GIGANTISMO. — The designation indicates a particular development of bodily proportions, and especially of height, that lies above the limits of normal individual fluctuating variability.
The stature of man is a variable element within fixed limits linked to climatic and hereditary factors, particularly those of race. Excluding the extreme measurements characteristic of certain peoples—the Pygmies of Africa (Accas), with an average height of 138 cm., and the Scots of Galloway and the north, with an average height of 178–79 cm.—it may be said that the normal variations in the height of humanity range between 154 and 175 cm., with an average of 165 cm. Moving considerably away from this average, one dwarfism (v.), with heights below 125 cm., and of g., above 199 cm.
In g., height may reach and exceed two and a half metres, while the proportions of the other bodily diameters remain harmonious, or the body may assume particular disharmonies through the addition of signs of acromegaly (v. ENDOCRINE, GLANDOLE, GLANDOLÉ). It is rarely familial; in its pure form it is exclusive to the male sex and represents a genuine mark of inferiority in the individual. In fact, in one third of cases the subject suffers from diabetes, is muscularly asthenic, and displays particular organic fragility; he withstands illnesses poorly, has little psychological ability (“homo longus raro sapiens”), and possesses a weak will. Signs impotence (v.) are often associated with this picture. The life of giants is short; they rarely live beyond 30–40 years. All this contrasts with the belief and the mythological and heroic descriptions that made giants beings of particular physical strength and supernormal prowess.
G. is currently attributed exclusively to hyperfunction of the anterior portion of the pituitary gland, with overproduction of the growth hormone (somatotrophic hormone STH), which exerts its stimulating action on skeletal development.