Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-07-31
LARGE HANDS.
Mrs. Hansen is Hitler EXTREME
tiles Large.
ODD MALADY OLA NEW YoRKW0MAN
No Shoe VIII Fit Her and Her Feet are
Nearly Thirteen Inches Long
Strange Case.

y
New York, and they have not ceased TO
grow. Mrs. Hansen is an inmate OF
the Montefiore Home for Chronic In
valids, at One Hundred and Thirty
eighth street.
Mrs. Hansen is not i'll, although she
has sharp pains in her limbs and is
weak not only from lack of exercise,
but principally on account OF rapid
growth. She has been growing for
twelve years, and in that time has de-
veloped phenomenal proportions.
Medical history records very few such
cases as Mrs. Hansen's. The doctors
call this abnormal growth aoromegaly.
The French physician, Marie, who in
1880 practically discovered the dis
ease, as physicians have decided it to
be, SO called it from two Greek words
signifying large extremities. 1t is not
always a growth of the extremities
alone. Chang, the Chinese giant, was
a giant because he had acromegaly, and
the giants who hourished in antiquity
are by some scientists set down as cases
of acromegaly.
The only drawback to this theory is
that the giants of antiquity were almost
invariably strong; victims of aero
megaly, so far as have been observed.
are weak. Gases of the disease are so
extremely rare that pr ysicians have no
opportunity for comparison, and are
naturally little reserved i'll express
ing any absolute convictions in regard
to its symptoms, cause and treatment.
In fact, honest physicians say they do
not know.
Aoromegaly is nervous disease and
in some way connected with lack of
oxygen in the system. Fish when kept
in water from which oxygen is shut off
in time contract similar disease; they
grow gradually to very large size.
The malady is generally associated
with enlargement or atrophy of the
tbyoid body and enlargement of the
thymis gland. The hands and feet en-
large, bones as we'll as muscles.
and the enlargement is exaggerated in
appearance The shoulder blades, collar
bone and sternal ends of the ribs be-
come massive. The lower jaw assumes
vast proportions, the teeth spreading
and projecting in front of those of the
upper jaw. The nose, ears and eyelids
take part in the change. and the tongue
sometimes is of huge proportions.
The disease is chronic one, no treat
ment so far tried having had any
effect. Sometimes after many years
the growth is arrested. Although in
some respects resembling and very
often mistaken for rheumatism, there
is no connection between the two dis
eases. Acromegaly most frequently
occurs between the ages of 80 and 40,
though there are ON record cases as
early as 5 and as late as 48 years.
Some physicians maintain that in
acromegaly the growth is always lati-
tudinal, but those who have had oppor-
tunites of observing several cases say
that it is sometimes entirely longitude.
nal, sometimes latitudinal. but most
frequently both.
Many even of the recently published
medical books have nothing to say of
acromegaly, SO recent is its discovery
and so rare the disease. Those that do
mention it, for lack of more and better
information, confine themselves to
few brief statements.
An interview was obtained with Mrs.
Hansen in her pretty room at the Mon
tefiore Home. She was sitting by the
window in a wheel chair as the re-
porter entered and turned pleasant
face, full of character, towards the
visitor Her weight must be from
$50 to 800 pounds. as her body quite
fills the chair. The development of
head, hands. feet and chest is wonder.
full. An attendant is always with Mrs.
Hansen, as she is unable to walk.
although she manages to get about in
her wheel chair more than might be
imagined. Her eyes are gray, deep set
and apparently small, owing to the de-
velopment of the other features. Her
nose alone measures 1-S inches in
length. Her face measures from fore
head to chin II inches. The occipital
frontal measurement is 1917 inches;
that of the head Is inches. Her tongue
is thick and covered with ridges or
assures and is almost as large as that
of calf. The jaws are also broad
and heavy. The head is oval in shape
and as large as an ordinary pumpkin.
Her hands. which are too large and
too heavy to lift about much, are bat
tledore shaped. The fingers are five
inches long and four and two-thirds
inches in circumference. The meas
urement about the knuckles is thirteen
and one-baf inches, and from wrist to
finger tips about nine inches. Owing
to pains in the hands and slight
stiffness in the joints she is unable to
employ them in knitting and sewing,
and thus, often, time hangs heavily.
She is fond of wheeling her chair about
the corridors and out upon the veran.
das, where she can observe the other
patients. and although she is herself
somewhat reserved, enjoys their COM
pany very much. She is great favor.
lite with the inmates.
Her feet are always clad in wooden
3D. IL l<rSL Ill. L.