GIGANTISM 



823 



Fig. 8. Deformity of brain from 

 cranial hyperostosis. ( Buhl's 

 case. ) 



floor of the orbit raised, and the left wall of the nose displaced to the 

 right. The left frontal bone measured 6 cm. (2% inches) in thickness; 

 the left temporal, 1.5 cm. ; the right, 1 cm. The left side of the occipital 

 and parietal bones also was thick. Both 

 in the frontal and parietal bones super- 

 ficial porous islands were found. The in- 

 terior of the skull was diminished on the 

 left side, the sella turcica displaced to the 

 right. The brain weighed 1,465 grams, 

 and was much decomposed at the time of 

 the autopsy. The hypophysis is not men- 

 tioned. Buhl attributed the patient's 

 death to compression of the brain. 



Bassoe's case was the giant Wilkins, 

 245 cm. tall, who died in 1902 at the age 

 of 28 years. When 19 years old he was 

 described by Dana. He then measured 7 

 feet 4 inches (223 cm.) and weighed 325 

 Ibs. His general proportions were for the 

 most part good, but his feet (14 in. or 35.5 cm.) and hands (10% in. or 

 26 cm. from the tip of the middle finger to the styloid process of the ulnae) 

 were enormous, and the left side of the face showed an osseous hypertrophy, 



involving the frontal, superior and inferior 

 maxillary bones. His vision at that time 

 was good. His muscular strength was poor. 

 Three years later (1896) he was presented 

 to the Medical Society of Vienna by Lam- 



: ^i K~' ' : ^MM k er g as a case ^ acrome g a ly> but Maximil- 



|L -Vjjipjl^ Wijmfmim * an Steinberg and Schlesinger opposed this 



view, because of the absence of enlargement 

 of the soft parts and of prominence of the 

 lower jaw, and because the hands and feet, 

 though huge, were in proportion to the size 

 of the body. In 1898 Villers of Brussels 

 designated this man as a "scaphocephalic 

 giant" and attributed the condition to 

 rickets in childhood. He was also examined 

 by Virchow, and casts of his hands and feet 

 exist in the Pathological Museum in Berlin. 

 For several months before his death in 1902 

 he suffered from headache and vomiting. He 



became blind in the left eye, and three weeks before death in the right one 

 also. The left side of the face was anesthetic and the left ear deaf. The 

 left eyeball was immobile. The enlargement of the left side of the head 



Fig. 9. Hyperostotic skull. 

 (Buhl's case.) 



