Some of the conditions which tend toward dwarfism and stunted physical development

Abstract

The existence of dwarfs has been recognised since very early periods of history. Instances are alluded to in the writings of Homer, Herodotus, Pliny and. Aristotle. The ancients, it would appear, had some knowledge of the existence of five different pigmy races in the old world, and it is interesting to note that their speculations as to the location of these tribes have been largely confirmed by modern exploration. Coming down to more recent times, we find that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries dwarfs were kept at court and were the associates of princes at a time when it was thought beneath the dignity of the latter to converse freely with those below them in rank.

Various classifications of dwarfs have been adopted from time to time. They have been divided into true dwarfs - where the stature .is symmetrically diminished in all its proportions - and micromelic or short limbed dwarfs, which latter class has again been subdivided into two groups - one in which the whole four extremities, and another in which the lower limbs alone are affected. But as our subject is not restricted to cases of actual dwarfism, it seems better to adopt a broader basis of classification, such as:

I. Cases of stunted physical development, due to the existence of some definite pathological change. II. Cases where no such pathological change is discoverable.

As examples of the first class, we may instance the rickety dwarf; of the second, any of the pigmy races of mankind. But between these well- defined extremes, there is a borderland where it is by no means easy to draw a line where the definitely pathological begins.