The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-06-03
PALAY DAYS OF GIANTS
An Era When Men We're of Won
derful Stature.

IN DeSenerOt1nE IN size una Lon
Ecvity-Instnnces in Bygonc Ages
of Beings of Marvellous Physical
Heisht-Noted Illustrations.
That the human race has degenerated
in size as well as longevity is fact well
attested by various authorities. A well
known physician of this city, who has
made life study of brain and cerebral
development, says that visiting the cata-
combs Of Paris, what struck him most in
those vast Repositories of the contents Of
the city's ancient graveyards was the great
size Of the skulls in comparison with those
of more modern mankind. his superiority
OF development in the men who lived
thousand years or more ago, the doctor
attributes TO the open air life then in
vogue, and the physical sports and ex-
ercises INDUCED in.
There are several races of giants men
toned in the Bible, and the Greek and
Roman historians have recorded many ex-
amples which serve to show that these
specimens of elongated humanity were by
no means rare at one period of the world 8
history.
Thus it is mentioned that the Emperor
Maximian was eight feet some inches high.
The body of Orestes, according TO the
Greeks, was eleven feet and a half in
height, the giant Galbora brought from
Arabia to Rome under Claudius Caesar,
measured near ten feet, and the bones of
Secondilia and Pusio. keepers of the gar
dens of Sallust, were but six inches
shorter.
The probability is that, outside of culti-
waited Greece and Rome, among the semi
barbarous ancestors of the greater part of
present day European nations, physical de-
velopment reached often to more wondrous
proportions.
The Chevalier Scory. in his voyage to
the peak of Teneriffe, says that they found.
in one of the sepulchral caverns OF that
mountain, the head Of a Guanche, which
had eighty teeth, and that the body was
not less than fifteen feet long. The giant
Ferragus, slain by Orlando, nephew of
Charlemasne, was eighteen feet high.
Revland, a celebrated anatomist. who
wrote in 1914. says that some years before
that time there was to be seen in the
suburbs of st. Germaine the tomb of the
giant Isoret, who was twenty feet high.
At Rouen, in 1909, in digging in the
bitches near the Dominicamo, there was
found a stone tomb containing q skeleton,
whose skull held a bushel of corn, and
whose shin bone reached up to the girdle
of the tallest man there, being about four
feet long, and consequently the body must
have been seventeen or eighteen feet high.
Upon the tomb was plate of copper, upon
which was engraved, 'In this tomb lies
the noble and Puissant Lord, the Chevalier
Ruon de vallemont, and his bones" There
is, indeed, evidence in the ponderous ar
NOR and two-handed swords. which re-
main 10 us in museums. to prove that the
knight of the ages of chivalry was an he
roic specimen of human architecture.
Patterns, famous physician, declared
that he saw at Lucarne, the true human
bones of subject, which must have been
at least nineteen feet high.
Valance, in Dauphine, boasts OF possess
ing the bones of the giant Bucart, tyrant
OF the Vivarais, who was slain by an arrow
by the Count de Cabllon, his vassal. The
Domiricans had a part of the shin bone.
with the articulation CT the knee. and his
figure painted in fresco. with an inscription
showing that this giant was twenty-five
and one-half feet high, and that his bones
were found in 1905 rear the banks of the
Morderi, little river at the foot OF the
mountain of Crusol, upon which (tradition
says the giant dwelt
On January II, 1913. some masons dig
ging near the ruins of castle in Dau-
phine in a locality which had long been
called the giants field, at the depth OF
eighteen feet discovered a brick tomb
thirty feet long, twelve feet wide, and
eight feet high on which was a grey stone,
with the words 'Theutobochus Rex cut
thereon. When the tomb was opened they
found human skeleton entire, twenty-five
and one-half feet long, ten feet wide across
the shoulders, and five feet deep from the
breast bone to the back. The teeth were
each about the size Of an ox's foot, and his
shin bone measured four feet.
Near Magazine, in Sicily, in 1916. was
found a giant thirty feet high. His head
was the size of hogshead, and each OF his
teeth weighed five ounces.
Near Palermo. in the valley Of Niagara,
in Sicily, a skeleton of a giant thirty feet
long was found in the year 154S and
another thirtythree feet high in $3.50.
Several of the gigantic bones of this latter
subject are still preserved by private per-
sons in Italy.
The Athenians found near thirty-two ia
nous skeletons. one thirty-four and
another thirty-six feet in height.
At Tctic, in Bohemia in 1858, was found
a skeleton, the head of which could scarce
ly be encompassed by the arms of two
men together. and whose legs. which are
still preserved in the castle of the city,
were twenty-six feet long. The skull of
the giant found in Macedonia, September,
1891, held 30 pounds of corn.
The celebrated English scientist, Sir
Hans Sloane. who treated the matter very
learnedly, does not doubt the facts above
related, but thinks the bones were those
Of elephants, whales, or other animals.
But it has been well remarked that, while
elephants bones may be shown for those
of giants to superficial observers, this can
never impose upon such distinguished
anatomists as have testified in many cases
to the mammoth bones being unmistak-
ably human. Whales which by their i'm
mense bulk are more likely to be substi-
tuted for the largest giants, have neither
arms nor legs, and the head of that marine
animal has not the least resemblance to
that of man. If 1t be true, therefore, that
a great number of the gigantic bones
mentioned have been seen by experts and
have by them been reputed real human
remains, it may be reasonably inferred
that the existence of men Of superior
physical proportions to any Of modern
times has been proved.