307.

structure and form, their parents, and of course each other. And since all the conspicuous peculiarities of human, animal, and vegetable formation are known to be propagated, of course ALL is hereditary, down to the most minute item, both of shape itself and that structure which occasions it; for if parentage bestows any part, it confers the whole, in harmony with that doctrine of universality which characterizes all nature, P. 17.

GIANTS AND DWARFS.

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314. SIZE TRANSMITTED LEWIS, SANBORN, &C.

"These four (giants] were borne to the giant in Gath."-2 Sam. xxi. 22.

The Bible often speaks of "giants," the sons of giants, and even of races of giants.

Dixon H. Lewis, the "weighty" ex-Speaker of the lower house in Congress, so large that a chair was made expressly to hold his magnitude, and that he always fills three seats in the stage, weighs 430 pounds, and has a brother who weighs 400, and also a sister of the extra delicate weight of over

THREE HUNDRED.

Mr. Sanborn, of Salisbury, weighs 400, and has very large hands and fingers, and a sister who weighs 300. Two brothers and three sisters in Southboro', Mass., weigh together 1250, or 250 on an average.

The Patigonians of South America, are said to be gigantic in stature.

Buffum mentions a Martin Salmerson, a Mexican giant, the son of a Mestizo, by an Indian woman, who measured seven feet three and three quarter inches, and was well proportioned.

J. H. Reichart, of Friedburg, near Frankfort, Germany, was eight feet three inches. His father and sister were both gigantic.

The giant body guards of Frederick William I. left a large race in Pottsdam, where they were quartered.

Dwarfishness is also transmitted. A nation of very small men has recently been discovered in Africa.

The Esquimaux attain the height of only about four feet eight inches, and the Mogul Tartars only four feet nine inches.

The Polish nobleman, Barwlaski, who was well proportioned, intelligent, and skilled in the languages, measured only 28 Paris inches; his brother 34, and his sister only 21.

C. H. Stoberin, of Auremburg, was only three feet high, and her parents, brothers, and sisters were dwarfs.

Other analogous cases might be cited, but who is so dull c observation as not to have seen many such? And what

quite remarkable, many of the members of some families, generation after generation, are small and slim till just about a given age, when in a short time they become excessively corpulent. Of this the author has seen many examples in parents, children, and grandchildren. This tendency is undoubtedly the result of hereditary influences. As these occurrences of course have their causes, what other as apparent or efficient?

A SCOTCH PRACTICE: SMALL WOMEN.

Formerly, when the Scotch were more ambitious than now to have large and tall sons for warriors, the matrimonial demand for large women was so great that such, though inferior in other respects, were universally preferred, while small women, whatever might have been their virtues, on that account were doomed to live a life of single blessedness. Hence in part the fact that most Scotchmen are of rather extra size, and few small. But, unfortunately, the scales are now reversed by us. Small women are now preferred. A woman who weighs over ninety is too large for the matrimonial market, and the diminutiveness of our children is the consequence. Little mothers must necessarily have little children, and as our women try to render themselves thus extra small and delicate, we must expect, at this rate, to become a nation of Lilliputians. Sometimes, from causes to be specified hereafter, large parents have small children, but the general fact that small parents usually have small children, all must have observed in cases without number. The Wigglesworth family of New England, one of whom was professor in Harvard College, are generally small. And where one parent is large and another small, the children who "take after" the large or small parent in countenance or character, generally inherit their size also.

BIHIN, THE FESSENDENS AND DOUGLASSES.

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SECTION IV.

PHYSICAL STRENGTH TRANSMITTED.

"And there was at Gath a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were four and twenty, six on each hand and six on each foot. And he was the son of a giant."

315. MUSCULAR STRENGTH HEREDITARY: BIHIN.

STATURE being hereditary, and strength depending in part on stature, we might infer that both muscular force and feebleness are transmitted. And facts attest the truth of this inference. Mons. J. A. J. Bihin, the Belgian giant, who was exhibited a few years ago in our museums, measured nearly SEVEN AND A HALF FEET in height, four feet two inches around his chest, twenty-eight around his thigh, and twentytwo around the calf of his leg, and weighed THREE HUNDRED POUNDS; being symmetrically formed throughout. At birth his height was twenty-five inches, and his weight twenty-six pounds. When twelve years old, he was five feet ten inches high, and at fourteen, over six. He could lift EIGHT HUNDRED pounds, and straighten himself when stooping under Two TONS. Both of his parents are athletic, and his father's father was nearly as large and strong as himself; and so was his father's paternal grandfather, as the author learned from the giant himself.

THE FESSENDEN, DOUGLASS, AND GERRISH FAMILIES.

GEN. FESSENDEN, of Portland, Me., one of the first lawyers in that State, has been a remarkably strong man; as were also his father and uncle; and this is true of the Fessendens generally.

THE DOUGLASSES, to this day, are remarkable for great physical strength, and Scotch history shows that they always have been. In war, one or another Douglass performs some almost superhuman feat of strength; and in peace, some one of this powerful clan eclipses all others in those games of wrestling, leaping, lifting, throwing heavy weights, and the like, so common in that country.

4

The Gerrishes, of Newbury, Mass., for several generations, have been remarkable for both size and strength. Two brothers and two sisters weighed together 1344 pounds—average 336 each. During the Revolutionary war, a blustering English captain sent a challenge to one of them to fight, which was declined. The captain meeting G. in the street, did all he could to provoke a combat, and finally spit in his face. G. brought his hand to his face as if to wipe it, and struck the captain a back-handed blow, which knocked him sprawling.

est ease.

At the capture of Louisburg, the British soldiers challenged the Americans to a trial of strength. It was accepted, and Col. Samuel Gerrish was selected, and in every contest with the English soldiers, carried his point with the greatHe even out-pulled five of their champions with one hand, to their great amazement, of course. When at home, many persons came from a great distance to wrestle with him. On one occasion, a noted wrestler hearing of his strength and skill, came from a distance to have a wrestle with him. Calling when he was absent, his sister dressed herself in his clothes, and, personating her brother, floored the challenger repeatedly, who, on discovering that his antagonist was a female, sloped.

An English agent of claimants of lands situated in BMe., where some of this giant race had settled, attended the town-meeting, and seeing such tremendous men, asked if such men as these occupied the land in dispute. He was told that these were only boys compared with those who lived back. He did not prosecute his claims.

JONATHAN FOWLER AND HIS DESCENDANTS.

JONATHAN FOWLER,* of Coventry, Ct., was the son of an immensely large woman, of about 300 pounds' weight, and endowed with extraordinary strength, which her son Jonathan inherited; as the following bear story, copied from the

* Barber's Statistics of Connecticut, mentions John Fowler as one of the first settlers of Guildford, Ct., in 1645, the native place of the author's father. John's brother William settled at Milford, Ct.