Cutaneous sensibility was lessened. On June 13th a chill was followed by herpes over the left arm and chest, and later on the back and on the front of the chest. The temperature was normal.
The second case was a married Englishwoman of sixty-four. The enlarged tissue was very unevenly distributed, and sensibility was the same as in the previous case. At the woman's death she weighed 300 pounds, and the fat over the abdomen was three inches thick. The third case was a German woman in whom were seen soft, fat-like masses in various situations over either biceps, over the outer and posterior aspect of either arm, and two large masses over the belly; there was excessive prominence of the mons veneris. At the autopsy the heart weighed 8 1/2 ounces, and the fat below the umbilicus was seven inches thick.
Abnormal Leanness.--In contrast to the fat men are the so-called "living skeletons," or men who have attained notice by reason of absence of the normal adipose tissue. The semimythical poet Philotus was so thin that it was said that he fastened lead on his shoes to prevent his being blown away,--a condition the opposite of that of Dionysius of Heraclea, who, after choking to death from his fat, could hardly be moved to his grave.
In March, 1754, there died in Glamorganshire of mere old age and gradual decay a little Welshman, Hopkin Hopkins, aged seventeen years. He had been recently exhibited in London as a natural curiosity; he had never weighed over 17 pounds, and for the last three years of his life never more than 12 pounds. His parents still had six children left, all of whom were normal and healthy except a girl of twelve, who only weighed 18 pounds and bore marks of old age.
There was a "living skeleton" brought to England in 1825 by the name of Claude Seurat. He was born in 1798 and was in his twenty-seventh year. He usually ate in the course of a day a penny roll and drank a small quantity of wine. His skeleton was plainly visible, over which the skin was stretched tightly. The distance from the chest to the spine was less than 3 inches, and internally this distance was less. The pulsations of the heart were plainly visible. He was in good health and slept well. His voice was very weak and shrill. The circumference of this man's biceps was only 4 inches. The artist Cruikshank has made several drawings of Seurat.
Calvin Edson was another living skeleton. In 1813 he was in the army at the battle of Plattsburg, and had lain down in the cold and become benumbed. At this time he weighed 125 pounds and was twenty-five years old. In 1830 he weighed but 60 pounds, though 5feet 4 inches tall. He was in perfect health and could chop a cord of wood without fatigue; he was the father of four children.
Salter speaks of a man in 1873 who was thirty-two years of age and only weighed 49 pounds. He was 4 feet 6 inches tall: his forehead measured in circumference 20 1/2 inches and his chest 27inches. His genitals, both internal and external, were defectively developed. Figure 175 represents the well-known Ohio "living skeleton," J. W. Coffey, who has been exhibited all over the Continent. His good health and appetite were proverbial among his acquaintances.
In some instances the so-called "living skeletons" are merely cases of extreme muscular atrophy. As a prominent example of this class the exhibitionist, Rosa Lee Plemons at the age of eighteen weighed only 27 pounds. Figure 177 shows another case of extraordinary atrophic condition of all the tissues of the body associated with nondevelopment. These persons are always sickly and exhibit all the symptoms of progressive muscular atrophy, and cannot therefore be classed with the true examples of thinness, in which the health is but slightly affected or possibly perfect health is enjoyed.
