GIGANTISM 835 



lived at the time of Henry VIII had measured 8 feet 8 inches. Five 

 sisters had an average height of 6 feet 3 inches, the tallest who measured 

 7 feet 2 inches having died at twenty. Four brothers averaged 6 feet 6 

 inches. The same author says of one Louis Frenz, 7 feet 6 inches tall, 

 born in 1800, that he had one sister "nearly as tall" and a brother "still 

 taller" than himself. 



According to Meige the Chinese giant Chang, 8 feet tall, had a sister 

 of 8 feet 4 inches. Among the cases we have related on the previous 

 pages there are many similar data: Launois and Roy's giant Charles 

 had an uncle 200 cm. tall. Achard and Loeper's "Tambourmajor" had 

 a father of 195 cm. and a paternal uncle of 210 cm. Both the father and 

 grandfather of Jodiche's giant were of giant size, as was the brother of the 

 one described by Symmers, and the uncle of the giant Constantin. 



However, as was long ago emphasized by Woods Hutchinson, the great 

 majority of giants have been sterile, and all attempts at breeding giants 

 have been futile. One giant couple, however, called by Gould and Pyle 

 "the tallest married couple known to mankind," Captain Bates of Ken- 

 tucky, 7 feet 1 inch, and his wife, the Nova Scotia giantess, Anna Swann, 

 7 feet 9 inches, had born to them (according to Gilford) a child which 

 weighed 23% Iks. and measured 30 inohes in length. It died during 

 delivery, "as no forceps could be procured of sufficient size to grasp the 

 head." This was their second child, the first one having weighed 19 Ibs. 



Association of Gigantism with Other Abnormalities. We may begin 

 with the biblical account of Goliath's son with six fingers and six toes. 

 R. C. Lucas describes a family in which there were many individuals 

 with six fingers and toes and one of the ancestors was said to have been 

 exhibited as a giantess. Several members of this family also had webbed 

 supernumerary digits and two were afflicted with harelip. It is interest- 

 ing that Bertolotti sees a relationship between the hypophysis and poly- 

 dactylism. 



Gould and Pyle mention a German giantess who lived during the time 

 of Queen Anne and had neither hands nor feet. 



Ballistini describes syndactylism of the second and third toes of both 

 feet in a young acromegalic giant. Sanz describes a boy of eleven years, 

 170 cm. tall, with prognathism, prominent nose, and pseudohypertrophic 

 muscular dystrophy. The association with leontiasis ossea has already 

 been alluded to. 



Metabolism in Gigantism. Apparently the first and only thorough 

 investigation of metabolism in a case of gigantism was made by Levi 

 and Franchini on the giant Palozzi, whose case is related on page 170. 

 They found that the results were similar to those obtained in acromegaly. 

 Previously, Launois and Roy had shown in the giant Charles an increased 

 daily amount of urine with increased elimination of chlorides, phosphates 

 and urea. Sugar had been found in the urine of the giant Botis by 33uday 



