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Thomas L. Muinzer
transported for burial. Hunter added the giant’s skeleton to his vast collection of anatomical specimens. Over two centuries later this collection
remains the basis of Hunter’s memorial museum, the Hunterian Museum, housed within London’s Royal College of Surgeons. The skeleton
remains on public display as a centrepiece of the collection. The remains
have been the subject of a series of medical studies, and most recently
research involving the skeleton’s DNA (published 2011) has yielded valuable insight into a specific connection between familial isolated pituitary adenoma and Northern Ireland (Korbonits et al. 2011). The renewed
medical attention that the skeleton has received has coincided with pronounced criticism challenging the appropriateness of the Charles Byrne
exhibit itself and the apparent neglect of the dead man’s own wishes
(Doyal and Muinzer 2011).
This article introduces the historical life and times of Charles Byrne. It
moves on to address the rich legacy of medical research that has centred
upon his remains – in particular the recent DNA research – and proceeds
to draw out a series of contemporary medico-legal issues evoked by the
combination of the giant’s history and the present display. The closing
section endeavours to draw an applicable moral lesson pertinent to the
skeleton’s future.
The “Wonderful Irish Giant”
Byrne was born in 1761. His childhood years were spent amongst the
Irish peasant class near to the border dividing Counties Londonderry/
Derry and Tyrone, at a remote rural hamlet called Littlebridge. As a teenager he found himself growing to an increasingly prodigious height. His
exact height is not reliably known, however examination of his skeleton
suggests that at the peak of growth he probably reached about 7 ft. 7 in.
(Frankcom and Musgrave 1976: 104).
As his fame began to spread he started to receive invitations to the ma-