proportions are fairly uniform, the head,
however, being always larger in proportion to the body, just as we find
in infants. Indeed, the proportions of "General Tom Thumb" were those
of an ordinary infant of from thirteen to fifteen months old.

Figure 156 shows a portrait of two well-known exhibitionists of about
the same age, and illustrates the possible extremes of anomalies in
stature.

Recently, the association of acromegaly with gigantism has been
noticed, and in these instances there seems to be an acquired uniform
enlargement of all the bones of the body. Brissaud and Meige describe
the case of a male of forty-seven who presented nothing unusual before
the age of sixteen, when he began to grow larger, until, having reached
his majority, he measured 7 feet 2 inches in height and weighed about
340 pounds. He remained well and very strong until the age of
thirty-seven, when he overlifted, and following this he developed an
extreme deformity of the spine and trunk, the latter "telescoping into
itself" until the nipples were on a level with the anterior superior
spines of the ilium. For two years he suffered with debility, fatigue,
bronchitis, night-sweats, headache, and great thirst. Mentally he was
dull; the bones of the face and extremities showed the hypertrophies
characteristic of acromegaly, the soft parts not being involved. The
circumference of the trunk at the nipples was 62 inches, and over the
most prominent portion of the kyphosis and pigeon-breast, 74 inches.
The authors agree with Dana and others that there is an intimate
relation between acromegaly and gigantism, but they go further and
compare both to the growth of the body. They call attention to the
striking resemblance to acromegaly of the disproportionate growth of
the boy at adolescence, which corresponds so well to Marie's terse
description of this disease: "The disease manifests itself by
preference in the bones of the extremities and in the extremities of
the bones," and conclude with this rather striking and aphoristic
proposition: "Acromegaly is gigantism of the adult; gigantism is
acromegaly of adolescence."

The many theories of the cause of gigantism will not be discussed here,
the reader being referred to volumes exclusively devoted to this
subject.

Celebrated Giants.--Mention of some of the most famous giants will be
made, together with any associate points of interest.

Becanus, physician to Charles V, says that he saw a youth