ANIMALS. 421 



being diverted witli the same sports, and best pleased with such 

 companions. Of all those I have seen, which may amount to 

 five or six, the little man, whose name was Coan, that died 

 lately at Chelsea, was the most intelligent and sprightly. I 

 have heard him and the giant, who sung at the theatres, sustain 

 a very ridiculous duet, to which they were taught to give great 

 spirit. But this mirth, and seeming sagacity, were but assumed. 

 He had, by long habit, been taught to look cheerful upon the 

 approach of company ; and his conversation was but the mere 

 etiquette of a person that had been used to receive visitors. 

 When driven out of his walk, nothing could be more stupid or 

 ignorant, nothing more dejected or forlorn. But we have a 

 complete history of a dwarf, very accurately related by Mr Dau - 

 benton, in his part of the Histoire Naturelle ; which I will here 

 take leave to translate. 



This dwarf, whose name was Baby, was well known, having 

 spent the greatest part of his life at Lunenville in the palace of 

 Stanislaus, the titular king of Poland. He was born near the 

 village of Plaisne, in France, in the year IT-l-l. His father and 

 mother were peasants, both of good constitutions, and inured to 

 a life of husbandry and labour. Baby, when bom, weighed but 

 a pound and a quarter. We iU'e not informed of the dimensions 

 of his body at that time ; but we may conjecture they were very 

 small, as he was presented on a plate to be baptized, and for a 

 long time lay in a slipper. His mouth, although proportioned 

 to the rest of his body, was not, at that time, large enough to 

 take in the nipple ; and he was, therefore, obliged to be suckled 

 by a she-goat that was in the liouse ; and that served as a nurse, 

 attending to his cries with a kind of maternal fondness. He 

 began to articulate some words when eighteen months old ; and 

 at two years he was able to walk alone. He was then fitted 

 with shoes that were about an inch and a half long. He was 

 attacked with several acute disorders ; but the small-pox was 

 the only one which left any maiks behind it. Until he was six 

 years old, he eat no other food but pulse, potatoes, and bacon. 

 His father and mother were, from their poverty, incapable of 

 affording him any better nourishment ; and his education was 

 little better than his food, being bred up among the rustics of 

 the place. At six years old he was about fifteen inches high ; 

 and his whole body weighed but thirteen pounds. Notwitli- 



