62 
LAVATER^S 
The lupporter of it pretended to have found the 
collar-bones two feet long; but as thofe of a com- 
mon man are only five inches, the giant mull have 
been four-and-twenty feet high, according to this 
computation, which is pretty near the height attri- 
buted to him. This forms the principal point con- 
tefted ; becaufe, if the rhinoceros, or fome other 
animals, have no fuch bones, there is no other but 
man that could have them of that dimenfion. 
But as they were foon reduced to aflies, upon 
being brought into the open air, there is a ground of 
doubt whether the whole was properly examined 
before Credulity had found partizans ready to propa- 
gate the common report on that fubjedt ; and fince 
men of that defcription, who ought to have been 
better informed, have given credit to ftories of this 
nature, we fhould be upon our guard againft all vul- 
gar notions when they do not ftand the teft of chi- 
rurgical experiments. 
In order to admit the real exiftence of a gigantic 
human race, we Ihould fuppofe that the wifdom of 
Providence would have been equally difplayed in 
forming the moft ufeful part of the brute creation 
upon the fame grand fcale ; particularly horfes, 
whofe weight, in comparifon with men five feet high. 
Is, in the common run, as 512 to 121 ; fo that they 
are not defigned to carry giants: nor are the fruits of 
the earth fufficient to feed them, fince, in their eyes. 
an 
