108 
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 W'as 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 bounds of 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 tolerable exactness, 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 inches high; 
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 head hung 
forward; his legs grew weak; 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, decripid, 
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, he 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 correct, 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 public 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 nobility and gentry. He 
exhibited himself in most of the principal cities and towns, 
and wherever he went he gained friends. Borulawski died 
a few years since. He published his own Memoirs. Buffon. 
