REWARD FOR A GIANTS BRAIN.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 2209, 22 August 1910, Page 7

REWARD FOR A GIANTS BRAIN.

MAY CONTAIN SECRET OF HUMAN GROWTH. The Giant Machnow—who stands 9ft. 2 inches— is said to be the biggest man on earth, and he is terrified—terrified because Dr. Carleton Simon wants his brain. The dictor has offered £7OO for it—when Machnow is dead, of course. The medical men believe there is a possibility of discovering in it, by a post mortem examination, facts of high value. H 'l am especially anxious," says Dr. Simon, "to obtain the brain of Machnow because of the light it may throw on the mystery of growth and on the origin of cancer. It is upon the latter possibility that I ascribe so high a value to Machnow's brain. In spite of the uncontrollable terror which now obsesses this greatest giant in the world, the desire to examine his brain for the benefit of humanity is perfectly reasonable. He probably will not live many years. Giants seldom live to great age. A few attain middle age, but the great majority die young. Machnow, therefore, has a reasonable expectation of only a short time to live. "The state of panic in which he constantly is found is not worth noticing except that it is a characteristic of giantism. The giants of legendary lore are bold, powerful, cunning, malicious, fierce and courageous—veritable sources of terror. The hundreds of giants who have been actually known and studied by man are physically weak, quite amiable, and never strong of mind. Nature seems to have over-nourished the physical bulk of these poor creatures at the expense of their strength —of their vital force." What is vital force ? We do not know. We know that the brain is the last part of the human organism to die,, and we believe that the vital force, which keeps us alive and directs all our activities, has its abode in the brain. But what the vital force itself is we cannot tell. By careful observation of the brains of giants, it is hoped to get some further insight into the hidden nature of that principle which constitutes life itself and whose derangement, or distortion, as many doctors now believe may be regarded as the cause of cancer in the human body. To discover the cause of cancer will be a long advance towards finding the cure of cancer. It is easy to destroy in the light the enemy we cannot see in the dark.

To make clear why the brain of Machnow can help the investigation into the origin of cancer it will be necessary to give some details concerning the origin of giantism. There is at the base of every normal human brain, behind the nerves of the eye as they cross in order to pass out of the skull, to be used as organs of vision, a small round substance about the size of a pea, called the pituitary gland. We believe that this gland is an organ which separates from the blood some substance that has an important use in the building up and maintenance of the body. When the pituitary gland is destroyed, the body wastes and growth ceases ; when the gland is enlarged and overactive, excessive growth occurs. Inasmuch as we know that the state of the pituitary gland controls the growth, it is evident that a perfect knowledge of its functions may throw much light on the origin of cancer, which doctors now believe to be an abnormal form of life within ourselves, originating, not in a foreign germ or microbe taken into the blood, but in some misdirection of the principle of life and growth beginning within o'ur own bodies. What is growth ? Briefly, it is increase. From infancy to maturity our bodies grow in obedience to some involuntary mental impulse which causes the body to abstract from food, air and water more tissue than it uses in its activities. The surplus substance which we thus unconsciously accumulate is the cause of growth. At middle age the processes of waste and repair—of catabolism and metabolism—are about equal in force. At length the tide ebbs. The difference increases ;at last waste prevails ; the subject dies. Now, the influence of the pituitary gland upon growth has been established. We know that in its normal state it causes a healthy growth. Examination of the brains of many giants has shown that the piturtary gland was very large and had been very active, thus accounting for the subject's giantism. So far as we know, then, it is the pituitary gland that directs growth, force, energy, the course of the vital principle in the individual. When it is abnormably active the individual grows abnormally large. It is not extravagant, then, to hope that in some other departure of the pituitary gland from the normal we shall find the source of that scourge of the human race—cancer.

Machnow was born twenty-six years ago, on the estate of Count de Kerschimenski, in Kustoki, Central Russia. He was normal in size until he was twelve years old, and then, in obedience to an abnormal impulse from the pituitary gland, he suddenly began to grow at a tremendous rate. When Machnow was only six years old he was very strong. He could carry with ease a sack of flour weighing 100 pounds. When he was nine years old he could pick up a pony weighing 450 pounds and toss it over his shoulder. But after that he soon shot up towards his present enormous size, and the more he grew the less energy he had left. The only direction in which Michnow shows any great ability to-day is in eating and in smoking cigarettes.—"Popular Science Sittings." 1714.