Southwark Playhouse, LondonWhen Charles Byrne arrived in Georgian London, his height " 7ft 7in " made him the next big thing. But it wasn't just the public who paid to see "the Irish giant" and marvel; a growing number of surgeons, who believed they could unlock the secrets of the human body through dissection after death, circled around him like "harpoonists around an enormous whale". None more so than John Hunter, …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:20PM on May 28, 2012