TEN-YEAR-OLD BERLIN BOY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 230, 29 September 1931, Page 9

TEN-YEAR-OLD BERLIN BOY.

HIS HERCITLEAJf FEATS

IS HIS STRENGTH A DISEASE?

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON

August 6.

Io H. G. We!3~ "Boo" a realitv—a substance which, used &r> food " for

animal or plant life, will make all living things become enormously bigger than they were before taking boom. The feats of a boy in Berlin *eem to indicate there may be means of acquiring power as well as size. An alternative theory fe. that such abnormality may be a disease. Hereis the *tory of Herman Lichterfield, of Oranienberg. a suburb of Berlin. At birth the boy is said by his mothei to have been a particularly delicate child. It is. only since his third year that he has developed Herculean strensth in a surprising degree. In strong contrast to his physical power is his sensitive spirit. He cries more than other boys of his age and is upset and tearful at the slightest scolding or thwarting, seemingly unconscious of the terrible power of self-defence he possesses. Young Hermann can break chains of enormous thieknesr. with one turn of hi? wrist, can twist a large piece of iron into a spiral, and repeat the same feat with his teeth, and is capable of letting any heavy weight be placed on his prone body without suffering the pain or even death which would inevitably supervene in the ordinary human being. He weighs 10S German pounds—in the neighbourhood of 1st —and the circumference of his chest is just over 39 inches. Medical experts are inclined to believe that the boy's case results from some abnormal development- of the jriands which control muscular development. His ease is at the present time engaging the attention of medieal experts.