we may safely
assert that no human being has ever existed Of q
/ greater height than ten feet, If even that. OF
authentic instances of persons who in modern
times have much exceeded the ordinary size, e
few may be here recorded -
John Middleton, Of Hale, in Lancashire, born
in 1878, was nine feet three inches in height; his
hand, from the carpus 20 the end of the middle
finger, was seventeen inches, his palm eight and
One-half inches blacksmith, named Parsons,
who subsequently became porter at the Court of
Charles the Second, was seven feet two inches ;
"having strength equal TO his height, valor 70 his
strength, and temper to his yalOr." One of
! Frederick the Greats grenaders, a Swede mea-
sured eight and One-halt feet, and yeOman Of
the Duke of Brunswick was of the same stature ;
here II is worthy of mention that the inhabitants
! Of POtsdam, who are descended from the rcgi-
t ment Of Prussian grcnadiers, are still remarkable
for exceeding the average height, which, says
! Forster, "is more especially striking in the nu-
J merous gigantic figures OF women"
Bernhard Gill, who was exhibited in France
| in 1864, and whose height was stated to be ten
10 feet, was certainly more than eight Seyera
i among others was Patrick COtter, born in l7Gl
2 he was eight feet seven inches in stature, his
J nand, from inc commencement OF the palm 20
2 the extremity OF the middle finger was twelve
inches, and his shoe was seventeen inches. He
died In 1906. In the Museum of the London
, College Of Surgeons is the skeleton Of another
lrishman, named Charles Byrne (who, however,
went by the name OfO'Brien). He died in 1888,
nc the age Of twenty-five years, aud measured
eight feet four inches. "Bg Sam, porter to the
Prince of Wales, at Carlton House, was nearly
eight feet, and performed, rs ygiant, in the
Romance Of Cy1lOH, at the Opera House, in Lon
don, in 1903. The last on our list Miles d trden
of Tennessee, born in 1885, was seven and one
half feet in height, and, Just prior TO his de lth
in 1857, he weighed according to "Appleton's
Cyclopgdia," over one thousand pOunds
Rapid development Of the system invariably
brings on premature old age. In the current
number of London magazine case is recorded
of girl who cut four teeth at the end of the first
two weeks, walked about and had hair reaching
to the middle of her back after the seventh month
however, she died in state Of exhaustion in her
| twelfth year. PrecOCiOus mental attainments are
frequently destructive OF life as rapid growth
the wonderful Baratter, at the age of four, spoke
and read Latin, French, and German was an
excellent Greek scholar at six, and, when ten
years of age, translated the Bible from the Origi-
nal Hebrew; at nineteen he also died of eXhaus-
tOn. We know little Of the cause which occa-
sions the excessive development on which the
production of giants depends however, the re-
nowned Bishop Berkeley, who died in 1853,
attempted, with considerable success to manu-
faetuIe giant; he took poor orphan, named
Magrath (also OF Irish BIRTH, and reared him on
| ttAAhh ny BNhlN plAuNlpLlo3 NuLGu NtIC bO lAI
successful that at the age ofsixteen he was seven
feet and that at the time Of his death (Which
occurred with all the symptoms Of senilty, at
the age Of twenty he was seven feet eight
inehas in stature his skeleton is preserved in
the Anatomical Museum of Trinity College,
Dublin.
We may here conclude, in the words of another,
that "the ordinary size of man is particularly well
adapted 10 his wants aRd uses; and we gene
rally find that those individuals who deviate
greatly from the ordinary standard are neither
well proportioned nor healthy, the heads Of
giants being generally too small, and Of dWarfs
too lapge,'-HOnse Journal.