Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-08-08
E WERE GIANTS IN
THOSE DAYS

THOSE DAYS
\ Ii legendary history is full Of
tales about giants. There
was Goliath of Gath, whom David
the shepherd boy, slew in the VAL
ley Of Elah. We have a very full
and detailed history of him in the
first Book Of Samuel. He was six
cubits and a span in height. A
Hebrew cubit was about 17H
inches. A span is the distance be-
tween the thumb and little finger
when spread out to its greatest
extent. 1t was reckoned about
9 inches. So this famous giant of
the Bible story was about 9H feet
high. His weight is not given, but
it is recorded that his coat of
mail weighed 5000 shekels of
brass" and the spearhead that he
carried on a wooden haft like "a
weavers' BEAM" weighed 900
shekels of iron" We are not fully
informed as to just what a shekel
of brass or a shekel of iron
weighed in those days, but a
shekel Of gold was about half an
ounce troy. If the same weight
applied to the baser metals that
coat of mail Goliath wore would
weigh about 200 pounds and his
s%pearhead Is pounds. Then he
wore other brass protective furni-
ture besides and must have been a
walking junkshop. David killed
him with a small pebble thrown by
a sling which hit him between the
eyes, and won the kings daughter
as a prize for his valor.
Buddha won a wife with the bow
of a giant. This bow had lain in
a temple for hundreds of years. So
great was it that no man till Budd-
has time could bend it. Almost all
legendary history tells US of the
existence of these giants and their
mighty deeds. We have been in
clined to take a grain of salt with
them. decming them rather greatly
exaggerated, to say the least. But
now comes d dignified scientific
journal, the Journal of the Ameri-
can Medical association, with an
account of a giant to match Goliath
in his proportions. He is a Rus
sian born in Siberia and has been
making some money for himself by
exhibiting himself in Hungary.
Some American Barnun will get
him and make a fortune out of him.
no doubt. We read this descrip-
ton of him in American Medicine
(New York;:
He is 81 years of age, his height
is 9 feet 3 inches, and he is built
in proportion to his height. Thus,
his hand is l foot l inch from fin
ger tip to wrist; his foot is l foot
g inches long; his chest measure
ment is So inches; the circumfer-
ence of his head is Is inches and
his weight is ass pounds. To sup
port this huge frame he eats an
amount that would satisfy four 9TH
ers of good appetite. In four meals
in the course Of the day he con
sumes 4 or S pints of milk, IS to 20
eggs, 3 or a pounds of meat, S or
6 loaves Of bread, large quantities
of potatoes, beans and other vege-
tables, q to 6 pints of wine and S
or 6 quarts of beer. These guam
titles appear to be well attested, as
do the measurements of his proper
tons; but the fact that arrests at
tention particularly in the accounts
Of the giants habits is the enor
nous amount Of sleep that he
needs. Normally he passes a large
portion of the day in slunber, and
he has been known to sleep for "a
hours on end. Even when awake.
his movements are slow and delib-
crate, and he is inclined to doze
off when left alone. the only slim
illus to exertion being the cravings
of hunger, which are said to be
acute. 1t is impossible in the light
of recent researches on gigantism
to regard this prodigious specimen
of humanity as a mere freak He
must be the subject of pathologic
change, probably in the pituitary
body. The condition of general
symmetrical gigantism gradually