DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70303#0412
38'0 OBSERVATIONS ON GIANTS.
his journey homewards, made a public shew of himself
for his extraordinary stature. His height was about
seven feet. His father was a man of moderate stature,
and his mother nearly six feet. He himself, at that
time, had a daughter, about sixteen years of age, who
had already arrived at the height of six feet complete.
In the anatomical room of Trinity College, Dublin,
is preserved the skeleton of one Magrath, who was born
near Cloyne. It measures between seven and eight feet.
This man was carried through various parts of Europe,
and exhibited as the prodigious Irish giant; but such was
his early imbecility, both of body and mind, that he
died of old age in his twentieth year. Concerning this
man, the following particulars are given by a very intel-
ligent writer. “ In his infancy he became an orphan,
and was provided for by the famous Berkeley, then
Bishop o4-'Cloyne. This acute philosopher, who denied
the existence of matter, was as inquisitive in his physi-
cal researches as he was whimsical in his metaphysical
speculations. When I tell you that he had well-nigh
put an end to his own existence, by experimenting what
are the sensations of a person dying on the gallows, you
will be the more ready to forgive him for his treatment
of this orphan. The Bishop had a strange fancy to
know whether it was not in the power of art to increase
the human stature, and this unhappy infant appeared to
him to be a fit subject for the trial. He made his essay
according to his pre-conceived theory, whatever it might
be, and the consequence was, that he became seven feet
high in his sixteenth year.”
Concerning the existence of a race of giants, the
learned have been greatly divided. Ferdinand Magel-
lan.was the first who announced the discovery of such a
race of people on the coast towards the extremity of
South America. It appears that during one hundred
years,
his journey homewards, made a public shew of himself
for his extraordinary stature. His height was about
seven feet. His father was a man of moderate stature,
and his mother nearly six feet. He himself, at that
time, had a daughter, about sixteen years of age, who
had already arrived at the height of six feet complete.
In the anatomical room of Trinity College, Dublin,
is preserved the skeleton of one Magrath, who was born
near Cloyne. It measures between seven and eight feet.
This man was carried through various parts of Europe,
and exhibited as the prodigious Irish giant; but such was
his early imbecility, both of body and mind, that he
died of old age in his twentieth year. Concerning this
man, the following particulars are given by a very intel-
ligent writer. “ In his infancy he became an orphan,
and was provided for by the famous Berkeley, then
Bishop o4-'Cloyne. This acute philosopher, who denied
the existence of matter, was as inquisitive in his physi-
cal researches as he was whimsical in his metaphysical
speculations. When I tell you that he had well-nigh
put an end to his own existence, by experimenting what
are the sensations of a person dying on the gallows, you
will be the more ready to forgive him for his treatment
of this orphan. The Bishop had a strange fancy to
know whether it was not in the power of art to increase
the human stature, and this unhappy infant appeared to
him to be a fit subject for the trial. He made his essay
according to his pre-conceived theory, whatever it might
be, and the consequence was, that he became seven feet
high in his sixteenth year.”
Concerning the existence of a race of giants, the
learned have been greatly divided. Ferdinand Magel-
lan.was the first who announced the discovery of such a
race of people on the coast towards the extremity of
South America. It appears that during one hundred
years,