e bones of the fore-fin of a small
whale or of a porpoise.

The celebrated Sir Hans Sloane, who treated this subject very
learnedly, arrived at the conclusion that while in most instances the
bones found were those of mastodons, elephants, whales, etc., in some
instances accounts were given by connoisseurs who could not readily be
deceived. However, modern scientists will be loath to believe that any
men ever existed who measured over 9 feet; in fact, such cases with
authentic references are extremely rare Quetelet considers that the
tallest man whose stature is authentically recorded was the "Scottish
Giant" of Frederick the Great's regiment of giants. This person was not
quite 8 feet 3 inches tall. Buffon, ordinarily a reliable authority,
comes to a loose conclusion that there is no doubt that men have lived
who were 10, 12, and even 15 feet tall; but modern statisticians cannot
accept this deduction from the references offered.

From the original estimation of the height of Adam (Henrion once
calculated that Adam's height was 123 feet and that of Eve 118) we
gradually come to 10 feet, which seemed to be about the favorite height
for giants in the Middle Ages. Approaching this century, we still have
stories of men from 9 to 10 feet high, but no authentic cases. It was
only in the latter part of the last century that we began to have
absolutely authentic heights of giants, and to-day the men showing
through the country as measuring 8 feet generally exaggerate their
height several inches, and exact measurement would show that but few
men commonly called giants are over 7 1/2 feet or weigh over 350
pounds. Dana says that the number of giants figuring as public
characters since 1700 is not more than 100, and of these about 20 were
advertised to be over 8 feet. If we confine ourselves to those
accurately and scientifically measured the list is surprisingly small.
Topinard measured the tallest man in the Austrian army and found that
he was 8 feet 4 1/2 inches. The giant Winckelmeyer measured 8 feet 6
inches in height. Ranke measured Marianne Wehde, who was born in
Germany in the present century, and found that she measured 8 feet 4
1/4 inches when only sixteen and a half years old.

In giants, as a rule, the great stature is due to excessive growth of
the lower extremities, the size of the head and that of the trunk being
nearly the same as those of a man or boy of the same age. On the other
hand, in a natural dwarf the