ADULTS WHO GROW

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1008, 24 December 1910, Page 6

ADULTS WHO GROW

DISEASE OF LARGE HANDS, FEET, AND FACE. ■ A demonstration was given last-month by Professor Arthur Keith at the Royal College of Surgeons on a disease knora as acromegaly. The men and women subject to this disease find, said Professor Keith, that their hands and.'feet increase slowly in size, so that a larger size in boots and gloves is required from time to time. Th,e face also grows, • especially the lower parts, and the. ridges.over the eyes become more prominent. . • ; Larger, sizes in hats and collars may. draw the patient's attention to these changes, but the enlargements usually occur so gradually that the subject is unconscious of them. Since attention was drawn 'to the disease in ,1886 Dr. Pierre Marie, a. well-known French physician, over.4oo.cases have beendescribed, and Professor Keith, stated that there are probably fifty cases or more.in London at the present time. Origin of Mr, Punch. 1 The prototype of Punch is supposed by some to have been a victim of this disease; the diagnosis, however, is evidently wrong, says Professor Keith,' for although the ample nose, the massive lower jaw, projecting chin, and dorsal "hump" bear some resemblance to the real disease, yet the lively humour, small hands, thin lips, and well-fitting teeth are against the theory. No example of the disease is to be found in the National Portrait Gallery or National Gallery, but in one of Rawlandson's caricatures an example exists. The conditions of acromegally is usually accompanied by an enlargement of a small gland'at the base of the brain—the pituitary body—supposed by tho ancients to be the seat of the and by many moderns to be a functionless structure. Dr. Marie's observation has, however, led to a renewed- interest in this gland. _ It is becoming evident that its .secret-ion is closely concerned in regulating and co-ordinating. the growth of various parts of tho body.