It was said that Philip Howarth, who was born at Quebec Mews, Portman Square, London, February 21, 1806, lost his infantile rotundity of form and feature after the completion of his first year and became pale and extremely ugly, appearing like a growing boy. His penis and testes increased in size, his voice altered, and hair grew on the pubes. At the age of three he was 3 feet 41/2 inches tall and weighed 51 1/4 pounds. The length of his penis when erect was 4 1/2 inches and the circumference 4 inches;his thigh-measure was 13 1/2 inches, his waist-measure 24 inches, and his biceps 7 inches. He was reported to be clever, very strong, and muscular. An old chronicle says that in Wisnang Parish, village of Tellurge, near Tygure, in Lordship Kiburge, there was born on the 26th of May, 1548, a boy called Henry Walker, who at five years was of the height of a boy of fourteen and possessed the genitals of a man. He carried burdens, did men's work, and in every way assisted his parents, who were of usual size.
There is a case cited by the older authors of a child born in the Jura region who at the age of four gave proof of his virility, at seven had a beard and the height of a man. The same journal also speaks of a boy of six, 1.62 meters tall, who was perfectly proportioned and had extraordinary strength. His beard and general appearance, together with the marks of puberty, gave him the appearance of a man of thirty.
In 1806 Dupuytren presented to the Medical Society in Paris a child 3 1/2 feet high, weighing 57 pounds, who had attained puberty.
There are on record six modern cases of early puberty in boys, one of whom died at five with the signs of premature senility; at one year he had shown signs of enlargement of the sexual organs.
There was another who at three was 3 feet 6 3/4 inches high, weighed 50 pounds, and had seminal discharges. One of the cases was a child who at birth resembled an ordinary infant of five months. From four to fifteen months his penis enlarged, until at the age of three it measured when erect 3 inches. At this age he was 3 feet 7 inches high and weighed 64 pounds. The last case mentioned was an infant who experienced a change of voice at twelve months and showed hair on the pubes. At three years he was 3 feet 4 1/2 inches tall and weighed 51 1/4 pounds. Smith, in Brewster's Journal, 1829, records the case of a boy who at the age of four was well developed; at the age of six he was 4 feet 2inches tall and weighed 74 pounds; his lower extremities were extremely short proportionally and his genitals were as well developed as those of an adult. He had a short, dark moustache but no hair on his chin, although his pubic hair was thick, black, and curly. Ruelle describes a child of three and a quarter years who was as strong and muscular as one at eight. He had full-sized male organs and long black hair on the pubes. Under excitement he discharged semen four or five times a day; he had a deep male voice, and dark, short hair on the cheek and upper lip.
Stone gives an account of a boy of four who looked like a child of ten and exhibited the sexual organs of a man with a luxuriant growth of hair on the pubes. This child was said to have been of great beauty and a miniature model of an athlete. His height was 4 feet 1/4 inch and weight 70 pounds; the penis when semiflaccid was 4 1/4 inches long; he was intelligent and lively, and his back was covered with the acne of puberty. A peculiar fact as regards this case was the statement of the father that he himself had had sexual indulgence at eight. Stone parallels this case by several others that he has collected from medical literature.
Breschet in 1821 reported the case of a boy born October 20, 1817, who at three years and one month was 3 feet 6 3/4 inches tall; his penis when flaccid measured 4 inches and when erect 51/4 inches, but the testicles were not developed in proportion.
Lopez describes a mulatto boy of three years ten and a half months whose height was 4 feet 1/2 inch and weight 82 pounds; he measured about the chest 27 1/2 inches and about the waist 27inches; his penis at rest was 4 inches long and had a circumference of 3 1/2 inches, although the testes were not descended. He had evidences of a beard and his axillae were very hairy; it is said he could with ease lift a man weighing 140pounds. His body was covered with acne simplex and had a strong spermatic odor, but it was not known whether he had any venereal appetite.
Johnson mentions a boy of seven with severe gonorrhea complicated with buboes which he had contracted from a servant girl with whom he slept. At the Hopital des Enfans Malades children at the breast have been observed to masturbate. Fournier and others assert having seen infantile masturbators, and cite a case of a girl of four who was habitually addicted to masturbation from her infancy but was not detected until her fourth year; she died shortly afterward in a frightful state of marasmus. Vogel alludes to a girl of three in whom repeated attacks of epilepsy occurred after six months' onanism. Van Bambeke mentions three children from ten to twenty months old, two of them females, who masturbated.
Bidwell describes a boy of five years and two months who during the year previous had erections and seminal emissions. His voice had changed and he had a downy moustache on his upper lip and hair on the pubes; his height was 4 feet 3 1/2 inches and his weight was 82 1/2 pounds. His penis and testicles were as well developed as those of a boy of seventeen or eighteen, but from his facial aspect one would take him to be thirteen. He avoided the company of women and would not let his sisters nurse him when he was sick.
