The Irish giant - Hardcover

Frankcom, G

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 071561021X ISBN 13: 9780715610213

Publisher: Duckworth, 1976

Synopsis

'He certainly has not left a greater man behind him,' ended The Times obituary in 1806 for Patrick Cotter, bricklayer, of Kinsale, Ireland, alias O'Brien, The Wonderful Irish Giant. 'Near nine feet high,1 ran his publicity, 'the very sport of nature'. At a time when abnormality could bring rewards, Patrick Cotter, born in 1760, was an outstanding figure in entertainment from Bartholomew Fair in London to Sadlers Wells. No mean business man, he learnt to live in some style, and died in Bristol in 1806 at the ripe age, for a giant, of 46.
Terrified by the prospect of grave robbers, he was determined to avoid dissection by the anatomists, and was buried in a deep and specially protected grave, but exactly one hundred years after his burial construction work in Bristol unearthed his coffin. 'The largest human skull known to me,' declared Sir Arthur Keith. In recent years the skeleton has been re-examined in the Department of Anatomy at Bristol University, the bony evidence of Cotter's abnormalities documented, and his height computed at around 8 feet 1 inch, to gain his place in The Guinness Book of Records.
In this study of his life and his relics, Graham Frankcom and Jonathan
Anatomy, Bristol University, have pieced together a unique and fascinating work of social and medical history.

Edition details

• Publisher: Duckworth
• Publication date: 1976
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 071561021X
• ISBN 13: 9780715610213
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128