Cajanus
The genus ''Cajanus'' is a member of the plant family Fabaceae. There are 37 species, mainly distributed across Africa, Asia and Australasia.
Species include the pigeon pea (''C. cajan''), which is a significant food crop.
''Cajanus'' speci ...
(1704 – 27 February 1749) was a
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
giant
In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...
. He made his living by exhibiting himself for money; he appeared in many European countries and attracted the interest of scientists and laypeople, including royalty. After his death, portions of his skeleton found their way into museums, where some parts still remain.
Biography
Cajanus was born in
Paltamo
Paltamo ( sv, Paltamo, also ) is a municipality of Finland. It is part of the Kainuu region. The municipality has a population of
() and covers an area of of
which
is water. The population density is
. There are two built-up areas in the municip ...
,
Oulu
Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
, the son of a clergyman. His Latinized surname might been derived from the name of the town of
Kajaani
Kajaani (; sv, Kajana) is the most populous town and the capital of the Kainuu Region of Finland. It is located southeast of Lake Oulu (Oulujärvi), which drains into the Gulf of Bothnia through the Oulu River (Oulujoki). As of , it had a pop ...
or the region of Kainuu, which was also known its Latin name "Cajania". Finland was at that time part of
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
, and Cajanus was often referred to as the "Swedish Giant". Estimates of his adult height vary and range as high as . Jan Bondeson, a medical professional and author who has researched and written on Cajanus, suggests that his true height was around , supported by contemporaneous accounts in the ''London Annual Register''. Various unconfirmed versions of his early life exist, but tax records indicate he may have left the country in 1723 or soon afterward, and Finnish and Swedish tradition recounts that he joined the bodyguard of
Frederick William I of Prussia
Frederick William I (german: Friedrich Wilhelm I.; 14 August 1688 – 31 May 1740), known as the "Soldier King" (german: Soldatenkönig), was King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg from 1713 until his death in 1740, as well as Prince of Neuch ...
, which was composed of unusually tall soldiers and was nicknamed the
Potsdam Giants
The Potsdam Giants was the name given to Prussian infantry regiment No 6. The regiment was composed of taller-than-average soldiers, and was founded in 1675. It was eventually dissolved in 1806, after the Prussians were defeated by Napoleon. Throug ...
.
Cajanus lived for some years at the court of
August II of Poland
Augustus II; german: August der Starke; lt, Augustas II; in Saxony also known as Frederick Augustus I – Friedrich August I (12 May 16701 February 1733), most commonly known as Augustus the Strong, was Elector of Saxony from 1694 as well as Ki ...
, where he served as a cavalry soldier. Following the king's death in 1733 he appears to have moved on, and according to
Theophilus Cibber
Theophilus Cibber (25 or 26 November 1703 – October 1758) was an English actor, playwright, author, and son of the actor-manager Colley Cibber.
He began acting at an early age, and followed his father into theatrical management. In 1727, Alex ...
spent time in Germany before arriving in London, where he is recorded as having appeared at
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster.
Notable landmarks ...
in February 1734, playing the part of Gargantua in the
pantomime
Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speaking ...
''Cupid and Psyche'', and in several other productions. He exhibited himself for money in various places in London, billed as the "Swedish Giant". His portrait was painted twice during his stay in England by the artist Enoch Seeman; one of these portraits is now in the
National Museum of Finland
The National Museum of Finland ( fi, Kansallismuseo, sv, Nationalmuseum) presents Finnish history from the Stone Age to the present day, through objects and cultural history. The Finnish National Romantic style building is located in central He ...
and depicts him in his Polish soldier's uniform, with an inscription stating his height as . In 1735 he traveled to Paris, where he exhibited himself to paying audiences and was received privately at
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...
by
Louis XV
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...
, the queen and the dauphin. Later he took up residence in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
, where he lived from 1735 to 1741 as the guest of the landlord of the Blauw Jan, an inn where natural curiosities could be seen and traded. After an unsuccessful spell as a
moneylender
In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...
Cajanus returned to exhibiting himself, visiting England again in 1741 and 1742 and appearing before a meeting of the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
, where his height was marked against a pillar and reported to be in his shoes. The society's president
Martin Folkes
Martin Folkes PRS FRS (29 October 1690 – 28 June 1754), was an English antiquary, numismatist, mathematician, and astronomer.
Life
Folkes was born in Westminster on 29 October 1690, the eldest son of Martin Folkes, councillor at Law.Albe ...
observed that Cajanus appeared weak at this meeting, and could not stand for long.
The publisher
Thomas Boreman
Thomas Boreman (''floruit, fl.'' 1730–1743) was one of the earliest English children's book publishers particularly dealing with animals. His bookshops were located around London Boreman published along with Richard Ware and Thomas Game from t ...
met Cajanus during his visit to London in 1742 and produced a book purporting to be his biography. ''The History of Cajanus, the Swedish Giant, from his Birth to the Present Time'' was published on 23 September of that year, and advertisements for it encouraged the reader to visit the exhibition opposite the Mansion House where Cajanus himself could be seen.
Netherlands
Cajanus was quite popular in the Netherlands. In 1745 Cajanus settled in
Haarlem
Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...
, where he bought the right to live in the
Proveniershuis
The Proveniershuis is a hofje and former schutterij on the Grote Houtstraat in Haarlem, Netherlands.
The complex of buildings surrounds a rectangular garden taking up a city block that is on the Haarlem hofje route. Unlike hofjes that were mean ...
, a
sheltered housing
Sheltered housing is a term covering a wide range of rented housing for older and/or disabled or other vulnerable people. In the United Kingdom most commonly it refers to grouped housing such as a block or "scheme" of flats or bungalows with a ...
unit that provided him with accommodation, meals and medical care. In the following years he wrote and published poetry and became a well-known figure in the town; a line marked on a pillar in the city's Grote Kerk still records his measured height during his residence there. This same pillar has a print now illustrating his exhibitions together with Simon Paap, a dwarf who died in December 1828. A life-size painting of him also hung in the church for centuries, but today hangs in the Haarlem city hall.
Cajanus died on 27 February 1749, leaving a large sum in his will to pay for a lavish funeral and a burial vault inside the Grote Kerk, with the intention of safeguarding his remains from disturbance. His coffin is said to have been long. Despite his precautions, the vault was later sold, and Cajanus's bones were acquired by museums. Some are still held at the Museum of Anatomy in the
University of Leiden
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...
. Today the Dutch language still remembers him with the slang term "Cajanus voeten", for unusually large feet. In period writings, the term "Cajaan" was used to mean a giant.Finlandsche reus Cajaan in
Jacob Campo Weyerman
Jacob Campo Weyerman (9 August 1677 – 9 March 1747) was a painter and writer during the period known as the Dutch Enlightenment. His work encompassed flower and fruit still life paintings, satirical magazines, plays, and biographies of painter ...
's "Lives of Dutch painters", 1769, on
Google books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
Medical
Daniel Cajanus apparently suffered from gigantism caused by a defect of the
pituitary
In vertebrate anatomy, the pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland, about the size of a chickpea and weighing, on average, in humans. It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain. The hypop ...
, possibly combined with
hypogonadism
Hypogonadism means diminished functional activity of the gonads—the testes or the ovaries—that may result in diminished production of sex hormones. Low androgen (e.g., testosterone) levels are referred to as hypoandrogenism and low estrogen ...
. This is indicated by the fact that Cajanus' bodily proportions, and especially his strikingly long arms, were consistent with those of
eunuch
A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function.
The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium ...
s, and by his apparently limited interest in the opposite sex.
A tendency towards gigantism was displayed more broadly in his family. His sister Agneta, who went to Haarlem after his death to deal with his estate, was depicted as an especially large woman. A distant relative, Israel Cajanus, had extremely large hands and feet and thus probably also suffered from acromegaly.
The available information about Daniel Cajanus' actual size is somewhat variable; however it is clear that his height reduced somewhat over the course of his life. Investigations into his preserved bones reveal a phenomenon typical of gigantism which explains this reduction: the overproduction of growth hormone leads to a thickening of the
cartilage
Cartilage is a resilient and smooth type of connective tissue. In tetrapods, it covers and protects the ends of long bones at the joints as articular cartilage, and is a structural component of many body parts including the rib cage, the neck an ...
, which wears away in the course of time, leading to symptoms similar to
osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a type of degenerative joint disease that results from breakdown of joint cartilage and underlying bone which affects 1 in 7 adults in the United States. It is believed to be the fourth leading cause of disability in the w ...