The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-09-16
GIANT AND DWARF.
MYSTERY OF THE GROWTH OF
THE HUMAN BODY.
Why Men Grow or Do Not-The
Mechanism OF Increase in Dimen-
sion Remarkable Examples
of Abnormal Growth.

Why is one person limited in stature to
few inches while another stretches up
several feet? Whyis is it that one at ma
turity weighs not above fifty pounds and
another attains a weight ten times as
CREATE These are all questions of growth,
and some marvellous examples are re-
corded.
Nearly every nation has prodnced its
celebrated giant, and most nations more
than one. James Toller, born at st.
Neots, Huntington, England, sat the age
of ten years had attained the surprising
height of five feet and upward; at the
age of eighteen years he had reached the
height of upward of eight feet aud one
and one-half inches, and was still in pro-
gress of growth"
Two separate men, each of whom was
eight feet in height, claimed the cogno"
men of "The Irish Giant O'Brien" at
the same time. The skeleton of one Of
these is to be found in the Museum of
the College of Surgeons. London. 1t
was bought by the celebrated surgeon,
John Hunter, who paid S25OO for the
body for the purpose OF dissection. This
O'Brien died from debauch at the age
of twenty-five. The other O'Brien,
whose real name was Patrick Cotter,
earned fortune by exhibiting himself,
and attained the extreme limits ola
giants Lfe-forty- six years. He took
the precaution to have his grave ch:seled
out OF the solid rock twelve feet deep
and provided that it should be kept
locked and constantly watched. This
O'Brien used to amuse himself by light
ing his pipe at the street lamps, aud he
quite terrified a highwayman who on one
occasion had stopped O'Brien's carriage
by simply putting his head out of the
window and stretching himself up to his
full height.
The skeleton of another Irish giant to
be found in the anatomical room OF
Trinity College, Dublin, is seven feet
six inches in height, aud constituted the
frame work of McGrath, born in Upper
ary, who made the tour of Europe as
the "Prodigious Irish Giant" His
enormous growth was said to have been
the result of an experiment made by the
celebrated Bishop Berkeley, who put the
boy-an unfortunate orphan through
fattening process with this result.
Bernardo Gigli, an Italian, attained
the height of eight feet when only
eighteen years of age. Big Sam, the
Prince of Wales porter, VINO was nearly
eight feet in height, is the tallest Scotch
man, unless we credit the account given
by NJ. LIE Cat, who tells of the Scotch
giant "Funnum, who lived in the time
of Eugene H., King of Scotland" and
who measured eleven and one.half feet
in height. The giant of Utrecht, Hoi-
land, described by DR.. Diemerbrock, the
auatomist, stood eight and oue-half feet
in height. The king of giants, however,
was Christoff Munster, born at Erlosen,
near Muuden, in June, 1850, who, &C
cording to authentic records, attained q
height of nine and one-half feet, three
inches taller than Goliath of Gath. He
served in the body guards of the Elector
and lived forty-four years.
Rapid decay seems to naturally follow
rapid and excessive development. A re-
markable illustration of this is shown in
an account given by DR.. Dawkes, a sur
geon of St. Ives, who published, in 1744,
Gan Account of the Gigantic Boy of
Wilingham." This boy was Thomas
Hall, who, when two years eleven
months old, was three feet and nine
inches in height, and at the age Of four
wears, one month, was four feet five
inches in height, so, had he grown to
manhood st this rate, he would have at.
tanned nine or ten feet. When he died
in his fifth year he had a thick pair OF
whiskers and weighed about eighty live
pounds.
That the period of growth is not limited
to the legal age of maturity is true. A
gentleman thirty years of age connected
with literary journal of this city two
years ago was six feet Two inches IN
height, and is now six feet four. He Is
in perfect health and presents remark
ably youthful appearance.
The immediate factor in the stoppage
of growth seems to be the hardening of
the bones, particularly the long bones,
through the secretion of lime. But this
is probably a mere incident resulting from
the influence of food, excessive physical
exercise, cold or some other force affect
ing the general system. Among the re-
cipes given for checking the growth of
children is that of amounting the back
bone with the fat of bats and moles.
This is said to have the effect of harden
ing the cartilage and thus preventing
growth. Sweating" the process used
for reducing the weight of jockeys, is
another means employed for checking
development. 1t is said tnat dwarfs
have been arti6cially produced by the
horrible practice of feeding infants on
sour cider instead OF milk.
As in the case Of giants, the stature of
these little people his, in most cases
probably, been the result OF accident.
Contrary to their huge rivals in interest,
dwarfs frequently attain great age.
Richebourg, who died in Paris in 1858,
was ninety years old. He was only
twenty. three inches high, something less
than the stature of our own most cele-
brated dwarf, General Tom Thumb. The
first English dwarf of whom there is au-
thentic record, was only one and a half
feet high till thirteen years of age, though
he afterward attained tt e height OF three
feet nine inches. This wss Jeffrey Hud-
-. a. ..-a.on%oS to O,,oon Hon.