"The Adventures of Gulliver": the hard life of a real giant
The phenomenon of gigantomania is known in medicine. It is a genetic disorder that affects both men and women. Excessive growth is manifested, there is an increase in individual parts of the body, or in proportion to the whole body, at different periods of life. Our story is about one exceptional phenomenon of such a condition, about a giant man, whose parameters no one has yet surpassed. It's about Robert Wadlow, the famous American with the biggest height and size of body parts.
An amazing American was born in an ordinary family, in an ordinary American state of Illinois, the city of Alton in 1918. Parents and relatives did not differ in changes in height or excessive development of the limbs. The first year of little Wadlow's life is unremarkable. A kid was like an ordinary child. Physical and psychological parameters corresponded to the age factor. But already by the third year of life, the boy began to show the dynamics of increased growth. He outgrew his peers a lot: he began to differ in height (of the whole body), in weight, in the size of legs and arms.
Despite intensive growth, the boy went to study at an ordinary school. He studied quite satisfactorily; his character was soft, compliant, and kind. His peers did not shun him and did not tease him, but on the contrary, they respected and loved him for his kindness and complaisance of temper. The older Robbie got, the more problems with clothes and shoes began to appear. Tailoring of shoes had to be ordered individually, since in his incomplete 18 years the guy had a shoe size of 49. The same applied to clothes.
It was inconvenient for Robert, with his height (over 2.72 cm), to get accustomed to everyday life: the length of the bed, the height of the table and chairs, doorways, the ceiling of rooms, travel in transport. But, despite all these inconveniences, all his contemporaries noted the kind, surprisingly docile nature of the "Gulliver" man.
Over time, Rob found a use for his unusual external data. He began to perform in the circus program "The Adventures of Gulliver" and successfully traveled almost all of America. In 1938, Robert Wadlow was officially listed in the famous Guinness book as the tallest man on the planet. Of course, until the very last days of his life, the man experienced special attention to his person, appearance, size of arms and legs, clothes and shoes, from everyone who saw him. But, he was used to such amazement, and even often joked about it.
The tallest man of earthly civilization died in 1940, at the age of only 22 years (1918-1940). The cause of death was gangrene of the leg from an injury that Robert received in one of his public appearances (from a crutch that he had to use). This unfortunate event happened a year after the start of the Second World War (1939-1945). At the time of his death, Wadlow was 2.75 cm tall and weighed over 220 kg. For the burial of such a giant, a coffin 3.28 cm long was made (weight with a body of 500 kg). This burden was carried by 20 citizens of his hometown of Olton. Subsequently, the townspeople erected a monument to Robert, their famous countryman, in his full height and in accordance with all parameters.
