GIANTS AND DWARFS. A giant (from the Greek word gigas) is an individual whose stature and bulk exceed those of his species or race generally.
Until the beginning of the present century, it-was universally believed that giants, of a size far exceeding those who are exhibited in our times, formerly existed, either as nations or as individual specimens. This belief was based (1) on the asserted discov ery of colossal human bones; (2) on supposed scriptural evidence; and (3) on the evi: dente of various ancient and medieval authors.
A reference to the first volume of Cuvier's Ossements Fossiles will show that the bones of elephants, rhinoceroses, mastodons, etc., have been exhibited and accepted as evi dence of pre-historic giants. Even so good a naturalist as Buffon fell into this popular delusion, and figured the bones of .in elephant as the remains of human giants. Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, in his Histoire des 4nornalies de l' Organisation, notices several of the most famous of these cases. A gigantic skeleton which was found at Trapani, in Sicily, in the 14th c., was at once pronounced to be that of the classical giant Polyphe mus, and his height was calculated at 300 feet. It was pointed out that the bones dif fered in form as well as in size from those of man, but this objection was easily met by the question: Why. if his height was sixty times as great as that of an ordinary man, should not his form be also different? Many less celebrated giants were subsequently exhumed in Sicily, and the existence of the "Osseous Caverns," described by De Qua trefages in his Rambles of a Naturalist, fully accounts for such discoveries, at an epoch when few could recognize the differences in form between the bones of an elephant and those of man. Passing over a giant whose bones were exposed by the action of the Rhone in 1456, and whose height was estimated at 30 ft., and another whose skele. ton was discovered near Lucerne in 1577, and who, according to the calculation of the learned physician Plater, did not exceed 19 ft., we come to the case of king Teuto bechus, whose remains were discovered near the Rhono in 1613, by a surgeon named Mazurier, whose IfistoireVeritable du Want Teutobochus (1618) gave rise to a warm con troversy. The anatomist Riolan endeavored to expose the imposture, but the Parisians rushed in crowds to see the mastodon's bones, which were reported to have been found in a tomb 30 ft. long, bearing the inscription " Teutobochus Rex." Nor have our own
countrymen been less credulous than their continental neighbors. In 1712, Dr. _Mather, in the Philosophical Transactions, announced the discovery of enormous bones and teeth which had been found in the state of New York, and which he regarded as affording evidence of the existence of giants of enormous size in ancient times. The bones were in reality those of a mastodon.
The Scripture evidence, when carefully examined, does not amount to much. Tho Hebrew words nephilim and gaborint, which occur several times in the Bqok of Genesis, and which are translated giants, might as well- be translated bearded, cruel, or violent men. The height of Og, king of Bashan, is not given; we are only told the length of his bed; and excluding his helmet, which was probably taken into account in the recorded measurement, Goliath, at most, did not exceed 8+ ft. in stature, and conse quently was not taller than some giants of modern days.
The classical evidence is abundant, but obviously untrustworthy. Thus Plutarch relates that Serbonius had the grave of Antmns, in the city of Tungis, opened, and "finding there his body, full 60 cubits long, was infinitely astonished, ordered the tomb to be closed, gave his confirmation to the story, and added new honors to the memory of the giant." Pliny reports that an earthquake in Crete disclosed the bones of a giant 46 cubits in length, who was held by some to be Orion, and by others Otus. Descending to more certain evidence, there is no doubt that a height of between 8 and 9 ft., and probably of more than 9 ft., has been attained. There is a skeleton in the museum of Trinity college, Dublin, 8 ft. 6 in. in height; that of O'Brien (or Byrne), in the museum of the college of surgeons of England, is 8 ft. 2 in.; and that of a giant in the museum at Bonn is 8 ft.; and the actual body with the soft parts attached was probably 2 or 3 in. longer than the skeleton. (O'Brien, for example, measured 8 ft. 4 in. after death, as we find recorded in the Annual Register, vol. xxvi. p. 209.) We commonly apply the term dwarf to any organized being, but especially to indi.