Anomalies And Curiosities Of Medicine Part 25

It is said that while digging in France in 1613 there was disinterred the body of a giant bearing the t.i.tle "Theutobochus Rex," and that the skeleton measured 25 feet long, 10 feet across the shoulders, and 5 feet from breast to back. The s.h.i.+n-bone was about 4 feet long, and the teeth as large as those of oxen. This is likely another version of the finding of the remains of Bucart.

Near Mezarino in Sicily in 1516 there was found the skeleton of a giant whose height was at least 30 feet; his head was the size of a hogshead, and each tooth weighed 5 ounces; and in 1548 and in 1550 there were others found of the height of 30 feet. The Athenians found near their city skeletons measuring 34 and 36 feet in height. In Bohemia in 758 it is recorded that there was found a human skeleton 26 feet tall, and the leg-bones are still kept in a medieval castle in that country. In September, 1691, there was the skull of a giant found in Macedonia which held 210 pounds of corn.

General Opinions.--All the accounts of giants originating in the finding of monstrous bones must of course be discredited, as the remains were likely those of some animal. Comparative anatomy has only lately obtained a hold in the public mind, and in the Middle Ages little was known of it. The pretended giants' remains have been those of mastodons, elephants, and other animals. From Suetonius we learn that Augustus Caesar pleased himself by adorning his palaces with so-called giants' bones of incredible size, preferring these to pictures or images. From their enormous size we must believe they were mastodon bones, as no contemporary animals show such measurements.

Bartholinus describes a large tooth for many years exhibited as the canine of a giant which proved to be nothing but a tooth of a spermaceti whale (Cetus dentatus), quite a common fish. Hand described an alleged giant's skeleton shown in London early in the eighteenth century, and which was composed of the bones of the fore-fin of a small whale or of a porpoise.

The celebrated Sir Hans Sloane, who treated this subject very learnedly, arrived at the conclusion that while in most instances the bones found were those of mastodons, elephants, whales, etc., in some instances accounts were given by connoisseurs who could not readily be deceived. However, modern scientists will be loath to believe that any men ever existed who measured over 9 feet; in fact, such cases with authentic references are extremely rare Quetelet considers that the tallest man whose stature is authentically recorded was the "Scottish Giant" of Frederick the Great's regiment of giants. This person was not quite 8 feet 3 inches tall. Buffon, ordinarily a reliable authority, comes to a loose conclusion that there is no doubt that men have lived who were 10, 12, and even 15 feet tall; but modern statisticians cannot accept this deduction from the references offered.

From the original estimation of the height of Adam (Henrion once calculated that Adam's height was 123 feet and that of Eve 118) we gradually come to 10 feet, which seemed to be about the favorite height for giants in the Middle Ages. Approaching this century, we still have stories of men from 9 to 10 feet high, but no authentic cases. It was only in the latter part of the last century that we began to have absolutely authentic heights of giants, and to-day the men showing through the country as measuring 8 feet generally exaggerate their height several inches, and exact measurement would show that but few men commonly called giants are over 7 1/2 feet or weigh over 350 pounds. Dana says that the number of giants figuring as public characters since 1700 is not more than 100, and of these about 20 were advertised to be over 8 feet. If we confine ourselves to those accurately and scientifically measured the list is surprisingly small.

Topinard measured the tallest man in the Austrian army and found that he was 8 feet 4 1/2 inches. The giant Winckelmeyer measured 8 feet 6 inches in height. Ranke measured Marianne Wehde, who was born in Germany in the present century, and found that she measured 8 feet 4 1/4 inches when only sixteen and a half years old.

In giants, as a rule, the great stature is due to excessive growth of the lower extremities, the size of the head and that of the trunk being nearly the same as those of a man or boy of the same age. On the other hand, in a natural dwarf the proportions are fairly uniform, the head, however, being always larger in proportion to the body, just as we find in infants. Indeed, the proportions of "General Tom Thumb" were those of an ordinary infant of from thirteen to fifteen months old.

Figure 156 shows a portrait of two well-known exhibitionists of about the same age, and ill.u.s.trates the possible extremes of anomalies in stature.

Recently, the a.s.sociation of acromegaly with gigantism has been noticed, and in these instances there seems to be an acquired uniform enlargement of all the bones of the body. Brissaud and Meige describe the case of a male of forty-seven who presented nothing unusual before the age of sixteen, when he began to grow larger, until, having reached his majority, he measured 7 feet 2 inches in height and weighed about 340 pounds. He remained well and very strong until the age of thirty-seven, when he overlifted, and following this he developed an extreme deformity of the spine and trunk, the latter "telescoping into itself" until the nipples were on a level with the anterior superior spines of the ilium. For two years he suffered with debility, fatigue, bronchitis, night-sweats, headache, and great thirst. Mentally he was dull; the bones of the face and extremities showed the hypertrophies characteristic of acromegaly, the soft parts not being involved. The circ.u.mference of the trunk at the nipples was 62 inches, and over the most prominent portion of the kyphosis and pigeon-breast, 74 inches.

The authors agree with Dana and others that there is an intimate relation between acromegaly and gigantism, but they go further and compare both to the growth of the body. They call attention to the striking resemblance to acromegaly of the disproportionate growth of the boy at adolescence, which corresponds so well to Marie's terse description of this disease: "The disease manifests itself by preference in the bones of the extremities and in the extremities of the bones," and conclude with this rather striking and aphoristic proposition: "Acromegaly is gigantism of the adult; gigantism is acromegaly of adolescence."

The many theories of the cause of gigantism will not be discussed here, the reader being referred to volumes exclusively devoted to this subject.

Celebrated Giants.--Mention of some of the most famous giants will be made, together with any a.s.sociate points of interest.

Beca.n.u.s, physician to Charles V, says that he saw a youth 9 feet high and a man and a woman almost 10 feet. Ainsworth says that in 1553 the Tower of London was guarded by three brothers claiming direct descent from Henry VIII, and surnamed Og, Gog, and Magog, all of whom were over 8 feet in height. In his "Chronicles of Holland" in 1557 Hadria.n.u.s Barlandus said that in the time of John, Earl of Holland, the giant Nicholas was so large that men could stand under his arms, and his shoe held 3 ordinary feet. Among the yeoman of the guard of John Frederick, Duke of Hanover, there was one Christopher Munster, 8 1/2 feet high, who died in 1676 in his forty-fifth year. The giant porter of the Duke of Wurtemberg was 7 1/2 feet high. "Big Sam," the porter at Carleton Palace, when George IV was Prince of Wales, was 8 feet high. The porter of Queen Elizabeth, of whom there is a picture in Hampton Court, painted by Zucchero, was 7 1/2 feet high; and Walter Parson, porter to James I, was about the same height. William Evans, who served Charles I, was nearly 8 feet; he carried a dwarf in his pocket.

In the seventeenth century, in order to gratify the Empress of Austria, Guy-Patin made a congress of all the giants and dwarfs in the Germanic Empire. A peculiarity of this congress was that the giants complained to the authorities that the dwarfs teased them in such a manner as to make their lives miserable.

Plater speaks of a girl in Basle, Switzerland, five years old, whose body was as large as that of a full-grown woman and who weighed when a year old as much as a bushel of wheat. He also mentions a man living in 1613, 9 feet high, whose hand was 1 foot 6 inches long. Peter van den Broecke speaks of a Congo negro in 1640 who was 8 feet high. Daniel, the porter of Cromwell, was 7 feet 6 inches high; he became a lunatic.

Frazier speaks of Chilian giants 9 feet tall. There is a chronicle which says one of the Kings of Norway was 8 feet high. Merula says that in 1538 he saw in France a Flemish man over 9 feet. Keysler mentions seeing Hans Brau in Tyrol in 1550, and says that he was nearly 12 feet high.

Jonston mentions a lad in Holland who was 8 feet tall. Pasumot mentions a giant of 8 feet.

Edmund Mallone was said to have measured 7 feet 7 inches. Wierski, a Polander, presented to Maximilian II, was 8 feet high. At the age of thirty-two there died in 1798 a clerk of the Bank of England who was said to have been nearly 7 1/2 feet high. The Daily Advertiser for February 23, 1745, says that there was a young colossus exhibited opposite the Mansion House in London who was 7 feet high, although but fifteen years old. In the same paper on January 31, 1753, is an account of MacGrath, whose skeleton is still preserved in Dublin. In the reign of George I, during the time of the Bartholomew Fair at Smithfield, there was exhibited an English man seventeen years old who was 8 feet tall.

Nicephorus tells of Antonius of Syria, in the reign of Theodosius, who died at the age of twenty-five with a height of 7 feet 7 inches.

Artacaecas, in great favor with Xerxes, was the tallest Persian and measured 7 feet. John Middleton, born in 1752 at Hale, Lancas.h.i.+re, humorously called the "Child of Hale," and whose portrait is in Brasenose College, Oxford, measured 9 feet 3 inches tall. In his "History of Ripton," in Devons.h.i.+re, 1854, Bigsby gives an account of a discovery in 1687 of a skeleton 9 feet long. In 1712 in a village in Holland there died a fisherman named Gerrit Bastiaansen who was 8 feet high and weighed 500 pounds. During Queen Anne's reign there was shown in London and other parts of England a most peculiar anomaly--a German giantess without hands or feet who threaded a needle, cut gloves, etc.

About 1821 there was issued an engraving of Miss Angelina Melius, nineteen years of age and 7 feet high, attended by her page, Senor Don Santiago de los Santos, from the Island of Manilla, thirty-live years old and 2 feet 2 inches high. "The Annual Register" records the death of Peter Tuchan at Posen on June 18, 1825, of dropsy of the chest. He was twenty-nine years old and 8 feet 7 inches in height; he began to grow at the age of seven. This monster had no beard; his voice was soft; he was a moderate eater. There was a giant exhibited in St.

Petersburg, June, 1829, 8 feet 8 inches in height, who was very thin and emaciated.

Dr. Adam Clarke, who died in 1832, measured a man 8 feet 6 inches tall.

Frank Buckland, in his "Curiosities of Natural History," says that Brice, the French giant, was 7 feet 7 inches. Early in 1837 there was exhibited at Parma a young man formerly in the service of the King of the Netherlands who was 8 feet 10 inches high and weighed 401 pounds.

Robert Hale, the "Norfolk Giant," who died in Yarmouth in 1843 at the age of forty-three, was 7 feet 6 inches high and weighed 452 pounds.

The skeleton of Cornelius McGrath, now preserved in the Trinity College Museum, Dublin, is a striking example of gigantism. At sixteen years he measured 7 feet 10 inches.

O'Brien or Byrne, the Irish giant, was supposed to be 8 feet 4 inches in height at the time of his death in 1783 at the age of twenty-two.

The story of his connection with the ill.u.s.trious John Hunter is quite interesting. Hunter had vowed that he would have the skeleton of O'Brien, and O'Brien was equally averse to being boiled in the distinguished scientist's kettle. The giant was tormented all his life by the constant a.s.sertions of Hunter and by his persistence in locating him. Finally, when, following the usual early decline of his cla.s.s of anomalies, O'Brien came to his death-bed, he bribed some fishermen to take his body after his death to the middle of the Irish Channel and sink it with leaden weights. Hunter, it is alleged, was informed of this and overbribed the prospective undertakers and thus secured the body. It has been estimated that it cost Hunter nearly 500 pounds sterling to gain possession of the skeleton of the "Irish Giant." The kettle in which the body was boiled, together with some interesting literature relative to the circ.u.mstances, are preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and were exhibited at the meeting of the British Medical a.s.sociation in 1895 with other Hunterian relics. The skeleton, which is now one of the features of the Museum, is reported to measure 92 3/4 inches in height, and is mounted alongside that of Caroline Crachami, the Sicilian dwarf, who was exhibited as an Italian princess in London in 1824. She did not grow after birth and died at the age of nine.

Patrick Cotter, the successor of O'Brien, and who for awhile exhibited under this name, claiming that he was a lineal descendant of the famous Irish King, Brian Boru, who he declared was 9 feet in height, was born in 1761, and died in 1806 at the age of forty-five. His shoe was 17 inches long, and he was 8 feet 4 inches tall at his death.

In the Museum of Madame Tussaud in London there is a wax figure of Loushkin, said to be the tallest man of his time. It measures 8 feet 5 inches, and is dressed in the military uniform of a drum-major of the Imperial Preobrajensky Regiment of Guards. To magnify his height there is a figure of the celebrated dwarf, "General Tom Thumb," in the palm of his hand. Figure 158 represents a well-known American giant, Ben Hicks who was called "the Denver Steeple."

Buffon refers to a Swedish giantess who he affirms was 8 feet 6 inches tall. Chang, the "Chinese Giant," whose smiling face is familiar to nearly all the modern world, was said to be 8 feet tall. In 1865, at the age of nineteen, he measured 7 feet 8 inches. At Hawick, Scotland, in 1870, there was an Irishman 7 feet 8 inches in height, 52 inches around the chest, and who weighed 22 stone. Figure 159 shows an American giantess known as "Leah, the Giantess." At the age of nineteen she was 7 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 165 pounds.

On June 17, 1871, there were married at Saint-Martins-in-the-Field in London Captain Martin Van Buren Bates of Kentucky and Miss Anna Swann of Nova Scotia, two celebrated exhibitionists, both of whom were over 7 feet. Captain Bates, familiarly known as the "Kentucky Giant," years ago was a familiar figure in many Northern cities, where he exhibited himself in company with his wife, the combined height of the two being greater than that of any couple known to history. Captain Bates was born in Whitesburg, Letcher County, Ky., on November 9, 1845. He enlisted in the Southern army in 1861, and though only sixteen years old was admitted to the service because of his size. At the close of the war Captain Bates had attained his great height of 7 feet 2 1/2 inches. His body was well proportioned and his weight increased until it reached 450 pounds. He traveled as a curiosity from 1866 to 1880, being connected with various amus.e.m.e.nt organizations. He visited nearly all the large cities and towns in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Russia.

While in England in 1871 the Captain met Miss Anna H. Swann, known as the "Nova Scotia Giantess," who was two years the junior of her giant lover. Miss Swann was justly proud of her height, 7 feet 5 1/2 inches.

The two were married soon afterward. Their combined height of 14 feet 8 inches marked them as the tallest married couple known to mankind.

Captain Bates' parents were of medium size. His father, a native of Virginia, was 5 feet 10 inches high and weighed 160 pounds. His mother was 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 125 pounds. The height of the father of Mrs. Anna Swann Bates was 6 feet and her mother was 5 feet and 2 inches high, weighing but 100 pounds.

A recent newspaper dispatch says: "Captain M. V. Bates, whose remarkable height at one time attracted the attention of the world, has recently retired from his conspicuous position and lives in comparative obscurity on his farm in Guilford, Medina County, O., half a mile east of Seville."

In 1845 there was shown in Paris Joachim Eleiceigui, the Spanish giant, who weighed 195 kilograms (429 pounds) and whose hands were 42 cm. (16 1/2 inches) long and of great beauty. In 1882 at the Alhambra in London there was a giantess by the name of Miss Marian, called the "Queen of the Amazons," aged eighteen years, who measured 2.45 meters (96 1/2 inches). William Campbell, a Scotchman, died at Newcastle in May 1878.

He was so large that the window of the room in which the deceased lay and the brick-work to the level of the floor had to be taken out, in order that the coffin might be lowered with block and tackle three stories to the ground. On January 27, 1887, a Greek, although a Turkish subject, recently died of phthisis in Simferopol. He was 7 feet 8 inches in height and slept on three beds laid close together.

Giants of History.--A number of persons of great height, particularly sovereigns and warriors, are well-known characters of history, viz., William of Scotland, Edward III, G.o.defroy of Bouillon, Philip the Long, Fairfax, Moncey, Mortier, Kleber; there are others celebrated in modern times. Rochester, the favorite of Charles II; Pothier, the jurist; Bank, the English naturalist; Gall, Billat-Savarin, Benjamin Constant, the painter David, Bellart, the geographer Delamarche, and Care, the founder of the Gentleman's Magazine, were all men of extraordinary stature.

Dwarfs.--The word "dwarf" is of Saxon origin (dwerg, dweorg) and corresponds to the "pumilio" or "na.n.u.s" of the Romans. The Greeks believed in the pygmy people of Thrace and Pliny speaks of the Spithamiens. In the "Iliad" Homer writes of the pygmies and Juvenal also describes them; but the fantasies of these poets have given these creatures such diminutive stature that they have deprived the traditions of credence. Herodotus relates that in the deserts of Lybia there were people of extreme shortness of stature. The Bible mentions that no dwarf can officiate at the altar. Aristotle and Philostratus speak of pygmy people descended from Pygmaeus, son of Dorus. In the seventeenth century van Helmont supposed that there were pygmies in the Canary Islands, and Abyssinia, Brazil, and j.a.pan in the older times were repeatedly said to contain pygmy races. Relics of what must have been a pygmy race have been found in the Hebrides, and in this country in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Dr. Schweinfurth, the distinguished African traveler, confirms the statements of Homer, Herodotus, and Aristotle that there was a race of pygmies near the source of the Nile. Schweinfurth says that they live south of the country occupied by the Niam-Niam, and that their stature varies from 4 feet to 4 feet 10 inches. These people are called the Akkas, and wonderful tales are told of their agility and cunning, characteristics that seem to compensate for their small stature.

In 1860 Paul DuChaillu speaks of the existence of an African people called the Obongos, inhabiting the country of the Ashangos, a little to the south of the equator, who were about 1.4 meters in height. There have been people found in the Esquimaux region of very diminutive stature. Battel discovered another pygmy people near the Obongo who are called the Dongos. Kolle describes the Kenkobs, who are but 3 to 4 feet high, and another tribe called the Reebas, who vary from 3 to 5 feet in height. The Portuguese speak of a race of dwarfs whom they call the Bakka-bakka, and of the Yogas, who inhabit territory as far as the Loango. Nubia has a tribe of dwarfs called the Sukus, but little is known of them. Throughout India there are stories of dwarf tribes descended from the monkey-G.o.d, or Hoonuman of the mythologic poems.

In the works of Humboldt and Burgoa there is allusion to the tradition of a race of pygmies in the unexplored region of Chiapas near the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Central America. There is an expedition of anthropologists now on the way to discover this people. Professor Starr of Chicago on his return from this region reported many colonies of undersized people, but did not discover any pygmy tribes answering to the older legendary descriptions. Figure 160 represents two dwarf Cottas measuring 3 feet 6 inches in height.

The African pygmies who were sent to the King of Italy and shown in Rome resembled the pygmy travelers of Akka that Schweinfurth saw at the court of King Munza at Monb.u.t.tu. These two pygmies at Rome were found in Central Africa and were respectively about ten and fifteen years old. They spoke a dialect of their own and different from any known African tongue; they were partly understood by an Egyptian sergeant, a native of Soudan, who accompanied them as the sole survivor of the escort with which their donor, Miani, penetrated Monb.u.t.tu. Miani, like Livingstone, lost his life in African travel. These dwarfs had grown rapidly in recent years and at the time of report, measured 1.15 and 1.02 meters. In 1874 they were under the care of the Royal Geographical Society of Italy. They were intelligent in their manner, but resented being lionized too much, and were p.r.o.ne to scratch ladies who attempted to kiss them.

The "Aztec Children" in 1851, at the ages of seven and six years, another pair of alleged indigenous pygmies, measured 33 3/4 and 29 1/2 inches in height and weighed 20 3/4 and 17 pounds respectively. The circ.u.mference of their heads did not equal that of an ordinary infant at birth.

It is known that at one time the ancients artificially produced dwarfs by giving them an insufficient alimentation when very young. They soon became rachitic from their deprivation of lime-salts and a great number perished, but those who survived were very highly prized by the Roman Emperors for their grotesque appearance. There were various recipes for dwarfing children. One of the most efficient in the olden times was said to have been anointing the backbone with the grease of bats, moles, dormice, and such animals; it was also said that puppies were dwarfed by frequently was.h.i.+ng the feet and backbone, as the consequent drying and hardening of the parts were alleged to hinder their extension. To-day the growth of boys intended to be jockeys is kept down by excessive sweating.

Ancient Popularity of Dwarfs.--At one time a dwarf was a necessary appendage of every n.o.ble family. The Roman Emperors all had their dwarfs. Julia, the niece of Augustus, had a couple of dwarfs, Conopas and Andromeda, each of whom was 2 feet 4 inches in height. It was the fas.h.i.+on at one time to have dwarfs noted for their wit and wisdom.

Philos of Cos, tutor of Ptolemy Philadelphus, was a dwarf, as were Carachus, the friend of Saladin; Alypius of Alexandria, who was only 2 feet high; Lucinus Calvus, who was only 3 feet high, and aesop, the famous Greek fabulist. Later in the Middle Ages and even to the last century dwarfs were seen at every Court. Lady Montagu describes the dwarfs at the Viennese Court as "devils bedaubed with diamonds." They had succeeded the Court Jester and exercised some parts of this ancient office. At this time the English ladies kept monkeys for their amus.e.m.e.nt. The Court dwarfs were allowed unlimited freedom of speech, and in order to get at truths other men were afraid to utter one of the Kings of Denmark made one of his dwarfs Prime Minister.

Charles IX in 1572 had nine dwarfs, of which four had been given to him by King Sigismund-Augustus of Poland and three by Maximilian II of Germany. Catherine de Medicis had three couples of dwarfs at one time, and in 1579 she had still five pygmies, named Merlin, Mandricart, Pelavine, Rodomont, and Majoski. Probably the last dwarf in the Court of France was Balthazar Simon, who died in 1662.

Sometimes many dwarfs were present at great and n.o.ble gatherings. In Rome in 1566 the Cardinal Vitelli gave a sumptuous banquet at which the table-attendants were 34 dwarfs. Peter the Great of Russia had a pa.s.sion for dwarfs, and in 1710 gave a great celebration in honor of the marriage of his favorite, Valakoff, with the dwarf of the Princess Prescovie Theodorovna. There were 72 dwarfs of both s.e.xes present to form the bridal party. Subsequently, on account of dangerous and difficult labor, such marriages were forbidden in Russia.

In England and in Spain the n.o.bles had the portraits of their dwarfs painted by the celebrated artists of the day. Velasquez has represented Don Antonio el Ingles, a dwarf of fine appearance, with a large dog, probably to bring out the dwarf's inferior height. This artist also painted a great number of other dwarfs at the Court of Spain, and in one of his paintings he portrays the Infanta Marguerite accompanied by her male and female dwarfs. Reproductions of these portraits have been given by Garnier. In the pictures of Raphael, Paul Veronese, and Dominiquin, and in the "Triumph of Caesar" by Mantegna, representations of dwarfs are found, as well as in other earlier pictures representing Court events. At the present time only Russia and Turkey seem to have popular sympathy for dwarfs, and this in a limited degree.

Intellectual Dwarfs.--It must be remarked, however, that many of the dwarfs before the public have been men of extraordinary-intelligence, possibly augmented by comparison. In a postmortem discussed at a meeting of the Natural History Society at Bonn in 1868 it was demonstrated by Schaufhausen that in a dwarf subject the brain weighed 1/19 of the body, in contradistinction to the average proportion of adults, from 1 to 30 to 1 to 44. The subject was a dwarf of sixty-one who died in Coblentz, and was said to have grown after his thirtieth year. His height was 2 feet 10 inches and his weight 45 pounds. The circ.u.mference of the head was 520 mm. and the brain weighed 1183.33 gm.

and was well convoluted. This case was one of simple arrest of development, affecting all the organs of the body; he was not virile.

He was a child of large parents; had two brothers and a sister of ordinary size and two brothers dwarfs, one 6 inches higher and the other his size.

Several personages famous in history have been dwarfs. Attila, the historian Procopius, Gregory of Tours, Pepin le Bref, Charles III, King of Naples, and Albert the Grand were dwarfs. About the middle of the seventeenth century the French episcopacy possessed among its members a dwarf renowned for his intelligence. This diminutive man, called G.o.deau, made such a success in literature that by the grace of Richelieu he was named the Archbishop of Gra.s.se. He died in 1672. The Dutch painter Doos, the English painter Gibson (who was about 3 feet in height and the father of nine infants by a wife of about the same height), Prince Eugene, and the Spanish Admiral Gravina were dwarfs.

Fleury and Garry, the actors.

Hay, a member of Parliament from Suss.e.x in the last century; Hussein-Pasha, celebrated for his reforms under Selim III; the Danish antiquarian and voyager, Arendt, and Baron Denon were men far below the average size Varro says that there were two gentlemen of Rome who from their decorations must have belonged to an Equestrian Order, and who were but 2 Roman cubits (about 3 feet) high. Pliny also speaks of them as preserved in their coffins.

It may be remarked that perhaps certain women are predisposed to give birth to dwarfs. Borwilaski had a brother and a sister who were dwarfs.