VOL. XXII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 475 



but rather, if duly weighed, very conformable to a certain anomalous method, 

 that she apparently affects in most of her productions. 



Thus, to take an instance from her vegetable kingdom, we cannot but observe 

 among trees and other plants, though of the same species, that some are of a 

 dwarf kind, while others arise to so stupendous a growth, that they more than 

 double the bulk even of such as are esteemed large in the same tribe. And 

 among animals, if we compare that small low race of horses, some of which I 

 have seen not much larger than a large dog, we have from the Isle of Man, 

 usually called Manks horses, to that lofty, large, and stately breed they have 

 in Northamptonshire in England, or in the Bishopric of Liege in Flanders, we 

 may properly enough esteem these in comparison with those a sort of gigantic 

 horses. And the same may be said of the Irish wolf-dog, of the greyhound 

 kind, and of so beautiful and large a make, that for its curious form, as well 

 as size, it far surpasses all other dogs of the creation, and if compared to a 

 common greyhound, shows itself truly of a gigantic breed ; and we may further 

 add concerning it, as the giants' stock of old is extinct, at least in these coun- 

 tries, so this gigantic dog is now so rare, that in a few generations more I doubt 

 not but it will be quite lost in these parts, and the species may perish from the 

 face of the earth. 



That nature also takes the same uncertain measures in the generation of man- 

 kind I think is not less apparent. Thus, the Laplanders are remarkable for their 

 low stature, and it is certain that there are, and have been, dwarfs in all ages and 

 countries, and some of them of a very extraordinary small size of body, not 

 above 30 inches in height, and some even lower. 



Now since natural causes operate so as to produce human creatures partaking 

 of all properties common to their kind, and of so small a model as to fall short 

 even of half the common standard, it cannot be unreasonable to imagine the same 

 natural causes may sometimes act in the other extreme, and produce instances of 

 twice the height of a middling stature. 



There is a manifest alliance and congruity observable in nature, between the 

 stature of a man's body, and his age during the time of his growth ; and as 

 54- feet may well be esteemed the most settled and ordinary degree of height in 

 a man, so about 70 years may justly be allowed the most common period of 

 his age : we have daily instances of exceptions ; Thomas Parr and Henry 

 Jenkins, both of England, and the old Countess of Desmond and Mrs. Eckle- 

 ston, both of Ireland, who fully completed double the usual term of life; so 

 we have no reason to question the accounts given us of others, that have been 

 found in stature double the common standard of man. Nay both longevity and 

 high stature naturally so result from their proper causes, that they are often 



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