The African pygmies who were sent to the King of Italy and shown in Rome resembled the pygmy travelers of Akka that Schweinfurth saw at the court of King Munza at Monbuttu. These two pygmies at Rome were found in Central Africa and were respectively about ten and fifteen years old. They spoke a dialect of their own and different from any known African tongue; they were partly understood by an Egyptian sergeant, a native of Soudan, who accompanied them as the sole survivor of the escort with which their donor, Miani, penetrated Monbuttu. Miani, like Livingstone, lost his life in African travel. These dwarfs had grown rapidly in recent years and at the time of report, measured 1.15 and 1.02 meters. In 1874 they were under the care of the Royal Geographical Society of Italy. They were intelligent in their manner, but resented being lionized too much, and were prone to scratch ladies who attempted to kiss them.

The "Aztec Children" in 1851, at the ages of seven and six years, another pair of alleged indigenous pygmies, measured 33 3/4 and 29 1/2 inches in height and weighed 20 3/4 and 17 pounds respectively. The circumference of their heads did not equal that of an ordinary infant at birth.

It is known that at one time the ancients artificially produced dwarfs by giving them an insufficient alimentation when very young. They soon became rachitic from their deprivation of lime-salts and a great number perished, but those who survived were very highly prized by the Roman Emperors for their grotesque appearance. There were various recipes for dwarfing children. One of the most efficient in the olden times was said to have been anointing the backbone with the grease of bats, moles, dormice, and such animals; it was also said that puppies were dwarfed by frequently washing the feet and backbone, as the consequent drying and hardening of the parts were alleged to hinder their extension. To-day the growth of boys intended to be jockeys is kept down by excessive sweating.

Ancient Popularity of Dwarfs.—At one time a dwarf was a necessary appendage of every noble family. The Roman Emperors all had their dwarfs. Julia, the niece of Augustus, had a couple of dwarfs, Conopas and Andromeda, each of whom was 2 feet 4 inches in height. It was the fashion at one time to have dwarfs noted for their wit and wisdom. Philos of Cos, tutor of Ptolemy Philadelphus, was a dwarf, as were Carachus, the friend of Saladin; Alypius of Alexandria, who was only 2 feet high; Lucinus Calvus, who was only 3 feet high, and aesop, the famous Greek fabulist. Later in the Middle Ages and even to the last century dwarfs were seen at every Court. Lady Montagu describes the dwarfs at the Viennese Court as "devils bedaubed with diamonds." They had succeeded the Court Jester and exercised some parts of this ancient office. At this time the English ladies kept monkeys for their amusement. The Court dwarfs were allowed unlimited freedom of speech, and in order to get at truths other men were afraid to utter one of the Kings of Denmark made one of his dwarfs Prime Minister.

Charles IX in 1572 had nine dwarfs, of which four had been given to him by King Sigismund-Augustus of Poland and three by Maximilian II of Germany. Catherine de Medicis had three couples of dwarfs at one time, and in 1579 she had still five pygmies, named Merlin, Mandricart, Pelavine, Rodomont, and Majoski. Probably the last dwarf in the Court of France was Balthazar Simon, who died in 1662.

Sometimes many dwarfs were present at great and noble gatherings. In Rome in 1566 the Cardinal Vitelli gave a sumptuous banquet at which the table-attendants were 34 dwarfs. Peter the Great of Russia had a passion for dwarfs, and in 1710 gave a great celebration in honor of the marriage of his favorite, Valakoff, with the dwarf of the Princess Prescovie Theodorovna. There were 72 dwarfs of both sexes present to form the bridal party. Subsequently, on account of dangerous and difficult labor, such marriages were forbidden in Russia.

In England and in Spain the nobles had the portraits of their dwarfs painted by the celebrated artists of the day. Velasquez has represented Don Antonio el Ingles, a dwarf of fine appearance, with a large dog, probably to bring out the dwarf's inferior height. This artist also painted a great number of other dwarfs at the Court of Spain, and in one of his paintings he portrays the Infanta Marguerite accompanied by her male and female dwarfs. Reproductions of these portraits have been given by Garnier. In the pictures of Raphael, Paul Veronese, and Dominiquin, and in the "Triumph of Caesar" by Mantegna, representations of dwarfs are found, as well as in other earlier pictures representing Court events. At the present time only Russia and Turkey seem to have popular sympathy for dwarfs, and this in a limited degree.

Intellectual Dwarfs.—It must be remarked, however, that many of the dwarfs before the public have been men of extraordinary-intelligence, possibly augmented by comparison. In a postmortem discussed at a meeting of the Natural History Society at Bonn in 1868 it was demonstrated by Schaufhausen that in a dwarf subject the brain weighed 1/19 of the body, in contradistinction to the average proportion of adults, from 1 to 30 to 1 to 44. The subject was a dwarf of sixty-one who died in Coblentz, and was said to have grown after his thirtieth year. His height was 2 feet 10 inches and his weight 45 pounds. The circumference of the head was 520 mm. and the brain weighed 1183.33 gm. and was well convoluted. This case was one of simple arrest of development, affecting all the organs of the body; he was not virile. He was a child of large parents; had two brothers and a sister of ordinary size and two brothers dwarfs, one 6 inches higher and the other his size.

Several personages famous in history have been dwarfs. Attila, the historian Procopius, Gregory of Tours, Pepin le Bref, Charles III, King of Naples, and Albert the Grand were dwarfs. About the middle of the seventeenth century the French episcopacy possessed among its members a dwarf renowned for his intelligence. This diminutive man, called Godeau, made such a success in literature that by the grace of Richelieu he was named the Archbishop of Grasse. He died in 1672. The Dutch painter Doos, the English painter Gibson (who was about 3 feet in height and the father of nine infants by a wife of about the same height), Prince Eugene, and the Spanish Admiral Gravina were dwarfs. Fleury and Garry, the actors.

Hay, a member of Parliament from Sussex in the last century; Hussein-Pasha, celebrated for his reforms under Selim III; the Danish antiquarian and voyager, Arendt, and Baron Denon were men far below the average size Varro says that there were two gentlemen of Rome who from their decorations must have belonged to an Equestrian Order, and who were but 2 Roman cubits (about 3 feet) high. Pliny also speaks of them as preserved in their coffins.

It may be remarked that perhaps certain women are predisposed to give birth to dwarfs. Borwilaski had a brother and a sister who were dwarfs. In the middle of the seventeenth century a woman brought forth four dwarfs, and in the eighteenth century a dwarf named Hopkins had a sister as small as he was. Therese Souvray, the dwarf fiancee of Bebe, had a dwarf sister 41 inches high. Virey has examined a German dwarf of eight who was only 18 inches tall, i.e., about the length of a newly-born infant. The parents were of ordinary size, but had another child who was also a dwarf.

There are two species of dwarfs, the first coming into the world under normal conditions, but who in their infancy become afflicted with a sudden arrest of development provoked by some malady; the second are born very small, develop little, and are really dwarfs from their birth; as a rule they are well conformed, robust, and intelligent. These two species can be distinguished by an important characteristic. The rachitic dwarfs of the first class are incapable of perpetuating their species, while those of the second category have proved more than once their virility. A certain number of dwarfs have married with women of normal height and have had several children, though this is not, it is true, an indisputable proof of their generative faculties; but we have instances in which dwarfs have married dwarfs and had a family sometimes quite numerous. Robert Skinner (25 inches) and Judith (26 inches), his wife, had 14 infants, well formed, robust, and of normal height.

Celebrated Dwarfs.—Instances of some of the most celebrated dwarfs will be cited with a short descriptive mention of points of interest in their lives:—

Vladislas Cubitas, who was King of Poland in 1305, was a dwarf, and was noted for his intelligence, courage, and as a good soldier. Geoffrey Hudson, the most celebrated English dwarf, was born at Oakham in England in 1619. At the age of eight, when not much over a foot high, he was presented to Henriette Marie, wife of Charles I, in a pie; he afterward became her favorite. Until he was thirty he was said to be not more than 18 inches high, when he suddenly increased to about 45 inches. In his youth he fought several duels, one with a turkey cock, which is celebrated in the verse of Davenant. He became a popular and graceful courtier, and proved his bravery and allegiance to his sovereign by assuming command of a royalist company and doing good service therein. Both in moral and physical capacities he showed his superiority. At one time he was sent to France to secure a midwife for the Queen, who was a Frenchwoman. He afterward challenged a gentleman by the name of Croft to fight a duel, and would accept only deadly weapons; he shot his adversary in the chest; the quarrel grew out of his resentment of ridicule of his diminutive size. He was accused of participation in the Papist Plot and imprisoned by his political enemies in the Gate House at Westminster, where he died in 1682 at the advanced age of sixty-three. In Scott's "Peveril of the Peak" Hudson figures prominently. This author seemed fond of dwarfs.

About the same epoch Charles I had a page in his court named Richard Gibson, who was remarkable for his diminutive size and his ability as a miniature painter. This little artist espoused another of his class, Anne Shepherd, a dwarf of Queen Henriette Marie, about his size (45 inches). Mistress Gibson bore nine children, five of whom arrived at adult age and were of ordinary proportions. She died at the age of eighty; her husband afterward became the drawing master of Princesses Mary and Anne, daughters of James II; he died July 23, 1690, aged seventy-five years.

In 1730 there was born of poor fisher parents at Jelst a child named Wybrand Lokes. He became a very skilful jeweler, and though he was of diminutive stature he married a woman of medium height, by whom he had several children. He was one of the smallest men ever exhibited, measuring but 25 1/2 inches in height. To support his family better, he abandoned his trade and with great success exhibited himself throughout Holland and England. After having amassed a great fortune he returned to his country, where he died in 1800, aged seventy. He was very intelligent, and proved his power of paternity, especially by one son, who at twenty-three was 5 feet 3 inches tall, and robust.

Another celebrated dwarf was Nicolas Ferry, otherwise known as Bebe. He was born at Plaine in the Vosges in 1741; he was but 22 cm. (8 1/2 inches) long, weighed 14 ounces at birth, and was carried on a plate to the church for baptism. At five Bebe was presented to King Stanislas of Poland. At fifteen he measured 29 inches. He was of good constitution, but was almost an idiot; for example, he did not recognize his mother after fifteen days' separation. He was quite lax in his morals, and exhibited no evidences of good nature except his lively attachment for his royal master, who was himself a detestable character. He died at twenty-two in a very decrepit condition, and his skeleton is preserved in the Museum of Natural History in Paris. Shortly before his death Bebe became engaged to a female dwarf named Therese Souvray, who at one time was exhibited in Paris at the Theatre Conti, together with an older sister. Therese lived to be seventy-three, and both she and her sister measured only 30 inches in height. She died in 1819.

Aldrovandus gives a picture of a famous dwarf of the Duc de Crequi who was only 30 inches tall, though perfectly formed; he also speaks of some dwarfs who were not over 2 feet high.

There was a Polish gentleman named Joseph Borwilaski, born in 1739 who was famed all over Europe. He became quite a scholar, speaking French and German fairly well. In 1860, at the age of twenty-two, and 28 inches in height, he married a woman of ordinary stature, who bore him two infants well conformed. He was exhibited in many countries, and finally settled at Durham, England, where he died in 1837 at the almost incredible age of ninety-eight, and is buried by the side of the Falstaffian Stephen Kemble. Mary Jones of Shropshire, a dwarf 32 inches tall and much deformed, died in 1773 at the age of one hundred. These two instances are striking examples of great age in dwarfs and are therefore of much interest. Borwilaski's parents were tall in stature and three of his brothers were small; three of the other children measured 5 feet 6 inches. Diderot has written a history of this family.

Richeborg, a dwarf only 23 inches in height, died in Paris in 1858 aged ninety years. In childhood he had been a servant in the House of Orleans and afterward became their pensioner. During the Revolution he passed in and out of Paris as an infant in a nurse's arms, thus carrying dispatches memorized which might have proved dangerous to carry in any other manner.

At St. Philip's, Birmingham, there is the following inscription on a tomb: "In memory of Mannetta Stocker, who quitted this life on the 4th day of May, 1819, at the age of thirty-nine years, the smallest woman in the kingdom, and one of the most accomplished." She was born in Krauma, in the north of Austria, under normal conditions. Her growth stopped at the age of four, when she was 33 inches tall. She was shown in many villages and cities over Europe and Great Britain; she was very gay, played well on the piano, and had divers other accomplishments.

In 1742 there was shown in London a dwarf by the name of Robert Skinner, .63 meters in height, and his wife, Judith, who was a little larger. Their exhibition was a great success and they amassed a small fortune; during twenty-three years they had 14 robust and well-formed children. Judith died in 1763, and Robert grieved so much after her that he himself expired two years later.

Figure 161 shows a female dwarf with her husband and child, all of whom were exhibited some years since in the Eastern United States. The likeness of the child to the mother is already noticeable.

Buffon speaks of dwarfs 24, 21, and 18 inches high, and mentions one individual, aged thirty-seven, only 16 inches tall, whom he considers the smallest person on record. Virey in 1818 speaks of an English child of eight or nine who was but 18 inches tall. It had the intelligence of a child of three or four; its dentition was delayed until it was two years old and it did not walk until four. The parents of this child were of ordinary stature.

At the "Cosmorama" in Regent Street in 1848 there was a Dutch boy of ten exhibited. He was said to be the son of an apothecary and at the time of his birth weighed nine pounds. He continued to grow for six months and at the expiration of that time weighed 12 pounds; since then, however, he had only increased four pounds. The arrest of development seemed to be connected with hydrocephalus; although the head was no larger than that of a child of two, the anterior fontanelle was widely open, indicating that there was pressure within. He was strong and muscular; grave and sedate in his manner; cheerful and affectionate; his manners were polite and engaging; he was expert in many kinds of handicraft; he possessed an ardent desire for knowledge and aptitude for education.

Rawdon described a boy of five and a half, at the Liverpool Infirmary for Children, who weighed 10 1/2 pounds and whose height was 28 or 29 inches. He uttered no articulate sound, but evidently possessed the sense of hearing. His eyes were large and well formed, but he was apparently blind. He suckled, cut his teeth normally, but had tonic contractions of the spine and was an apparent idiot.

Hardie mentions a girl of sixteen and a half whose height was 40 inches and weight 35 1/2 pounds, including her clothes. During intrauterine life her mother had good health and both her parents had always been healthy. She seemed to stop growing at her fourth year. Her intellect was on a par with the rest of her body. Sometimes she would talk and again she would preserve rigid silence for a long time. She had a shuffling walk with a tendency to move on her toes. Her temporary teeth were shed in the usual manner and had been replaced by canines and right first molar and incisors on the right side. There was no indication of puberty except a slight development of the hips. She was almost totally imbecile, but could tell her letters and spell short words. The circumference of the head was 19 inches, and Ross pointed out that the tendon-reflexes were well marked, as well as the ankle-clonus; he diagnosed the case as one of parencephalus. Figure 162 represents a most curious case of a dwarf named Carrie Akers, who, though only 34 inches tall, weighed 309 pounds.

In recent years several dwarfs have commanded the popular attention, but none so much as "General Tom Thumb," the celebrated dwarf of Barnum's Circus. Charles Stratton, surnamed "Tom Thumb," was born at Bridgeport, Conn., on January 11, 1832; he was above the normal weight of the new-born. He ceased growing at about five months, when his height was less than 21 inches. Barnum, hearing of this phenomenon in his city, engaged him, and he was shown all over the world under his assumed name. He was presented to Queen Victoria in 1844, and in the following year he was received by the Royal Family in France. His success was wonderful, and even the most conservative journals described and commented on him. He gave concerts, in which he sang in a nasal voice; but his "drawing feat" was embracing the women who visited him. It is said that in England alone he kissed a million females; he prided himself on his success in this function, although his features were anything but inviting. After he had received numerous presents and had amassed a large fortune he returned to America in 1864, bringing with him three other dwarfs, the "Sisters Warren" and "Commodore Nutt." He married one of the Warrens, and by her had one child, Minnie, who died some months after birth of cerebral congestion. In 1883 Tom Thumb and his wife, Lavinia, were still living, but after that they dropped from public view and have since died.

In 1895 the wife of a dwarf named Morris gave birth to twins at Blaenavon, North Wales. Morris is only 35 inches in height and his wife is even smaller. They were married at Bartholmey Church and have since been traveling through England under the name of "General and Mrs. Small," being the smallest married couple in the world. At the latest reports the mother and her twins were doing well.

The Rossow Brothers have been recently exhibited to the public. These brothers, Franz and Carl, are twenty and eighteen years respectively. Franz is the eldest of 16 children and is said to weigh 24 pounds and measure 21 inches in height; Carl is said to weigh less than his brother but is 29 inches tall. They give a clever gymnastic exhibition and are apparently intelligent. They advertise that they were examined and still remain under the surveillance of the Faculty of Gottingen.

Next to the success of "Tom Thumb" probably no like attraction has been so celebrated as the "Lilliputians," whose antics and wit so many Americans have in late years enjoyed. They were a troupe of singers and comedians composed entirely of dwarfs; they exhibited much talent in all their performances, which were given for several years and quite recently in all the large cities of the United States. They showed themselves to be worthy rivals for honors in the class of entertainments known as burlesques. As near as could be ascertained, partly from the fact that they all spoke German fluently and originally gave their performance entirely in German, they were collected from the German and Austrian Empires.

The "Princess Topaze" was born near Paris in 1879. According to a recent report she is perfectly formed and is intelligent and vivacious. She is 23 1/2 inches tall and weighs 14 pounds. Her parents were of normal stature.

Not long since the papers recorded the death of Lucia Zarete, a Mexican girl, whose exact proportions were never definitely known; but there is no doubt that she was the smallest midget ever exhibited In this country. Her exhibitor made a fortune with her and her salary was among the highest paid to modern "freaks."

Miss H. Moritz, an American dwarf, at the age of twenty weighed 36 pounds and was only 22 inches tall.

Precocious development is characterized by a hasty growth of the subject, who at an early period of life attains the dimensions of an adult. In some of these instances the anomaly is associated with precocious puberty, and after acquiring the adult growth at an early age there is an apparent cessation of the development. In adult life the individual shows no distinguishing characters.

The first to be considered will be those cases, sometimes called "man-boys," characterized by early puberty and extraordinary development in infancy. Histories of remarkable children have been transmitted from the time of Vespasian. We read in the "Natural History" of Pliny that in Salamis, Euthimedes had a son who grew to 3 Roman cubits (4 1/2 feet) in three years; he was said to have little wit, a dull mind, and a slow and heavy gait; his voice was manly, and he died at three of general debility. Phlegon says that Craterus, the brother of King Antigonus, was an infant, a young man, a mature man, an old man, and married and begot children all in the space of seven years. It is said that King Louis II of Hungary was born so long before his time that he had no skin; in his second year he was crowned, in his tenth year he succeeded, in his fourteenth year he had a complete beard, in his fifteenth he was married, in his eighteenth he had gray hair, and in his twentieth he died. Rhodiginus speaks of a boy who when he was ten years impregnated a female. In 1741 there was a boy born at Willingham, near Cambridge, who had the external marks of puberty at twelve months, and at the time of his death at five years he had the appearance of an old man. He was called "prodigium Willinghamense." The Ephemerides and some of the older journals record instances of penile erection immediately after birth.

It was said that Philip Howarth, who was born at Quebec Mews, Portman Square, London, February 21, 1806, lost his infantile rotundity of form and feature after the completion of his first year and became pale and extremely ugly, appearing like a growing boy. His penis and testes increased in size, his voice altered, and hair grew on the pubes. At the age of three he was 3 feet 4 1/2 inches tall and weighed 51 1/4 pounds. The length of his penis when erect was 4 1/2 inches and the circumference 4 inches; his thigh-measure was 13 1/2 inches, his waist-measure 24 inches, and his biceps 7 inches. He was reported to be clever, very strong, and muscular. An old chronicle says that in Wisnang Parish, village of Tellurge, near Tygure, in Lordship Kiburge, there was born on the 26th of May, 1548, a boy called Henry Walker, who at five years was of the height of a boy of fourteen and possessed the genitals of a man. He carried burdens, did men's work, and in every way assisted his parents, who were of usual size.

There is a case cited by the older authors of a child born in the Jura region who at the age of four gave proof of his virility, at seven had a beard and the height of a man. The same journal also speaks of a boy of six, 1.62 meters tall, who was perfectly proportioned and had extraordinary strength. His beard and general appearance, together with the marks of puberty, gave him the appearance of a man of thirty.

In 1806 Dupuytren presented to the Medical Society in Paris a child 3 1/2 feet high, weighing 57 pounds, who had attained puberty.

There are on record six modern cases of early puberty in boys, one of whom died at five with the signs of premature senility; at one year he had shown signs of enlargement of the sexual organs. There was another who at three was 3 feet 6 3/4 inches high, weighed 50 pounds, and had seminal discharges. One of the cases was a child who at birth resembled an ordinary infant of five months. From four to fifteen months his penis enlarged, until at the age of three it measured when erect 3 inches. At this age he was 3 feet 7 inches high and weighed 64 pounds. The last case mentioned was an infant who experienced a change of voice at twelve months and showed hair on the pubes. At three years he was 3 feet 4 1/2 inches tall and weighed 51 1/4 pounds. Smith, in Brewster's Journal, 1829, records the case of a boy who at the age of four was well developed; at the age of six he was 4 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 74 pounds; his lower extremities were extremely short proportionally and his genitals were as well developed as those of an adult. He had a short, dark moustache but no hair on his chin, although his pubic hair was thick, black, and curly. Ruelle describes a child of three and a quarter years who was as strong and muscular as one at eight. He had full-sized male organs and long black hair on the pubes. Under excitement he discharged semen four or five times a day; he had a deep male voice, and dark, short hair on the cheek and upper lip.

Stone gives an account of a boy of four who looked like a child of ten and exhibited the sexual organs of a man with a luxuriant growth of hair on the pubes. This child was said to have been of great beauty and a miniature model of an athlete. His height was 4 feet 1/4 inch and weight 70 pounds; the penis when semiflaccid was 4 1/4 inches long; he was intelligent and lively, and his back was covered with the acne of puberty. A peculiar fact as regards this case was the statement of the father that he himself had had sexual indulgence at eight. Stone parallels this case by several others that he has collected from medical literature. Breschet in 1821 reported the case of a boy born October 20, 1817, who at three years and one month was 3 feet 6 3/4 inches tall; his penis when flaccid measured 4 inches and when erect 5 1/4 inches, but the testicles were not developed in proportion. Lopez describes a mulatto boy of three years ten and a half months whose height was 4 feet 1/2 inch and weight 82 pounds; he measured about the chest 27 1/2 inches and about the waist 27 inches; his penis at rest was 4 inches long and had a circumference of 3 1/2 inches, although the testes were not descended. He had evidences of a beard and his axillae were very hairy; it is said he could with ease lift a man weighing 140 pounds. His body was covered with acne simplex and had a strong spermatic odor, but it was not known whether he had any venereal appetite.

Johnson mentions a boy of seven with severe gonorrhea complicated with buboes which he had contracted from a servant girl with whom he slept. At the Hopital des Enfans Malades children at the breast have been observed to masturbate. Fournier and others assert having seen infantile masturbators, and cite a case of a girl of four who was habitually addicted to masturbation from her infancy but was not detected until her fourth year; she died shortly afterward in a frightful state of marasmus. Vogel alludes to a girl of three in whom repeated attacks of epilepsy occurred after six months' onanism. Van Bambeke mentions three children from ten to twenty months old, two of them females, who masturbated.

Bidwell describes a boy of five years and two months who during the year previous had erections and seminal emissions. His voice had changed and he had a downy moustache on his upper lip and hair on the pubes; his height was 4 feet 3 1/2 inches and his weight was 82 1/2 pounds. His penis and testicles were as well developed as those of a boy of seventeen or eighteen, but from his facial aspect one would take him to be thirteen. He avoided the company of women and would not let his sisters nurse him when he was sick.

Pryor speaks of a boy of three and a half who masturbated and who at five and a half had a penis of adult size, hair on the pubes, and was known to have had seminal emissions. Woods describes a boy of six years and seven months who had the appearance of a youth of eighteen. He was 4 feet 9 inches tall and was quite muscular. He first exhibited signs of precocious growth at the beginning of his second year and when three years old he had hair on the pubes. There is an instance in which a boy of thirteen had intercourse with a young woman at least a dozen times and succeeded in impregnating her. The same journal mentions an instance in which a boy of fourteen succeeded in impregnating a girl of the same age. Chevers speaks of a young boy in India who was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for raping a girl of three.

Douglass describes a boy of four years and three months who was 3 feet 10 1/2 inches tall and weighed 54 pounds; his features were large and coarse, and his penis and testes were of the size of those of an adult. He was unusually dull, mentally, quite obstinate, and self-willed. It is said that he masturbated on all opportunities and had vigorous erections, although no spermatozoa were found in the semen issued. He showed no fondness for the opposite sex. The history of this rapid growth says that he was not unlike other children until the third year, when after wading in a small stream several hours he was taken with a violent chill, after which his voice began to change and his sexual organs to develop.

Blanc quotes the case described by Cozanet in 1875 of Louis Beran, who was born on September 29, 1869, at Saint-Gervais, of normal size. At the age of six months his dimensions and weight increased in an extraordinary fashion. At the age of six years he was 1.28 meters high (4 feet 2 1/3 inches) and weighed 80 pounds. His puberty was completely manifested in every way; he eschewed the society of children and helped his parents in their labors. Campbell showed a lad of fourteen who had been under his observation for ten years. When fifteen months old this prodigy had hair on his pubes and his external genitals were abnormally larger end at the age of two years they were fully developed and had not materially changed in the following years. At times he manifested great sexual excitement. Between four and seven years he had seminal discharges, but it was not determined whether the semen contained spermatozoa. He had the muscular development of a man of twenty-five. He had shaved several years. The boy's education was defective from his failure to attend school.

The accompanying illustration represents a boy of five years and three months of age whose height at this time was 4 feet and his physical development far beyond that usual at this age, his external genitals resembling those of a man of twenty. His upper lip was covered by a mustache, and the hirsute growth elsewhere was similarly precocious.

The inscription on the tombstone of James Weir in the Parish of Carluke, Scotland, says that when only thirteen months old he measured 3 feet 4 inches in height and weighed 5 stone. He was pronounced by the faculty of Edinburgh and Glasgow to be the most extraordinary child of his age. Linnaeus saw a boy at the Amsterdam Fair who at the age of three weighed 98 pounds. In Paris, about 1822, there was shown an infant Hercules of seven who was more remarkable for obesity than general development. He was 3 feet 4 inches high, 4 feet 5 inches in circumference, and weighed 220 pounds. He had prominent eyebrows, black eyes, and his complexion resembled that of a fat cook in the heat. Borellus details a description of a giant child. There is quoted from Boston a the report of a boy of fifteen months weighing 92 pounds who died at Coney Island. He was said to have been of phenomenal size from infancy and was exhibited in several museums during his life.

Desbois of Paris mentions an extraordinary instance of rapid growth in a boy of eleven who grew 6 inches in fifteen days.

Large and Small New-born Infants.—There are many accounts of new-born infants who were characterized by their diminutive size. On page 66 we have mentioned Usher's instance of twins born at the one hundred and thirty-ninth day weighing each less than 11 ounces; Barker's case of a female child at the one hundred and fifty-eighth day weighing 1 pound; Newinton's case of twins at the fifth month, one weighing 1 pound and the other 1 pound 3 1/2 ounces; and on page 67 is an account of Eikam's five-months' child, weighing 8 ounces. Of full-term children Sir Everard Home, in his Croonian Oration in 1824, speaks of one borne by a woman who was traveling with the baggage of the Duke of Wellington's army. At her fourth month of pregnancy this woman was attacked and bitten by a monkey, but she went to term, and a living child was delivered which weighed but a pound and was between 7 and 8 inches long. It was brought to England and died at the age of nine, when 22 inches high. Baker mentions a child fifty days' old that weighed 1 pound 13 ounces and was 14 inches long. Mursick describes a living child who at birth weighed but 1 3/4 pounds. In June, 1896, a baby weighing 1 3/4 pounds was born at the Samaritan Hospital, Philadelphia.

Scott has recorded the birth of a child weighing 2 1/2 pounds, and another 3 1/4 pounds. In the Chicago Inter-Ocean there is a letter dated June 20, 1874, which says that Mrs. J. B. McCrum of Kalamazoo, Michigan, gave birth to a boy and girl that could be held in the palm of the hand of the nurse. Their aggregate weight was 3 pounds 4 ounces, one weighing 1 pound 8 ounces, the other 1 pound 12 ounces. They were less than 8 inches long and perfectly formed; they were not only alive but extremely vivacious.

There is an account of female twins born in 1858 before term. One weighed 22 1/2 ounces, and over its arm, forearm, and hand one could easily pass a wedding-ring. The other weighed 24 ounces. They both lived to adult life; the larger married and was the mother of two children, which she bore easily. The other did not marry, and although not a dwarf, was under-sized; she had her catamenia every third week. Post describes a 2-pound child.

On the other hand, there have been infants characterized by their enormous size at birth. Among the older writers, Cranz describes an infant which at birth weighed 23 pounds; Fern mentions a fetus of 18 pounds; and Mittehauser speaks of a new-born child weighing 24 pounds. Von Siebold in his "Lucina" has recorded a fetus which weighed 22 1/2 pounds. It is worthy of comment that so great is the rarity of these instances that in 3600 cases, in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, only one child reached 11 pounds.

There was a child born in Sussex in 1869 which weighed 13 1/2 pounds and measured 26 1/2 inches. Warren delivered a woman in Derbyshire of male twins, one weighing 17 pounds 8 ounces and the other 18 pounds. The placenta weighed 4 pounds, and there was an ordinary pailful of liquor amnii. Both the twins were muscular and well formed; the parents were of ordinary stature, and at last reports the mother was rapidly convalescing. Burgess mentions an 18-pound new-born child; end Meadows has seen a similar instance. Eddowes speaks of the birth of a child at Crewe, a male, which weighed 20 pounds 2 ounces and was 23 inches long. It was 14 1/2 inches about the chest, symmetrically developed, and likely to live. The mother, who was a schoolmistress of thirty-three, had borne two previous children, both of large size. In this instance the gestation had not been prolonged, the delivery was spontaneous, and there was no laceration of the parts.

Chubb says that on Christmas Day, 1852, there was a child delivered weighing 21 pounds. The labor was not severe and the other children of the family were exceptionally large. Dickinson describes a woman, a tertipara, who had a most difficult labor and bore an extremely large child. She had been thirty-six hours in parturition, and by evisceration and craniotomy was delivered of a child weighing 16 pounds. Her first child weighed 9 pounds, her second 20, and her third, the one described, cost her her life soon after delivery.

There is a history of a Swedish woman in Boston who was delivered by the forceps of her first child, which weighed 19 3/4 pounds and which was 25 3/4 inches long. The circumference of the head was 16 3/4 inches, of the neck 9 3/4, and of the thigh 10 3/4 inches.

Rice speaks of a child weighing 20 1/4 pounds at birth. Johnston describes a male infant who was born on November 26, 1848, weighing 20 pounds, and Smith another of the same weight. Baldwin quotes the case of a woman who after having three miscarriages at last had a child that weighed 23 pounds. In the delivery there was extensive laceration of the anterior wall of the vagina; the cervix and perineum, together with an inch of the rectum, were completely destroyed.

Beach describes a birth of a young giant weighing 23 3/4 pounds. Its mother was Mrs. Bates, formerly Anna Swann, the giantess who married Captain Bates. Labor was rather slow, but she was successfully delivered of a healthy child weighing 23 3/4 pounds and 30 inches long. The secundines weighed ten pounds and there were nine quarts of amniotic fluid.

There is a recent record of a Cesarian section performed on a woman of forty in her twelfth pregnancy and one month beyond term. The fetus, which was almost exsanguinated by amputation, weighed 22 1/2 pounds. Bumm speaks of the birth of a premature male infant weighing 4320 gm. (9 1/2 pounds) and measuring 54 cm. long. Artificial labor had been induced at the thirty-fifth week in the hope of delivering a living child, the three preceding infants having all been still-born on account of their large size. Although the mother's pelvis was wide, the disposition to bear huge infants was so great as to render the woman virtually barren.

Congenital asymmetry and hemihypertrophy of the body are most peculiar anomalies and must not be confounded with acromegaly or myxedema, in both of which there is similar lack of symmetric development. There seems to be no satisfactory clue to the causation of these abnormalisms. Most frequently the left side is the least developed, and there is a decided difference in the size of the extremities.

Finlayson reports a case of a child affected with congenital unilateral hypertrophy associated with patches of cutaneous congestion. Logan mentions hypertrophy in the right half of the body in a child of four, first noticed shortly after birth; Langlet also speaks of a case of congenital hypertrophy of the right side. Broca and Trelat were among the first observers to discuss this anomaly.

Tilanus of Munich in 1893 reported a case of hemihypertrophy in a girl of ten. The whole right half of the body was much smaller and better developed than the left, resulting in a limping gait. The electric reaction and the reflexes showed no abnormality. The asymmetry was first observed when the child was three. Mobius and Demme report similar cases.

Adams reports an unusual case of hemihypertrophy in a boy of ten. There was nothing noteworthy in the family history, and the patient had suffered from none of the diseases of childhood. Deformity was noticeable at birth, but not to such a degree relatively as at a later period. The increased growth affected the entire right half of the body, including the face, but was most noticeable in the leg, thigh, and buttock. Numerous telangiectatic spots were scattered irregularly over the body, but most thickly on the right side, especially on the outer surface of the leg. The accompanying illustration represents the child's appearance at the time of report.

Jacobson reports the history of a female child of three years with nearly universal giant growth (Riesenwuchs). At first this case was erroneously diagnosed as acromegaly. The hypertrophy affected the face, the genitals, the left side of the trunk, and all the limbs.

Milne records a case of hemihypertrophy in a female child of one year. The only deviation from uniform excess of size of the right side was shown in the forefinger and thumb, which were of the same size as on the other hand; and the left side showed no overgrowth in any of its members except a little enlargement of the second toe. While hypertrophy of one side is the usual description of such cases, the author suggests that there may be a condition of defect upon the other side, and he is inclined to think that in this case the limb, hand, and foot of the left side seemed rather below the average of the child's age. In this case, as in others previously reported, there were numerous telangiectatic spots of congestion scattered irregularly over the body. Milne also reported later to the Sheffield Medico-Chirurgical Society an instance of unilateral hypertrophy in a female child of nineteen months. The right side was involved and the anomaly was believed to be due to a deficiency of growth of the left side as well as over-development of the right. There were six teeth on the right side and one on the left.

Obesity.—The abnormality of the adipose system, causing in consequence an augmentation of the natural volume of the subject, should be described with other anomalies of size and stature. Obesity may be partial, as seen in the mammae or in the abdomen of both women and men, or it may be general; and it is of general obesity that we shall chiefly deal. Lipomata, being distinctly pathologic formations, will be left for another chapter.

The cases of obesity in infancy and childhood are of considerable interest, and we sometimes see cases that have been termed examples of "congenital corpulency." Figure 167 represents a baby of thirteen months that weighed 75 pounds. Figure 168 shows another example of infantile obesity, known as "Baby Chambers." Elliotson describes a female infant not a year old which weighed 60 pounds. There is an instance on record of a girl of four who weighed 256 pounds Tulpius mentions a girl of five who weighed 150 pounds and had the strength of a man. He says that the acquisition of fat did not commence until some time after birth. Ebstein reports an instance given to him by Fisher of Moscow of a child in Pomerania who at the age of six weighed 137 pounds and was 46 inches tall; her girth was 46 inches and the circumference of her head was 24 inches. She was the offspring of ordinary-sized parents, and lived in narrow and sometimes needy circumstances. The child was intelligent and had an animated expression of countenance.

Bartholinus mentions a girl of eleven who weighed over 200 pounds. There is an instance recorded of a young girl in Russia who weighed nearly 200 pounds when but twelve. Wulf, quoted by Ebstein, describes a child which died at birth weighing 295 ounces. It was well proportioned and looked like a child three months old, except that it had an enormous development of fatty tissue. The parents were not excessively large, and the mother stated that she had had children before of the same proportions. Grisolles mentions a child who was so fat at twelve months that there was constant danger of suffocation; but, marvelous to relate, it lost all its obesity when two and a half, and later was remarkable for its slender figure. Figure 169 shows a girl born in Carbon County, Pa., who weighed 201 pounds when nine years old. McNaughton describes Susanna Tripp, who at six years of age weighed 203 pounds and was 3 feet 6 inches tall and measured 4 feet 2 inches around the waist. Her younger sister, Deborah, weighed 119 pounds; neither of the two weighed over 7 pounds at birth and both began to grow at the fourth month. On October, 1788, there died at an inn in the city of York the surprising "Worcestershire Girl" at the age of five. She had an exceedingly beautiful face and was quite active. She was 4 feet in height and larger around the breast and waist; her thigh measured 18 inches and she weighed nearly 200 pounds. In February, 1814, Mr. S. Pauton was married to the only daughter of Thomas Allanty of Yorkshire; although she was but thirteen she was 13 stone weight (182 pounds). At seven years she had weighed 7 stone (98 pounds). Williams mentions several instances of fat children. The first was a German girl who at birth weighed 13 pounds; at six months, 42 pounds; at four years, 150 pounds; and at twenty years, 450 pounds. Isaac Butterfield, born near Leeds in 1781, weighed 100 pounds in 1782 and was 3 feet 13 inches tall. There was a child named Everitt, exhibited in London in 1780, who at eleven months was 3 feet 9 inches tall and measured around the loins over 3 feet. William Abernethy at the age of thirteen weighed 22 stone (308 pounds) and measured 57 inches around the waist. He was 5 feet 6 inches tall. There was a girl of ten who was 1.45 meters (4 feet 9 inches) high and weighed 175 pounds. Her manners were infantile and her intellectual development was much retarded. She spoke with difficulty in a deep voice; she had a most voracious appetite.

At a meeting of the Physical Society of Vienna on December 4, 1894, there was shown a girl of five and a half who weighed 250 pounds. She was just shedding her first teeth; owing to the excess of fat on her short limbs she toddled like an infant. There was no tendency to obesity in her family. Up to the eleventh month she was nursed by her mother, and subsequently fed on cabbage, milk, and vegetable soup. This child, who was of Russian descent, was said never to perspire.

Cameron describes a child who at birth weighed 14 pounds, at twelve months she weighed 69 pounds, and at seventeen months 98 pounds. She was not weaned until two years old and she then commenced to walk. The parents were not remarkably large. There is an instance of a boy of thirteen and a half who weighed 214 pounds. Kaestner speaks of a child of four who weighed 82 pounds, and Benzenberg noted a child of the same age who weighed 137. Hildman, quoted by Picat, speaks of an infant three years and ten months old who had a girth of 30 inches. Hillairet knew of a child of five which weighed 125 pounds. Botta cites several instances of preternaturally stout children. One child died at the age of three weighing 90 pounds, another at the age of five weighed 100 pounds, and a third at the age of two weighed 75 pounds.

Figure 170 represents Miss "Millie Josephine" of Chicago, a recent exhibitionist, who at the reputed age of thirteen was 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 422 pounds.

General Remarks.—It has been chiefly in Great Britain and in Holland that the most remarkable instances of obesity have been seen, especially in the former country colossal weights have been recorded. In some countries corpulency has been considered an adornment of the female sex. Hesse-Wartegg refers to the Jewesses of Tunis, who when scarcely ten years old are subjected to systematic treatment by confinement in narrow, dark rooms, where they are fed on farinaceous foods and the flesh of young puppies until they are almost a shapeless mass of fat. According to Ebstein, the Moorish women reach with astonishing rapidity the desired embonpoint on a diet of dates and a peculiar kind of meal.

In some nations and families obesity is hereditary, and generations come and go without a change in the ordinary conformation of the representatives. In other people slenderness is equally persistent, and efforts to overcome this peculiarity of nature are without avail.

Treatment of Obesity.—Many persons, the most famous of whom was Banting, have advanced theories to reduce corpulency and to improve slenderness; but they have been uniformly unreliable, and the whole subject of stature-development presents an almost unexplored field for investigation. Recently, Leichtenstein, observing in a case of myxedema treated with the thyroid gland that the subcutaneous fat disappeared with the continuance of the treatment, was led to adopt this treatment for obesity itself and reports striking results. The diet of the patient remained the same, and as the appetite was not diminished by the treatment the loss of weight was evidently due to other causes than altered alimentation. He holds that the observations in myxedema, in obesity, and psoriasis warrant the belief that the thyroid gland eliminates a material having a regulating influence upon the constitution of the panniculus adiposus and upon the nutrition of the skin in general. There were 25 patients in all; in 22 the effect was entirely satisfactory, the loss of weight amounting to as much as 9.5 kilos (21 pounds). Of the three cases in which the result was not satisfactory, one had nephritis with severe Graves' disease, and the third psoriasis. Charrin has used the injections of thyroid extract with decided benefit. So soon as the administration of the remedy was stopped the loss of weight ceased, but with the renewal of the remedy the loss of weight again ensued to a certain point, beyond which the extract seemed powerless to act. Ewald also reports good results from this treatment of obesity.

Remarkable Instances of Obesity.—From time immemorial fat men and women have been the object of curiosity and the number who have exhibited themselves is incalculable. Nearly every circus and dime museum has its example, and some of the most famous have in this way been able to accumulate fortunes.

Athenaeus has written quite a long discourse on persons of note who in the olden times were distinguished for their obesity. He quotes a description of Denys, the tyrant of Heraclea, who was so enormous that he was in constant danger of suffocation; most of the time he was in a stupor or asleep, a peculiarity of very fat people. His doctors had needles put in the back of his chairs to keep him from falling asleep when sitting up and thus incurring the danger of suffocation. In the same work Athenaeus speaks of several sovereigns noted for their obesity; among others he says that Ptolemy VII, son of Alexander, was so fat that, according to Posidonius, when he walked he had to be supported on both sides. Nevertheless, when he was excited at a repast, he would mount the highest couch and execute with agility his accustomed dance.

According to old chronicles the cavaliers at Rome who grew fat were condemned to lose their horses and were placed in retirement. During the Middle Ages, according to Guillaume in his "Vie de Suger," obesity was considered a grace of God.

Among the prominent people in the olden time noted for their embonpoint were Agesilas, the orator Licinius Calvus, who several times opposed Cicero, the actor Lucius, and others. Among men of more modern times we can mention William the Conqueror; Charles le Gros; Louis le Gros; Humbert II, Count of Maurienne; Henry I, King of Navarre; Henry III, Count of Champagne; Conan III, Duke of Brittany; Sancho I, King of Leon; Alphonse II, King of Portugal; the Italian poet Bruni, who died in 1635; Vivonne, a general under Louis XIV; the celebrated German botanist Dillenius; Haller; Frederick I, King of Wurtemberg, and Louis XVIII.

Probably the most famous of all the fat men was Daniel Lambert, born March 13, 1770, in the parish of Saint Margaret, Leicester. He did not differ from other youths until fourteen. He started to learn the trade of a die-sinker and engraver in Birmingham. At about nineteen he began to believe he would be very heavy and developed great strength. He could lift 500 pounds with ease and could kick seven feet high while standing on one leg. In 1793 he weighed 448 pounds; at this time he became sensitive as to his appearance. In June, 1809, he weighed 52 stone 11 pounds (739 pounds), and measured over 3 yards around the body and over 1 yard around the leg. He had many visitors, and it is said that once, when the dwarf Borwilaski came to see him, he asked the little man how much cloth he needed for a suit. When told about 3/4 of a yard, he replied that one of his sleeves would be ample. Another famous fat man was Edward Bright, sometimes called "the fat man of Essex." He weighed 616 pounds. In the same journal that records Bright's weight is an account of a man exhibited in Holland who weighed 503 pounds.

Wadd, a physician, himself an enormous man, wrote a treatise on obesity and used his own portrait for a frontispiece. He speaks of Doctor Beddoes, who was so uncomfortably fat that a lady of Clifton called him a "walking feather bed." He mentions Doctor Stafford, who was so enormous that this epitaph was ascribed to him:—

"Take heed, O good traveler! and do not tread hard, For here lies Dr. Stafford, in all this churchyard."

Wadd has gathered some instances, a few of which will be cited. At Staunton, January 2, 1816, there died Samuel Sugars, Gent., who weighed with a single wood coffin 50 stone (700 pounds). Jacob Powell died in 1764, weighing 660 pounds. It took 16 men to carry him to his grave. Mr. Baker of Worcester, supposed to be larger than Bright, was interred in a coffin that was larger than an ordinary hearse. In 1797 there was buried Philip Hayes, a professor of music, who was as heavy as Bright (616 pounds).

Mr. Spooner, an eminent farmer of Warwickshire, who died in 1775, aged fifty-seven, weighed 569 pounds and measured over 4 feet across the shoulders. The two brothers Stoneclift of Halifax, Yorkshire, together weighed 980 pounds.

Keysler in his travels speaks of a corpulent Englishman who in passing through Savoy had to use 12 chairmen; he says that the man weighed 550 pounds. It is recorded on the tombstone of James Parsons, a fat man of Teddington, who died March 7, 1743, that he had often eaten a whole shoulder of mutton and a peck of hasty pudding. Keysler mentions a young Englishman living in Lincoln who was accustomed to eat 18 pounds of meat daily. He died in 1724 at the age of twenty-eight, weighing 530 pounds. In 1815 there died in Trenaw, in Cornwall, a person known as "Giant Chillcot." He measured at the breast 6 feet 9 inches and weighed 460 pounds. One of his stockings held 6 gallons of wheat. In 1822 there was reported to be a Cambridge student who could not go out in the daytime without exciting astonishment. The fat of his legs overhung his shoes like the fat in the legs of Lambert and Bright. Dr. Short mentions a lady who died of corpulency in her twenty-fifth year weighing over 50 stone (700 pounds). Catesby speaks of a man who weighed 500 pounds, and Coe mentions another who weighed 584 pounds. Fabricius and Godart speak of obesity so excessive as to cause death. There is a case reported from the French of a person who weighed 800 pounds. Smetius speaks of George Fredericus, an office-holder in Brandenburgh, who weighed 427 pounds.

Dupuytren gives the history of Marie Francoise-Clay, who attained such celebrity for her obesity. She was born in poverty, reached puberty at thirteen, and married at twenty-five, at which age she was already the stoutest woman of her neighborhood notwithstanding her infirmity. She followed her husband, who was an old-clothes dealer, afoot from town to town. She bore six children, in whom nothing extraordinary was noticed. The last one was born when she was thirty-five years old. Neither the births, her travels, nor her poverty, which sometimes forced her to beg at church doors, arrested the progress of the obesity. At the age of forty she was 5 feet 1 inch high and one inch greater about the waist. Her head was small and her neck was entirely obliterated. Her breasts were over a yard in circumference and hung as low as the umbilicus. Her arms were elevated and kept from her body by the fat in her axillae. Her belly was enormous and was augmented by six pregnancies. Her thighs and haunches were in proportion to her general contour. At forty she ceased to menstruate and soon became afflicted with organic heart diseases.

Fournier quotes an instance of a woman in Paris who at twenty-four, the time of her death, weighed 486 pounds. Not being able to mount any conveyance or carriage in the city, she walked from place to place, finding difficulty not in progression, but in keeping her equilibrium. Roger Byrne, who lived in Rosenalis, Queen's County, Ireland, died of excessive fatness at the age of fifty-four, weighing 52 stone. Percy and Laurent speak of a young German of twenty who weighed 450 pounds. At birth he weighed 13 pounds, at six months 42, and at four years 150 pounds. He was 5 feet 5 inches tall and the same in circumference. William Campbell, the landlord of the Duke of Wellington in Newcastle-on-Tyne, was 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 728 pounds. He measured 96 inches around the shoulders, 85 inches around the waist, and 35 inches around the calf. He was born at Glasgow in 1856, and was not quite twenty-two when last measured. To illustrate the rate of augmentation, he weighed 4 stone at nine months and at ten years 18 stone. He was one of a family of seven children. His appetite was not more than the average, and he was moderate as regards the use of liquors, but a great smoker Notwithstanding his corpulency, he was intelligent and affable.

Miss Conley, a member of an American traveling circus, who weighed 479 pounds, was smothered in bed by rolling over on her face; she was unable to turn on her back without assistance.

There was a girl who died at Plaisance near Paris in 1890 who weighed 470 pounds or more. In 1889 an impresario undertook to exhibit her; but eight men could not move her from her room, and as she could not pass through the door the idea was abandoned.

There was a colored woman who died near Baltimore who weighed 850 pounds, exceeding the great Daniel Lambert by 120 pounds. The journal reporting this case quotes the Medical Record as saying that there was a man in North Carolina, who was born in 1798, who was 7 feet 8 inches tall and weighed over 1000 pounds, probably the largest man that ever lived. Hutchison says that he Saw in the Infirmary at Kensington, under Porter's care, a remarkable example of obesity. The woman was only just able to walk about and presented a close resemblance to Daniel Lambert. Obesity forced her to leave her occupation. The accumulation of fat on the abdomen, back, and thighs was enormous.

According to a recent number of La Liberte, a young woman of Pennsylvania, although only sixteen years old, weighs 450 pounds. Her waist measures 61 inches in circumference and her neck 22 inches. The same paper says that on one of the quays of Paris may be seen a wine-shop keeper with whom this Pennsylvania girl could not compare. It is said that this curiosity of the Notre-Dame quarter uses three large chairs while sitting behind her specially constructed bar. There is another Paris report of a man living in Switzerland who weighs more than 40 stone (560 pounds) and eats five times as much as an ordinary person. When traveling he finds the greatest difficulty in entering an ordinary railway carriage, and as a rule contents himself in the luggage van. Figure 171 represents an extremely fat woman with a well-developed beard. To end this list of obese individuals, we mention an old gentleman living in San Francisco who, having previously been thin, gained 14 pounds in his seventieth year and 14 pounds each of seven succeeding years.

Simulation of Obesity.—General dropsy, elephantiasis, lipomata, myxedema, and various other affections in which there is a hypertrophic change of the connective tissues may be mistaken for general obesity; on the other hand, a fatty, pendulous abdomen may simulate the appearances of pregnancy or even of ovarian cyst.

Dercum of Philadelphia has described a variety of obesity which he has called "adiposis dolorosa," in which there is an enormous growth of fat, sometimes limited, sometimes spread all over the body, this condition differing from that of general lipomatosis in its rarity, in the mental symptoms, in the headache, and the generally painful condition complained of. In some of the cases examined by Dercum he found that the thyroid was indurated and infiltrated by calcareous deposits. The disease is not myxedema because there is no peculiar physiognomy, no spade-like hands nor infiltrated skin, no alteration of the speech, etc. Dercum considers it a connective-tissue dystrophy—a fatty metamorphosis of various stages, possibly a neuritis. The first of Dercum's cases was a widow of Irish birth, who died both alcoholic and syphilitic. When forty-eight or forty-nine her arms began to enlarge. In June, 1887, the enlargement affected the shoulders, arms, back, and sides of the chest. The parts affected were elastic, and there was no pitting. In some places the fat was lobulated, in others it appeared as though filled with bundles of worms. The skin was not thickened and the muscles were not involved. In the right arm there was unendurable pain to the touch, and this was present in a lesser degree in the left arm. Cutaneous sensibility was lessened. On June 13th a chill was followed by herpes over the left arm and chest, and later on the back and on the front of the chest. The temperature was normal. The second case was a married Englishwoman of sixty-four. The enlarged tissue was very unevenly distributed, and sensibility was the same as in the previous case. At the woman's death she weighed 300 pounds, and the fat over the abdomen was three inches thick. The third case was a German woman in whom were seen soft, fat-like masses in various situations over either biceps, over the outer and posterior aspect of either arm, and two large masses over the belly; there was excessive prominence of the mons veneris. At the autopsy the heart weighed 8 1/2 ounces, and the fat below the umbilicus was seven inches thick.

Abnormal Leanness.—In contrast to the fat men are the so-called "living skeletons," or men who have attained notice by reason of absence of the normal adipose tissue. The semimythical poet Philotus was so thin that it was said that he fastened lead on his shoes to prevent his being blown away,—a condition the opposite of that of Dionysius of Heraclea, who, after choking to death from his fat, could hardly be moved to his grave.

In March, 1754, there died in Glamorganshire of mere old age and gradual decay a little Welshman, Hopkin Hopkins, aged seventeen years. He had been recently exhibited in London as a natural curiosity; he had never weighed over 17 pounds, and for the last three years of his life never more than 12 pounds. His parents still had six children left, all of whom were normal and healthy except a girl of twelve, who only weighed 18 pounds and bore marks of old age.

There was a "living skeleton" brought to England in 1825 by the name of Claude Seurat. He was born in 1798 and was in his twenty-seventh year. He usually ate in the course of a day a penny roll and drank a small quantity of wine. His skeleton was plainly visible, over which the skin was stretched tightly. The distance from the chest to the spine was less than 3 inches, and internally this distance was less. The pulsations of the heart were plainly visible. He was in good health and slept well. His voice was very weak and shrill. The circumference of this man's biceps was only 4 inches. The artist Cruikshank has made several drawings of Seurat.

Calvin Edson was another living skeleton. In 1813 he was in the army at the battle of Plattsburg, and had lain down in the cold and become benumbed. At this time he weighed 125 pounds and was twenty-five years old. In 1830 he weighed but 60 pounds, though 5 feet 4 inches tall. He was in perfect health and could chop a cord of wood without fatigue; he was the father of four children.

Salter speaks of a man in 1873 who was thirty-two years of age and only weighed 49 pounds. He was 4 feet 6 inches tall: his forehead measured in circumference 20 1/2 inches and his chest 27 inches. His genitals, both internal and external, were defectively developed. Figure 175 represents the well-known Ohio "living skeleton," J. W. Coffey, who has been exhibited all over the Continent. His good health and appetite were proverbial among his acquaintances.

In some instances the so-called "living skeletons" are merely cases of extreme muscular atrophy. As a prominent example of this class the exhibitionist, Rosa Lee Plemons at the age of eighteen weighed only 27 pounds. Figure 177 shows another case of extraordinary atrophic condition of all the tissues of the body associated with nondevelopment. These persons are always sickly and exhibit all the symptoms of progressive muscular atrophy, and cannot therefore be classed with the true examples of thinness, in which the health is but slightly affected or possibly perfect health is enjoyed.



CHAPTER VIII.

LONGEVITY.

Scope of the Present Article.—The limits of space in this work render impossible a scientific discussion upon the most interesting subject of longevity, and the reader is referred to some of the modern works devoted exclusively to this subject. In reviewing the examples of extreme age found in the human race it will be our object to lay before the reader the most remarkable instances of longevity that have been authentically recorded, to cite the source of the information, when possible to give explanatory details, and to report any relative points of value and interest. Throughout the article occasional facts will be given to show in what degree character, habit, and temperament influence longevity, and in what state of mind and body and under what circumstances man has obtained the highest age.

General Opinions.—There have been many learned authorities who invariably discredit all accounts of extraordinary age, and contend that there has never been an instance of a man living beyond the century mark whose age has been substantiated by satisfactory proof. Such extremists as Sir G. Cornewall Lewis and Thoms contend that since the Christian era no person of royal or noble line mentioned in history whose birth was authentically recorded at its occurrence has reached one hundred years. They have taken the worst station in life in which to find longevity as their field of observation. Longevity is always most common in the middle and lower classes, in which we cannot expect to find the records preserved with historical correctness.

The Testimony of Statistics.—Walford in his wonderful "Encyclopedia of Insurance" says that in England the "Royal Exchange" for a period of one hundred and thirty-five years had insured no life which survived ninety-six. The "London Assurance" for the same period had no clients who lived over ninety, and the "Equitable" had only one at ninety-six. In an English Tontine there was in 1693 a person who died at one hundred; and in Perth there lived a nominee at one hundred and twenty-two and another at one hundred and seven. On the other hand, a writer in the Strand Magazine points out that an insurance investigator some years ago gathered a list of 225 centenarians of almost every social rank and many nationalities, but the majority of them Britons or Russians.

In reviewing Walford's statistics we must remember that it has only been in recent years that the middle and lower classes of people have taken insurance on their lives. Formerly only the wealthy and those exposed to early demise were in the habit of insuring.

Dr. Ogle of the English Registrar-General's Department gives tables of expectancy that show that 82 males and 225 females out of 1,000,000 are alive at one hundred years. The figures are based on the death-rates of the years 1871-80.

The researches of Hardy in the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries are said to indicate that three-score-and-ten was considered old age; yet many old tombstones and monuments contain inscriptions recording age far beyond this, and even the pages of ordinary biographies disprove the alleged results of Hardy's research.

In all statistical work of an individual type the histories of the lower classes are almost excluded; in the olden times only the lives and movements of the most prominent are thought worthy of record. The reliable parish register is too often monopolized by the gentry, inferior births not being thought worth recording.

Many eminent scientists say that the natural term of the life of an animal is five times the period needed for its development. Taking twenty-one as the time of maturity in man, the natural term of human life would be one hundred and five. Sir Richard Owen fixes it at one hundred and three and a few months.

Censuses of Centenarians.—Dr. Farr, the celebrated English Registrar-General, is credited with saying that out of every 1,000,000 people in England only 223 live to be one hundred years old, making an average of one to 4484. French says that during a period of ten years, from 1881 to 1890, in Massachusetts, there were 203 deaths of persons past the age of one hundred, making an average, with a population of 394,484, of one in 1928. Of French's centenarians 165 were between one hundred and one hundred and five; 35 were between one hundred and five and one hundred and ten; five were between one hundred and ten and one hundred and fifteen; and one was one hundred and eighteen. Of the 203, 153 were females and 50 males. There are 508 people in Iowa who are more than ninety years of age. There are 21 who are more than one hundred years old. One person is one hundred and fifteen years old, two are one hundred and fourteen, and the remaining 18 are from one hundred to one hundred and seven.

In the British Medical Journal for 1886 there is an account of a report of centenarians. Fifty-two cases were analyzed. One who doubts the possibility of a man reaching one hundred would find this report of interest.

The Paris correspondent to the London Telegraph is accredited with the following:—

"A census of centenarians has been taken in France, and the results, which have been published, show that there are now alive in this country 213 persons who are over one hundred years old. Of these 147 are women, the alleged stronger sex being thus only able to show 66 specimens who are managing to still "husband out life's taper" after the lapse of a century. The preponderance of centenarians of the supposed weaker sex has led to the revival of some amusing theories tending to explain this phenomenon. One cause of the longevity of women is stated to be, for instance, their propensity to talk much and to gossip, perpetual prattle being highly conducive, it is said, to the active circulation of the blood, while the body remains unfatigued and undamaged. More serious theorists or statisticians, while commenting on the subject of the relative longevity of the sexes, attribute the supremacy of woman in the matter to the well-known cause, namely, that in general she leads a more calm and unimpassioned existence than a man, whose life is so often one of toil, trouble, and excitement. Setting aside these theories, however, the census of French centenarians is not devoid of interest in some of its details. At Rocroi an old soldier who fought under the First Napoleon in Russia passed the century limit last year. A wearer of the St. Helena medal—a distinction awarded to survivors of the Napoleonic campaigns, and who lives at Grand Fayt, also in the Nord—is one hundred and three years old, and has been for the last sixty-eight years a sort of rural policeman in his native commune. It is a rather remarkable fact in connection with the examples of longevity cited that in almost every instance the centenarian is a person in the humblest rank of life. According to the compilers of these records, France can claim the honor of having possessed the oldest woman of modern times. This venerable dame, having attained one hundred and fifty years, died peacefully in a hamlet in the Haute Garonne, where she had spent her prolonged existence, subsisting during the closing decade of her life on goat's milk and cheese. The woman preserved all her mental faculties to the last, but her body became attenuated to an extraordinary degree, and her skin was like parchment."

In the last ten years the St. James' Gazette has kept track of 378 centenarians, of whom 143 were men and 235 were women. A writer to the Strand Magazine tells of 14 centenarians living in Great Britain within the last half-dozen years.

It may be interesting to review the statistics of Haller, who has collected the greatest number of instances of extreme longevity. He found:—

1000 persons who lived from 100 to 110 15 persons who lived from 130 to 140 60 " " " " 110 to 120 6 " " " " 140 to 150 29 " " " " 120 to 130 1 person " " " to 169

Effect of Class-Influences, Occupation, etc.—Unfortunately for the sake of authenticity, all the instances of extreme age in this country have been from persons in the lower walks of life or from obscure parts of the country, where little else than hearsay could be procured to verify them. It must also be said that it is only among people of this class that we can expect to find parallels of the instances of extreme longevity of former times. The inhabitants of the higher stations of life, the population of thickly settled communities, are living in an age and under conditions almost incompatible with longevity. In fact, the strain of nervous energy made necessary by the changed conditions of business and mode of living really predisposes to premature decay.

Those who object to the reliability of reports of postcentenarianism seem to lose sight of these facts, and because absolute proof and parallel cannot be obtained they deny the possibility without giving the subject full thought and reason. As tending to substantiate the multitude of instances are the opinions of such authorities as Hufeland, Buffon, Haller, and Flourens. Walter Savage Landor on being told that a man in Russia was living at one hundred and thirty-two replied that he was possibly older, as people when they get on in years are prone to remain silent as to the number of their years—a statement that can hardly be denied. One of the strongest disbelievers in extreme age almost disproved in his own life the statement that there were no centenarians.

It is commonly believed that in the earliest periods of the world's history the lives of the inhabitants were more youthful and perfect; that these primitive men had gigantic size, incredible strength, and most astonishing duration of life. It is to this tendency that we are indebted for the origin of many romantic tales. Some have not hesitated to ascribe to our forefather Adam the height of 900 yards and the age of almost a thousand years; but according to Hufeland acute theologians have shown that the chronology of the early ages was not the same as that used in the present day. According to this same authority Hensler has proved that the year at the time of Abraham consisted of but three months, that it was afterward extended to eight, and finally in the time of Joseph to twelve. Certain Eastern nations, it is said, still reckon but three months to the year; this substantiates the opinion of Hensler, and, as Hufeland says, it would be inexplicable why the life of man should be shortened nearly one-half immediately after the flood.

Accepting these conclusions as correct, the highest recorded age, that of Methuselah, nine hundred years, will be reduced to about two hundred, an age that can hardly be called impossible in the face of such an abundance of reports, to which some men of comparatively modern times have approached, and which such substantial authorities as Buffon, Hufeland, and Flourens believed possible.

Alchemy and the "Elixir of Life."—The desire for long life and the acquisition of wealth have indirectly been the stimulus to medical and physical investigation, eventually evolving science as we have it now. The fundamental principles of nearly every branch of modern science were the gradual metamorphoses of the investigations of the old searchers after the "philosopher's stone" and "elixir of life." The long hours of study and experiment in the chase for this will-o'-the-wisp were of vast benefit to the coming generations; and to these deluded philosophers of the Middle Ages, and even of ancient times, we are doubtless indebted for much in this age of advancement.

With a credulous people to work upon, many of the claimants of the discovery of the coveted secret of eternal life must be held as rank impostors claiming ridiculous ages for themselves. In the twelfth century Artephius claimed that by the means of his discovery he had attained one thousand and twenty-five years. Shortly after him came Alan de Lisle of Flanders with a reputed fabulous age. In 1244 Albertus Magnus announced himself as the discoverer. In 1655 the celebrated Doctor Dee appeared on the scene and had victims by the score. Then came the Rosicrucians. Count Saint-Germain claimed the secret of the "philosopher's stone" and declared to the Court of Louis XV that he was two thousand years old, and a precursor of the mythical "Wandering Jew," who has been immortalized in prose and rhyme and in whose existence a great mass of the people recently believed. The last of the charlatans who claimed possession of the secret of perpetual life was Joseph Balsamo, who called himself "Count of Cagliostro." He was born in Italy in 1743 and acquired a world-wide reputation for his alleged occult powers and acquisition of the "philosopher's stone." He died in 1795, and since then no one has generally inspired the superstitious with credence in this well-worn myth. The ill-fated Ponce de Leon when he discovered Florida, in spite of his superior education, announced his firm belief in the land of the "Fountain of Perpetual Youth," in the pursuit of which he had risked his fortune and life.

We wish to emphasize that we by no means assume the responsibility of the authenticity of the cases to be quoted, but expressing belief in their possibility, we shall mention some of the extraordinary instances of longevity derived from an exhaustive research of the literature of all times. This venerable gallery of Nestors will include those of all periods and nations, but as the modern references are more available greater attention will be given to them.

Turning first to the history of the earlier nations, we deduce from Jewish history that Abraham lived to one hundred and seventy-five; Isaac, likewise a tranquil, peaceful man, to one hundred and eighty; Jacob, who was crafty and cunning, to one hundred and forty-seven; Ishmael, a warrior, to one hundred and thirty-seven; and Joseph, to one hundred and ten. Moses, a man of extraordinary vigor, which, however, he exposed to great cares and fatigues, attained the advanced age of one hundred and twenty; and the warlike and ever-active Joshua lived to one hundred and ten. Lejoucourt gives the following striking parallels: John Glower lived to one hundred and seventy-two, and Abraham to one hundred and seventy-five; Susan, the wife of Gower, lived to one hundred and sixty-four, and Sarah, the wife of Abraham, to one hundred and twenty-seven. The eldest son of the Gower couple was one hundred and fifteen when last seen, and Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, lived to one hundred and eighty.

However replete with fables may be the history of the Kings of Egypt, none attained a remarkable age, and the record of the common people is incomplete or unavailable.

If we judge from the accounts of Lucian we must form a high idea of the great age of the Seres, or ancient Chinese. Lucian ascribes this longevity to their habit of drinking excessive quantities of water.

Among the Greeks we find several instances of great age in men of prominence. Hippocrates divided life into seven periods, living himself beyond the century mark. Aristotle made three divisions,—the growing period, the stationary period, and the period of decline. Solon made ten divisions of life, and Varro made five. Ovid ingeniously compares life to the four seasons. Epimenides of Crete is said to have lived one hundred and fifty-seven years, the last fifty-seven of which he slept in a cavern at night. Gorgias, a teacher, lived to one hundred and eight; Democritus, a naturalist, attained one hundred and nine; Zeno, the founder of the Stoics, lived to one hundred; and Diogenes, the frugal and slovenly, reached ninety years. Despite his life of exposure, Hippocrates lived to one hundred and nine; and Galen, the prince of physicians after him, who was naturally of a feeble constitution, lived past eighty, and few of the followers of his system of medicine, which stood for thirteen centuries, surpassed him in point of age.

Among the Romans, Orbilis, Corvinus, Fabius, and Cato, the enemy of the physicians, approximated the century mark.

A valuable collection relative to the duration of life in the time of the Emperor Vespasian has been preserved for us by Pliny from the records of a census, a perfectly reliable and creditable source. In 76 A. D. there were living in that part of Italy which lies between the Apennines and the Po 124 persons who had attained the age of one hundred and upward. There were 54 of one hundred; 57 of one hundred and ten; 2 of one hundred and twenty-five; 4 of one hundred and thirty; 4 of from one hundred and thirty-five to one hundred and thirty-seven, and 3 of one hundred and forty. In Placentia there was a man of one hundred and thirty and at Faventia a woman of one hundred and thirty-two. According to Hufeland, the bills of mortality of Ulpian agree in the most striking manner with those of our great modern cities.

Among hermits and ecclesiastics, as would be the natural inference from their regular lives, many instances of longevity are recorded. John was supposed to be ninety-three; Paul the hermit was one hundred and thirteen; Saint Anthony lived to one hundred and five; James the hermit to one hundred and four; Saint Epithanius lived to one hundred and fifteen; Simeon Stylites to one hundred and twelve; Saint Mungo was accredited with one hundred and eighty-five years (Spottiswood), and Saint David attained one hundred and forty-six. Saint Polycarpe suffered martyrdom at over one hundred, and Simon Cleophas was Bishop of Jerusalem at one hundred and twenty.

Brahmin priests of India are known to attain incredible age, and one of the secrets of the adepts of the Buddhist faith is doubtless the knowledge of the best means of attaining very old age. Unless cut off by violence or accident the priests invariably become venerable patriarchs.

Influence of Mental Culture.—Men of thought have at all times been distinguished for their age. Among the venerable sages are Appolonius of Tyana, a follower of Pythagoras, who lived to over one hundred; Xenophilus, also a Pythagorean, was one hundred and six; Demonax, a Stoic, lived past one hundred; Isocrates was ninety-eight, and Solon, Sophocles, Pindar, Anacreon, and Xenophon were octogenarians.

In more modern times we find men of science and literature who have attained advanced age. Kant, Buffon, Goethe, Fontenelle, and Newton were all over eighty. Michael Angelo and Titian lived to eighty-nine and ninety-nine respectively. Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation; Hans Sloane, the celebrated president of the Royal Society in London; Plater, the Swiss physician; Duverney, the anatomist, as well as his confrere, Tenon, lived to be octogenarians. Many men have displayed activity when past four score. Brougham at eighty-two and Lyndhurst at eighty-eight could pour forth words of eloquence and sagacity for hours at a time. Landor wrote his "Imaginary Conversations" when eighty-five, and Somerville his "Molecular Science" at eighty-eight; Isaac Walton was active with his pen at ninety; Hahnemann married at eighty and was working at ninety-one.

J. B. Bailey has published a biography of "Modern Methusalehs," which includes histories of the lives of Cornaro, Titian, Pletho, Herschell, Montefiore, Routh, and others. Chevreul, the centenarian chemist, has only lately died. Gladstone, Bismarck, and von Moltke exemplify vigor in age In the Senate of the United States, Senators Edmunds, Sherman, Hoar, Morrill, and other elderly statesmen display as much vigor as their youthful colleagues. Instances of vigor in age could be cited in every profession and these few examples are only mentioned as typical. At a recent meeting of the Society of English Naturalists, Lord Kelvin announced that during the last year 26 members had died at an average age of seventy-six and a half years; one reached the age of ninety-nine years, another ninety-seven, a third ninety-five, etc.

In commenting on the perfect compatibility of activity with longevity, the National Popular Review says:—

"Great men usually carry their full mental vigor and activity into old age. M. Chevreul, M. De Lesseps, Gladstone, and Bismarck are evidences of this anthropologic fact. Pius IX, although living in tempestuous times, reached a great age in full possession of all his faculties, and the dramatist Crebillon composed his last dramatic piece at ninety-four, while Michael Angelo was still painting his great canvases at ninety-eight, and Titian at ninety still worked with all the vigor of his earlier years. The Austrian General Melas was still in the saddle and active at eighty-nine, and would have probably won Marengo but for the inopportune arrival of Desaix. The Venetian Doge Henry Dandolo, born at the beginning of the eleventh century, who lost his eyesight when a young man, was nevertheless subsequently raised to the highest office in the republic, managed successfully to conduct various wars, and at the advanced age of eighty-three, in alliance with the French, besieged and captured Constantinople. Fontenelle was as gay-spirited at ninety-eight as in his fortieth year, and the philosopher Newton worked away at his tasks at the age of eighty-three with the same ardor that animated his middle age. Cornaro was as happy at ninety as at fifty, and in far better health at the age of ninety-five than he had enjoyed at thirty.

"These cases all tend to show the value and benefits to be derived from an actively cultivated brain in making a long life one of comfort and of usefulness to its owner. The brain and spirits need never grow old, even if our bodies will insist on getting rickety and in falling by the wayside. But an abstemious life will drag even the old body along to centenarian limits in a tolerable state of preservation and usefulness. The foregoing list can be lengthened out with an indefinite number of names, but it is sufficiently long to show what good spirits and an active brain will do to lighten up the weight of old age. When we contemplate the Doge Dandolo at eighty-three animating his troops from the deck of his galley, and the brave old blind King of Bohemia falling in the thickest of the fray at Crecy, it would seem as it there was no excuse for either physical, mental, or moral decrepitude short of the age of four score and ten."

Emperors and Kings, in short, the great ones of the earth, pay the penalty of their power by associate worriment and care. In ancient history we can only find a few rulers who attained four score, and this is equally the case in modern times. In the whole catalogue of the Roman and German Emperors, reckoning from Augustus to William I, only six have attained eighty years. Gordian, Valerian, Anastasius, and Justinian were octogenarians, Tiberius was eighty-eight at his death, and Augustus Caesar was eighty-six. Frederick the Great, in spite of his turbulent life, attained a rare age for a king, seventy-six. William I seems to be the only other exception.

Of 300 Popes who may be counted, no more than five attained the age of eighty. Their mode of life, though conducive to longevity in the minor offices of the Church, seems to be overbalanced by the cares of the Pontificate.

Personal Habits.—According to Hufeland and other authorities on longevity, sobriety, regular habits, labor in the open air, exercise short of fatigue, calmness of mind, moderate intellectual power, and a family life are among the chief aids to longevity. For this reason we find the extraordinary instances of longevity among those people who amidst bodily labor and in the open air lead a simple life, agreeable to nature. Such are farmers, gardeners, hunters, soldiers, and sailors. In these situations man may still maintain the age of one hundred and fifty or even one hundred and sixty.

Possibly the most celebrated case of longevity on record is that of Henry Jenkins. This remarkable old man was born in Yorkshire in 1501 and died in 1670, aged one hundred and sixty-nine. He remembered the battle of Flodden Field in 1513, at which time he was twelve years old. It was proved from the registers of the Chancery and other courts that he had appeared in evidence one hundred and forty years before his death and had had an oath administered to him. In the office of the King's Remembrancer is a record of a deposition in which he appears as a witness at one hundred and fifty-seven. When above one hundred he was able to swim a rapid stream.

Thomas Parr (or Parre), among Englishmen known as "old Parr," was a poor farmer's servant, born in 1483. He remained single until eighty. His first wife lived thirty-two years, and eight years after her death, at the age of one hundred and twenty, he married again. Until his one hundred and thirtieth year he performed his ordinary duties, and at this age was even accustomed to thresh. He was visited by Thomas, Earl of Arundel and Surrey, and was persuaded to visit the King in London. His intelligence and venerable demeanor impressed every one, and crowds thronged to see him and pay him homage. The journey to London, together with the excitement and change of mode of living, undoubtedly hastened his death, which occurred in less than a year. He was one hundred and fifty-two years and nine months old, and had lived under nine Kings of England. Harvey examined his body and at the necropsy his internal organs were found in a most perfect state. His cartilages were not even ossified, as is the case generally with the very aged. The slightest cause of death could not be discovered, and the general impression was that he died from being over-fed and too-well treated in London. His great-grandson was said to have died in this century in Cork at the age of one hundred and three. Parr is celebrated by a monument reared to his memory in Westminster Abbey.

The author of the Dutch dictionary entitled "Het algemen historish Vanderbok" says that there was a peasant in Hungary named Jean Korin who was one hundred and seventy-two and his wife was one hundred and sixty-four; they had lived together one hundred and forty-eight years, and had a son at the time of their death who was one hundred and sixteen.

Setrasch Czarten, or, as he is called by Baily, Petratsh Zartan, was also born in Hungary at a village four miles from Teneswaer in 1537. He lived for one hundred and eighty years in one village and died at the age of one hundred and eighty-seven, or, as another authority has it, one hundred and eighty-five. A few days before his death he had walked a mile to wait at the post-office for the arrival of travelers and to ask for succor, which, on account of his remarkable age, was rarely refused him. He had lost nearly all his teeth and his beard and hair were white. He was accustomed to eat a little cake the Hungarians call kalatschen, with which he drank milk. After each repast he took a glass of eau-de-vie. His son was living at ninety-seven and his descendants to the fifth generation embellished his old age. Shortly before his death Count Wallis had his portrait painted. Comparing his age with that of others, we find that he was five years older than the Patriarch Isaac, ten more than Abraham, thirty-seven more than Nahor, sixteen more than Henry Jenkins, and thirty-three more than "old Parr."

Sundry Instances of Great Age.—In a churchyard near Cardiff, Glamorganshire, is the following inscription: "Here lieth the body of William Edwards, of Cacreg, who departed this life 24th February, Anno Domini 1668, anno aetatis suae one hundred and sixty-eight."

Jonas Warren of Balydole died in 1787 aged one hundred and sixty-seven. He was called the "father of the fishermen" in his vicinity, as he had followed the trade for ninety-five years.

The Journal de Madrid, 1775, contains the account of a South American negress living in Spanish possessions who was one hundred and seventy-four years of age. The description is written by a witness, who declares that she told of events which confirmed her age. This is possibly the oft-quoted case that was described in the London Chronicle, October 5, 1780, Louisa Truxo, who died in South America at the age of one hundred and seventy-five.

Huteland speaks of Joseph Surrington, who died near Bergen, Norway, at the age of one hundred and sixty. Marvelous to relate, he had one living son of one hundred and three and another of nine. There has been recently reported from Vera Cruz, Mexico, in the town of Teluca, where the registers are carefully and efficiently kept, the death of a man one hundred and ninety-two years old—almost a modern version of Methuselah. Buffon describes a man who lived to be one hundred and sixty-five. Martin mentions a man of one hundred and eighty. There was a Polish peasant who reached one hundred and fifty-seven and had constantly labored up to his one hundred and forty-fifth year, always clad lightly, even in cold weather. Voigt admits the extreme age of one hundred and sixty.

There was a woman living in Moscow in 1848 who was said to be one hundred and sixty-eight; she had been married five times and was one hundred and twenty-one at her last wedding. D'Azara records the age of one hundred and eighty, and Roequefort speaks of two cases at one hundred and fifty.

There are stories of an Englishman who lived in the sixteenth century to be two hundred and seven, and there is a parallel case cited.

Van Owen tabulates 331 cases of deaths between 110 and 120, 91 between 120 and 130, 37 between 130 and 140, 11 at 150, and 17 beyond this age. While not vouching for the authenticity in each case, he has always given the sources of information.

Quite celebrated in English history by Raleigh and Bacon was the venerable Countess Desmond, who appeared at Court in 1614, being one hundred and forty years old and in full possession of all her powers, mental and physical. There are several portraits of her at this advanced age still to be seen. Lord Bacon also mentions a man named Marcus Appenius, living in Rimini, who was registered by a Vespasian tax-collector as being one hundred and fifty.

There are records of Russians who have lived to one hundred and twenty-five, one hundred and thirty, one hundred and thirty-five, one hundred and forty-five, and one hundred and fifty. Nemnich speaks of Thomas Newman living in Bridlington at one hundred and fifty-three years. Nemnich is confirmed in his account of Thomas Newman by his tombstone in Yorkshire, dated 1542.

In the chancel of the Honington Church, Wiltshire, is a black marble monument to the memory of G. Stanley, gent., who died in 1719, aged one hundred and fifty-one.

There was a Dane named Draakenburg, born in 1623, who until his ninety-first year served as a seaman in the royal navy, and had spent fifteen years of his life in Turkey as a slave in the greatest misery. He was married at one hundred and ten to a woman of sixty, but outlived her a long time, in his one hundred and thirtieth year he again fell in love with a young country girl, who, as may well be supposed, rejected him. He died in 1772 in his one hundred and forty-sixth year. Jean Effingham died in Cornwall in 1757 in his one hundred and forty-fourth year. He was born in the reign of James I and was a soldier at the battle of Hochstadt; he never drank strong liquors and rarely ate meat; eight days before his death he walked three miles.