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Updated: June 17, 2025
We had been to the London Hospital to see a remarkable case of acromegaly, and, as we returned, we discussed this curious affection, and the allied condition of gigantism, in all their bearings, from the origin of the "Gibson chin" to the physique of Og, King of Bashan.
Although the mother's pelvis was wide, the disposition to bear huge infants was so great as to render the woman virtually barren. Congenital asymmetry and hemihypertrophy of the body are most peculiar anomalies and must not be confounded with acromegaly or myxedema, in both of which there is similar lack of symmetric development.
Indeed, the proportions of "General Tom Thumb" were those of an ordinary infant of from thirteen to fifteen months old. Recently, the association of acromegaly with gigantism has been noticed, and in these instances there seems to be an acquired uniform enlargement of all the bones of the body.
The author excludes syphilis, tuberculosis, rheumatism, gout, hemophilia, etc., and considers it to have been a trophic affection of cerebral origin. Cases of pneumonia osteoarthropathy simulating acromegaly have been reported by Korn and Murray. Megalocephaly, or as it was called by Virchow, leontiasis ossea, is due to a hypertrophic process in the bones of the cranium.
Sensation and temperature remained normal in both hands; acromegaly was excluded on account of the absence of similar changes elsewhere. Hersman remarks that the change was probably due to increase in growth of the fibrous elements of the subcutaneous lesions about the tendons, caused by rheumatic poison.
The authors agree with Dana and others that there is an intimate relation between acromegaly and gigantism, but they go further and compare both to the growth of the body.
But if he chances to suffer from some rare and choice disease such as Trypanosomiasis or Acromegaly, the doctor will be delighted to listen." "Then are we to understand," Miss Bellingham asked, "that we are rare and choice products, in a legal sense?" "Undoubtedly," replied Thorndyke. "The case of John Bellingham is, in many respects, unique.
On the left hand the thumb and middle fingers were hypertrophied and the index finger was as long as the middle one of the right hand. The middle finger had a lateral curvature outward, due to a displacement of the extensor tendon. This affection resembled acromegaly.
They call attention to the striking resemblance to acromegaly of the disproportionate growth of the boy at adolescence, which corresponds so well to Marie's terse description of this disease: "The disease manifests itself by preference in the bones of the extremities and in the extremities of the bones," and conclude with this rather striking and aphoristic proposition: "Acromegaly is gigantism of the adult; gigantism is acromegaly of adolescence."
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