 |
| LADY AAMA |
| Emma Bataillard arrived in the United States in Nov. 1892, a sixteen year old French teenager. Emma had been suffering from tuberculosis for some years but was well enough to make the voyage with showmen named Clement. That Emma's tubercular condition was well advanced is evidenced by the fact that not four months after her arrival to the States, she was dead. It is probably true that Emma's body, ridden by an infectious disease, would not be permitted to be sent home for burial. But instead of respectfully burying her in Des Moines, Iowa where she died, her managers figured another way to get their money's worth. The medical faculties at Iowa's two universities were having a hard time coming up with cadavers and grave-robbing was a serious criminal offense. When they heard of the death of the French giantess, a "spirited contest" took place between the two colleges to secure her body. The brothers sold Emma's body to the highest bidder, the medical department of the (Iowa City) State university, for $200. The inClement managers went home to France doubly rich. Not only did they have the $200 from the sale of Emma's corpse but also all the money the teenager had earned in her short three-and-a-half month exhibtion tour. Her body was finally laid to rest in Woodland Cemetery in Des Moines but only because her skeleton could not be mounted (see below). |
| Alma Bataillard as "Aama" in a photo taken in the U.S. in 1892 or '93. "Princess Josepha", who was represented as being the thirty-two year old midget sister of Alma, was actually eight years old at the time and the daughter of Alma's manager. The other lady is the manager's sister. |
 |
| About the middle of February, 1893, "Lady Aama," a French giantess, was brought to this city to be exhibited in a dime museum. A week or so later she was taken ill, and on the 27th of the month her death was reported.
Negotiations were opened with the party under whose escort she was traveling, and her body was secured for the museum of the State University at Iowa City, and an opportunity was thus afforded me for examining what proved to be a most interesting anomaly. "Lady Aama" had been reported and advertised to be "over 8 feet" in height but this was of course recognized as merely the "regulation stature" of all giants thought worthy of an introduction to the public and it was no surprise to find that her height, or more properly, length when carefully measured five days after death was exactly 6 feet 7 3/4 inches, though possibly it might have exceeded this slightly during life when the arch of the instep would be better supported and the intervertebral disks unshrunken. Her baptismal name was Emma Alline Batallaid (sic) and her birthplace on the slopes of the Jura in France, her age being variously stated, by her sisters, at 19 and 17 years, the latter appearing most probable on later examination, as scarcely a third of the epiphyses in her skeleton were united with their apophyses, although this may have been a part of the general imperfect development of all of her tissues. The cause of her death was given as "quick consumption," which had lasted for only six months or so, but on more careful inquiry it was found that she had been failing gradually in strength for some four or five years past and had died quite suddenly - she was exhibited within three days of her death - in what appeared to have been and attack of la grippe or of acute bronchitis; death occurring from syncope after a severe fit of coughing. She suffered very little pain during her illness, and the muscular weakness was so extreme that for weeks before her death she was obliged to support herself, when standing, by holding on to an upright rod fixed in the floor. In fact, her death appeared mainly due to a general state of collapse hastened by an acute coryza. She was the fifteenth child of a poor laborer, all the others being of normal height. (Her sister) declared that she was still increasing in height up to the time of her death. Her intelligence was decidedly poor, but in no way abnormal. There was absolutely nothing in a view of the trunk above the pubes to indicate the sex, the mammary glands being almost completely absent, and the circumference of the chest being only 2 inches less than that of the hips (39 inches). The nipples were flat and small, and upon dissection a mere trace of gland tissue and of a suspensory ligament could be made out. The integument of the body was thickish and earthy-looking, but not otherwise abnormal, and the hair of the scalp was thin and sparse, but of about normal length. The most striking abnormality was found in the generative organs. The mons veneris and labia majora were flat and poorly developed. The clitoris was nearly half an inch in diameter and extremely prominent and with the large clitoridal folds, 1 1/2 inches in length, presented no very fanciful resemblance to a small and imperfectly developed penis. This probably was the cause of the reports circulated during "Aama's" lifetime that she was an hermaphrodite. The vagina was small and straight, barely capable of admitting the fore finger. The uterus was 1 1/4 inches in length and two-thirds inch broad - about the size and shape of the last joint of the little finger and weighed 2 drachms. The Fallopian tubes were barely recognizable and their abdominal extremities had only three or four rudimentary fimbriæ (none attached to the ovary). The ovaries were small granular looking masses about the size of the finger nail, adhering to the posterior surface of the broad ligament. After the removal of the softer tissues the bones were macerated and cleaned with the hope of being able to mount them for the Museum, but such was their spongy, crumbling condition that it seemed doubtful whether they were firm enough to hold the wires and support their own weight. The whole osseous system appeared to be in a condition of osteo-porosis, a touch would dislodge the teeth from their sockets, the ribs and slighter bones would snap across at the slightest strain and the epiphyseal plates upon the bodies of the vertebrae could be lifted off with the finger. In fact it literally appeared as if there was no more actual osseous material in this gigantic skeleton than would be required to make a sound, firm, bony framework of the average size. The bones, though much larger, were very little heavier than normal, the radius, scapula, and fiblula, for instance, being found to exceed the average of healthy bones in weight only 10 per cent. The crumbling condition of both upper and lower alveolar processses and the looseness of the teeth can also be seen, many of the fangs being exposed. All the upper incisors, canine, bicuspids, and first molar on the left side have disappeared, and the alveolus is atrophied, while the remaining teeth are either loose in their sockets or have large cavities in their crowns. An upper plate was worn during life. I have ventured to call this case one of acromegaly on the following grounds: (1) The excessive development and peculiar shape of the hands, fingers, feet, jaw, and nasal bones. (2) The hypertrophy of the pituitary body and enormous size of the pituitary fossa. (3) The history of mental deficiency and long-standing progressive failure of strength, ending at last in death by syncope. Transactions of the first Pan-American Medical Congress v. 2 (1895) |
| A CASE OF ACROMEGALY IN A GIANTESS. |
| By Woods Hutchinson, A.M., M.D., Des Moines, Iowa. |
| Professor of anatomy, State University of Iowa |