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THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



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 house; 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 marks behind it. 

 Until he was six years old, he ate no other food but pulse, 

 potatoes, and bacon. His father and mother were, from 

 their poverty, incapable of affording him any better nour- 

 ishment; 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. Notwithstanding this, he 

 was well proportioned and handsome; his health was good, 

 but his understanding scarcely passed the boundsof instinct. 

 It was at that time that the king of Poland, having heard of 

 such a curiosity, had him conveyed to Luneville, gave him 

 the name of Baby, and kept him in his palace. 



Baby, having thus quitted the hard condition of a pea- 

 sant, to enjoy all the comforts and the conveniences of life, 

 seemed to receive no alteration from his new way of living, 

 either in mind or person. He preserved the goodness of 

 his constitution till about the age of sixteen, but his body 

 seemed to increase very slowly during the whole time; 

 and his stupidity was such, that all instructions were lost in 

 improving his understanding. He could never be brought 

 to have any sense of religion, nor even to show the least 

 signs of a reasoning faculty. They attempted to teach 

 him dancing and music, but in vain; he never could make 

 any thing of music; and as for dancing, although he beat 

 time with tolerableexactness, yet he could never remember 

 the figure, but while his dancing-master stood by to direct 

 his motions. Notwithstanding, a mind thus destitute of 

 understanding was not without its passions, anger and 

 jealousy. 



At the age of sixteen. Baby was twenty -nine incheshigh; 

 at this he rested; but having thus arrived at his acme, the 

 alterations of puberty, or rather, perhaps, of old age, 

 came fast upon him. From being very beautiful, the poor 

 little creature now became quite deformed; his strength 

 quite forsook him; his back bone to bend; his liead hung 

 forward; his legs grew week; one of his shoulders turned 

 awry, and his nose grew disproportionably large. With 

 his strength, his natural spirits also forsook him; and, by 

 the time he was twenty, he was grown feeble, decrepid, 

 and marked with the strongest impression of old age. It 

 had been before remarked by some, that he would die of 

 old age before he arrived at thirty; and, in fact, by the 



time he was twenty-two, he could scarcely walk a hun- 

 dred paces, being worn with the multiplicity of his years, 

 and bent under the burthen of protracted life. In this year 

 he died; a cold, attended with a slight fever, threw him 

 into a kind of lethargy, which had a few momentary inter- 

 vals; but he could scarcely be brought to speak. However, 

 it is asserted that in the last five days of his life, lie showed 

 a clearer understanding than in his times of best health: 

 but at length he died, after enduring great agonies, in the 

 twenty-second year of his age. 



Baby, it is evident, was a creature calculated rather to 

 excite pity or disgust than any other feeling, — a being as 

 stunted in mind as in body. But to these diminutive beings 

 Nature does not always forget to give intellectual faculties. 

 Jeffery Hudson, to whom BufFon alludes as the dwarf of 

 the English court, was a brave and intelligent man. He 

 killed, in a duel, Mr. Cutts, who had insulted him; and he 

 served as a captain in the royal army. In modern times, 

 we have seen an instance of a dwarf possessed of every 

 mental and personal accomplishment. Count Borulawski 

 was the son of a Polish nobleman attached to the party of 

 King Stanislaus, and who lost his property in consequence 

 of that attachment. His father had six children, three 

 dwarfs, and three of the ordinary stature; and it is a singu- 

 lar circumstance, that they were born alternately, a big and 

 a little one. The count's youngest sister, who died at the 

 age of twenty-three, was of a much more diminutive size 

 than he was. He grew till he was thirty, when he was 

 three feet two inches in height. The proportions of his 

 figure were perfectly coi'rect, which is rarely the case with 

 dwarfs, and his look was manly and noble. His manners 

 were full of grace and politeness; his temper was good; 

 and he possessed a lively wit, united with an excellent 

 memory and a sound judgment. Till the age of forty-one, 

 he lived in the enjoyment of perfect health, and of all the 

 comforts of life, under the patronage of a lady who was a 

 friend of the family. He then married a lady, of the mid- 

 dle size, by whom he had three children, none of whom 

 were dwarfs. To procure the means of subsistence for his 

 family, he at first gave concerts in the principal cities of 

 Germany; on which occasions he played upon the guitar, 

 of which instrument he was a perfect master. At Vienna 

 he was persuaded to turn his thoughts to England, where 

 it was supposed that the j)ublic curiosity would in a little 

 time benefit him sufficiently to enable him to live inde- 

 pendent in a country so cheap as Poland. Borulawski ac- 

 cordingly visited England, where he was admired, and ex- 

 tensively patronized, by the nobilitj' and gentry. He 

 exhibited himself in most of the principal cities and towns, 

 and wherever he went he gained friends. Borulawski died 

 afew years since. Hepublishedhisown Memoirs. Buffon. 



