380 THE HUMAN SPECIES 



gland is either completely absent or much degenerated ; not 

 only are their fat bodies and large heads imperfectly de- 

 veloped, but their mental faculties are similarly retarded. 



The circumstances noted with regard to human dwarfs also 

 obtain among animals. There are dwarf races among animals 

 corresponding to the pygmies among mammals, birds, fishes, 

 snails, butterflies and beetles. As normal parents here and 

 there produce a lilliputian child, so among the normal litters of 

 domestic animals absurdly small but well-proportioned and 

 elegant individuals are occasionally born. As rickets, too, re- 

 duces human children to dwarfs, so young calves, horses, dogs, 

 and also the young of beasts of prey kept in zoological gar- 

 dens, 1 remain stunted in growth 

 as a result of rickets. 



Cretinoid animals would also 

 occur were they not soon put out 

 of the way as useless and imbecile 

 consumers of food. I only re- 

 member seeing a single case of 

 a full-grown cretinoid animal. 



There are also dwarfed ani- 

 mals whose growth has been 

 interfered with by external cir- 

 cumstances without any such 

 pathological changes. These 



FIG. 193. Cretin. (Virchow.) 



conditions have been studied in 



batrachians and fishes by Klunzinger. 2 He was able to recog- 

 nise the following circumstances as conducive to the production 

 of these stunted forms : scarcity of food, too low a temperature 

 in the water (as for example in alpine lakes and pools),, too 

 little light at great depths, insufficient volume of water and 

 thus insufficient space for movement and exercise. The dwarf 

 forms among fish have gradually become races and species, but 

 under more favourable conditions they may regain their normal 

 size. Klunzinger cites the river trout (dwarfed sea trout), the 

 torsk (a dwarfed Codfish), the small East sea herring, and the 

 dwarf perch. 



1 Friedberger und Frohner, Spez. Path. a. Therapled.Haussaugetiere, i., p. 714. 

 "Jaliresh. d. Ver.f. vaterl. Naturkunde, 1900, p. 519. 



