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The reason for this was shown by further experimenting. The fat in the body is oxidized and converted into heat. Energy and activity stimulate the oxidation of fat, and under activity the fat in the body is used up. If excessive fat has been consumed in food the amount not used in ordinary activity is stored as fat in various parts of the body. The thyroid has a secretion which passes directly into the blood vessels that pass through the gland, and this secretion stimulates the oxidation of fat. "In a case where there is more of this secretion than is required to keep the body at a normal fat standard, the fat will waste more rapidly with the result that the body will become thin.

"For instance, a circus living skeleton -- one of the popular side-show freaks -- is a case of excessive thyroidism, the physical condition being aggravated by active exercise which helps to keep down weight, and by non-fattening food. The condition could be remedied, but the human skeleton as a box-office attraction would be finished, and his easy medium to a livelihood would be done away with.

"No doubt you have seen Carrie Holt, the circus fat lady who smiles so readily as she toddles about. Miss Holt is suffering from a condition just the opposite from that of the human skeleton. In her case there is insufficient thyroid secretion, which may be due to excessive secretion of some other gland or it may be due to a small, inactive thyroid. The weight of all fat freaks makes them inactive. This inactivity not alone lessens waste, but the oxidation of fat, which is part of the chemical processes of waste and repair, is lessened. Fat persons as a rule have hearty appetites and like foods which tend to make them fatter. If fat enough to draw shekels at the gate in a side-show, they take good care that they do not lose their weight. They will not take thyroid or other anti-fat remedies and they will not exercise or ease up on their eating, for they realize that the abnormal fatness means larger salaries.

"The case of Ustus Macknow, the tallest man in the world, who stands nearly ten feet in his socks, can be explained from the fact that he is suffering from too much activity of the pituitary gland.

"This is a two-lobed gland on the outer side of the brain, one of the lobes, the anterior, controlling growth. In the neck are the two large glands, the thyroid which controls fat growth and the thymus which controls bone growth. After the third or fourth year the latter gland begins to waste, and by the time of puberty only a little connective tissue is left, while its functions are taken over by the other glands, mainly the pituitary. When there is an abundance of pituitary secretion during childhood, there will be a rapid increase in growth, the child will be large for its age and will grow up a giant in size. If the secretion of this particular gland is insufficient in quantity during childhood, the growth is retarded, which sums up the why and wherefore of the giant and the midget.

"The midgets can be cured by treatment with pituitary gland extract, but lack of inches means more money so they keep right on being small. The treatment, while still in the experimental stage, has been found successful in cases of slow-growing children. Giantism, however, cannot be cured. "Between the dwarf and the midget there is a vast difference. The dwarf is fairly well developed and of normal size except in the length of his extremities. The dwarf is caused by a deficiency of thymus secretion and a consequent deficiency in bone growth. The bones continue to grow in the skull, chest and pelvis, but the growth is stunted in the limbs."

All other so-called human freaks can be explained in some similar way. Krao, the "Missing Link," and others such as the bearded lady, the man with the long beard and similar freaks are simply all cases of excessive hair growth. Krao is a Siamese woman, who has an excessive growth of hair on head, face, arms, body and legs. But there is nothing unusual about her as it is possible for hair to grow anywhere on the human body except on the palms of the hand or on the soles of the feet. More or less growth of hair may be a racial or family trait, or may be due to some local stimulant in the hair bulbs.

The billiard-ball woman, on the other hand, who hasn't a hair on her head, is suffering from nothing more than plain baldness, or as the M. D.s term it, alopecia. People get bald in certain diseases like smallpox, typhoid fever, etc., because in the course of the sickness the blood becomes impaired and, as the nutrition of the hair is carried in the blood, when this is impaired the hair roots do not receive proper nutrition and the fine muscle fibers which hold the hair in the scalp become weakened. The hair then starts to fall out.

Laurello, a new freak in this country, is at the present time of great interest to science. His claim to notoriety lies in the fact that he can turn his head backward so that his head faces the other way. Laurello, a German, claims that this can be accomplished by anyone who has the persistency to keep trying it. He admits to having spent three years in daily practice to accomplish the feat, six months passing before he could rest his chin on his shoulder. He kept on until he had progressed to the point where he could turn his head directly backward and look the other way. However, according to surgeons who have seen Laurello perform, the feat would in any ordinary man result in strangulation or dislocation of the vertebrae of the neck with resultant damage to the spinal cord and would probably produce instant death.