464 PROF. B. C. A. WINDLE OlSr TERATOLOGICAL EVIDENCE 



cases offer much greater difficulties than those of the group just 

 concluded. 



Dwarfs.— T[\& arguments which were used to show that 

 giantism was a blastogenic condition due to excess of formative 

 material, might, in converse, be employed to prove that dwarf- 

 ishness is blastogenic and due to deficiency of material. As with 

 giants, so with dwarfs, sterility is the rule. In their case, we 

 have on this point even better evidence than in that of giants, 

 since dwarfs have been made the subject of direct experiment. 

 " Catherine de Medecis s'amusa, dit on, a rassembler des nains 

 des deux sexes et a les marier. L'electeur de Brandenbourg 

 repeta la meme experience ; ils n'eurent pas d'enfants. Greoffroy 

 St.-Hilaire ne decouvre qu'une seule exception, celle du nain 

 Borivilaski; mais sa femme etait de taille ordinaire et fut sus- 

 pectee " *. Though sterility is the rule, yet there are indications 

 of hereditary influence in this group also. 



Thus, as St.-Hilaire points outt, in the greater number of 

 cases the same mother has given birth to two or more dwarfs, 

 amongst the cases he cites being that of the dwarf brother and 

 sister described by Aldrovandus %. I have also met with an 

 account of one case where dwarfishness was distinctly hereditary §. 

 Erancesco Leporata, born of full-sized parents, was at the age of 

 83, 1-130 mtr. He had married a full-sized woman and had issue 

 at the time of enquiry : — (1) Doralice (F.), set. 50, height 1*130 

 mtr. ; (2) Anna, get. 41, height 0-980 mtr. ; (3) Maria, set. 31, 

 height 1-155 mtr.; (4) Maddalena, set. 34, of normal height; 

 (5) Antonio, set. 44, height 1*340 mtr. ; (6) Fietro, set. 42, height 

 1"300 mtr. Antonio (5) married twice. His first wife, who was 

 of full size, bore him a normal-sized daughter ; his second, also 

 a full-sized woman, bore him three sons : — («) set. 14, height 

 0-945 mtr. (normal for age, 1*49 mtr.) ; {b) fet. 9, height 0*970 

 mtr. (normal, 1*219 mtr.) ; (c) set. 7, height 0*910 mtr. (normal 

 1*106 mtr.). Pietro (6) married a full-sized female, and had issue — 

 (a) M. set. 6, height 0*825 mtr. (normal 1*046 mtr.) ; {h) T. ^et. 3, 

 height 0*650 mtr. (normal 0*864 mtr.) ; (c) M. set. 1^, height 

 0'616 mtr. (normal 0*744 mtr.). 



* Topinard, op. cit, p. 436. 



t Op. cit. p. 159. + ' Monstrorum Historia,' pp. 603 & 604. 



§ Quoted from Ludwig Frank, Mem. della E. Accad. di Torino, t. 25. 

 p. 96 (Torino, 1820), by Taruffi, Riv. Clin. 2 ser. yiii. p. 33 ; Abstr. Schmidt's 

 Jahrb. t. 198. S. 8. 



