Charles Byrne was the tallest Irishman who ever lived. He made his money as a freak in a circus and he grew to 7 feet seven inches tall at his height.
Now an article in today’s New England Journal of Medicine has finally identified the mutated gene that caused his condition-- as well as modern relatives who have the disease too.
When he died in 1783 a surgeon named John Hunter bought his body and boiled the flesh off with acid and exhibited the skeleton in London.
Now through modern day forensics a relative of Byrne, who also has the same condition, has been traced and the mystery of why Charles Byrne grew so tall has been solved.
The Journal of Medicine reported that researchers in Britain and Germany extracted DNA from Byrne’s teeth and identified a rare and mysterious gene mutation that was discovered only in 2006
Researchers have now found the same mutation in four families from Northern Ireland, close by where Charles Byrne was born.
The group was led by Dr. Marta Korbonits, professor of endocrinology and metabolism at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry.
They proved tht Byrne had a very rare pituitary tumor that led to disfigurement — “patients develop a bulging forehead and large jaw, hands and feet — and chronic severe headaches.” the Journal reports.
Dr. Shlomo Melmed, a pituitary tumor researcher at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, says such tumors are very important to study. He explained that the tumor cells undergo premature aging and do not kill like other tumors.
The investigators discovered that the giant and the four contemporary Irish families had the same ancestor who lived about 1,500 years ago -- and many have the same tumor.
One of them is Brendan Holland, a 58-year-old Irishman who experienced the same massive growth surge.
“I kept growing and growing,” Holland said, eventually stopping at 6 feet 9 inches. His pituitary tumor was discovered and treated and he was able to live a normal life.
A study of his DNA and the 18th century giant’s DNA revealed they were related.
He said he was touched by knowing what happened to his predecessor and how he must have suffered as subject of massive curiosity and freak shows.
6 Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.jacersagain | Jan 06, 2011, 07:30 PM EST
(More bore...) So again, I ask, where do I, and yez all of Irish heritage, tall or small or in between, apply for a Certificate of African Heritage? Would I apply to a man cartoonly called Charlie Brown or life-like skeletal Genie Byrne, in the discreet Embassy of Cantburndebridgesandbranches?
jacersagain | Jan 06, 2011, 07:25 PM EST
(Oh yes, more from below!) I have posted elsewhere on ICentral for information as to where I might apply for a Certificate of African Ancestry. No replies so far, mo bhrón! But did you know there are men and women of African tribes of extraordinary height – no, not in this case, the pygmy ones – the ones who are extraordinarily tall like Charlie Brown was? You find them in East Africa and West Africa, especially near the Efelants Coast (to be deliberately slightly confused with the Ivy Coast (sic)). Did anybody notice what I noticed on recent international TV news shots? The hugely tall, less meat-on-a-butcher’s pencil-thin (lovely phrase antoman! tks) Security Guards in the background with that stupid man (what’s his name again? Ex-President Grababag ’ngo? - I might have mispeeled there), a President who thinks he can pimp off his country’s people (they should say “No Way anymore” – actually, it’s been said they democratically told him so, but like other psycho pimps, he ignores his own people for his own selfish benefit, a trait that leads to death.) Yes, the security guys looked huge in height. I think our Irish Charlie Brown was genealogically descended from those Security Guards' peoples. (Bore more...)
jacersagain | Jan 06, 2011, 07:19 PM EST
Yes, this a great interesting story, especially the science and genealogy aspects. Pity that Patrick Cooper didn’t add a bit more pathos, as the NEJ reported, that this giant of a man died at 22 yrs of age.... I follow news and developments in the Sciences from time to time and have learned greatly; I garnered that the pituitary gland affects growth, or lack of it, quite a lot or a bit, depending on how you see things, whether you’re looking up or down. Could Charles Byrne have been a snobbish person looking down, who died from snobbishness and not pituitary glands or pity glares? Or, gosh! - could he have died from fear of heights??? (From my garnered knowledge of Science, for the unknowledgeable readers, fear of heights is called virtuosity). I am quite virtuous; I admit I have a fear of heights, even as an average sized Irishman. No Charlie Brown, sorry, no Charlie Byrne, is me. (More...)
Niall O'Dowd | Jan 06, 2011, 02:18 PM EST
amazing story
ironbed | Jan 06, 2011, 02:00 PM EST
Poor diet, really? Thanx for clearing that up for us.
antoman | Jan 06, 2011, 11:03 AM EST
I've seen more meat on a butchers pencil.Back then peasents were five foot nothing and that was primarily because of their poor diet.