120 
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
The fourth observation in this group was made by MM. Launois 
and Roy (2). 
Note . — It is not quite clear that this case belongs to the class under 
consideration. The observers record the case under the title “ Anorchide 
hypermacroskele de 27 ans,” and as such it has been accepted by Eberth 
(19). The difficulty is this : There is a class of pathological giants who 
remain sexually immature, but who owe their giantism and their infantil- 
ism to an underlying disturbance of their metabolism. These differ alto- 
gether from those who owe their slightly increased stature and their 
disproportionate bodies to a simple uncomplicated testicular failure. MM. 
Launois and Roy seem, to the writer, to have failed to recognise this, with 
the result that the interpretation they put on some of their cases appears 
to him to be incorrect (2). The same remark would apply to some other 
recorded cases. Consideration of these has been excluded from this 
communication, except in the comparisons of body form. With the 
reservation here expressed, the facts of Observation A 4 may be considered. 
Observation A 4. 
W., age 27, height 1860 mm., looks taller than he really is on account 
of his slender build and thin legs. His body is ill-proportioned. His 
height seated (870 mm.) is very short in comparison with his standing 
height (1860 mm.) and with his span (1900 mm.). This shows that his 
excessive stature is chiefly due to the length of his lower limbs. The 
height of his great trochanter is 1050 mm. According to Quetelet, the 
measurement in a normally-proportioned man 25 years of age, and 
1682 mm. in height, should not be more than 873 mm. The same pro- 
portion for a stature of 1860 mm. is 960 mm., so that there is in this case 
an excess in the length of the lower limb of 90 mm. 
An X-ray photograph shows that the epiphysial cartilages are not 
obliterated. 
Further, the face is glabrous, the chest small, the pelvis large, the penis 
and scrotum rudimentary, and the testicles undiscoverable. 
Summary of Observations. Group A 1-4. 
Males whose testicles are functionless are found to possess unduly long 
limbs. This undue length (Observations 1-3) affects the radius and tibia 
more than the humerus and femur. The process of ossification is unduly 
prolonged (Observation 4). 
