On January 27, 1887, a Greek, although a Turkish subject, recently died of phthisis in Simferopol.

He was 7 feet 8 inches in height and slept on three beds laid close together.
Giants of History .-- A number of persons of great height, particularly sovereigns and warriors, are well-known characters of history, viz., William of Scotland, Edward III, Godefroy of Bouillon, Philip the Long, Fairfax, Moncey, Mortier, Kleber; there are others celebrated in modern times.

Rochester, the favorite of Charles II; Pothier, the jurist; Bank, the English naturalist; Gall, Billat-Savarin, Benjamin Constant, the painter David, Bellart, the geographer Delamarche, and Care, the founder of the Gentleman's Magazine, were all men of extraordinary stature.
Dwarfs .-- The word "dwarf" is of Saxon origin (dwerg, dweorg) and corresponds to the "pumilio" or "nanus" of the Romans.

The Greeks believed in the pygmy people of Thrace and Pliny speaks of the Spithamiens.

In the "Iliad" Homer writes of the pygmies and Juvenal also describes them; but the fantasies of these poets have given these creatures such diminutive stature that they have deprived the traditions of credence.