St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1886-10-09
ABOUT DWARFAGE.

of Growth In Different Races.
Dwarfs may be described as human
beings whose natural growth has been
arrested at some early stage. That
the human body has definite law OF
proportion from birth to death has
been long known. The most ancient
art of the Egyptians and that of ali
nations, barbarian and civilized, in.
cluding especially the Greeks, have
shown evidences of their several OBJ
servations of the general facts. A
German of the name of Liharvik has
worked out the details of the growth,
and so demonstrated the law of human
proportions more exhaustively than,
perhaps, any one else. He exhibited
a series of statuettes in the London
Great Exhibition of 1862, showing the
order of growth in both male and fe-
male, which had met with the appro-
baton of Humboldt. Joseph Benomi
also worked out a series of calcula-
tions tending to show the order and
law of growth. which appears to be
from the proportion of three to seven.
Taking the head as standard. the
child at both measures, say three
circles, of which the head to
shoulder is one, to the bottom of
the spine another. and to the feet
the third. The period of each three
years appears to add another circle to
height, up to twenty-one or twenty
four years. varying according to favor
able or adverse conditions. The sizes
at birth may vary, but the proportions
are the same over all the world. Thus.
if the head of newly-born child meas
ures nine inches. its height will be
twenty-seven; if the head be ten inches.
its height is thirty. From this normal
proportion it grows up to seven heads
high among the average European or
Aryan races. The average standard is,
however, lower in the Semitic races,
and lower still among the Turan types.
These very primitive, rude and bar
barian types appear to stand at four
heads in height, while the Semitic
grows up to five or six heads, and the
average of seven is reached only by the
Indo- European, Aryan, or Teutonic
races. Within this general law there
are many notifications tending to
favor or retard the growths-of from
three to seven-as the proportion of
form determines the possibility of ac-
tions thus dependent; SO notifications
affect the actions and results of pro-
portion of both body and mind. In
the law of growth we have Law of
arrestment. by. in, or through which
the proportions may be stayed at any
stage of growth. Arrestment may be
artifcially worked out-as was done
in the case of the Aztec children ex-
hibited in Leeds some years ago-or it
may be by excess of cold. heat. lack of
food, improper treatment, ETC., etc, all
not being designed or purposcd. This
law of arrestment is very little known,
and we may have figure stayed at the
proportion of six, five, four or even
three heads high, without being able to
account for it. The lower proportion
is the dwarfage to which Iwould direct
the readers attention. In Derbyshire
have found many people of stunted
proportions. In Leeds we have now a
man who is not more than four heads
high; and saw a woman of full age at
Millhill recently of even lower proper
tions. But the most perfect instance
of the three-headed proportions that l
have seen is dwarf man and woman
in the Cingalese troupe. His form and
proportions are exactly similar to the
figure of the God Ptah, or evil Typhon.
as given in Bunsen's "Egypt's Place
and History" In my collection are
similar three-headed figures from art
works (not caricaturcd) from North to
South Scandinavian, African, New
Zealand, Mexican, American and
Hindoo. The fact is that all children
and undeveloped intellected people of
all ages draw the human figures always
too short Taking the head rs stand
ard. the tendency Is to make figures
three heads high. 1t would appear
that the same law of proportion rules
the evolution of human art that rules
tho growth of the human body. So
the same phenomena of arrest
ment obtains in art, some indi-
viduals, like some nations, stand
ing at a certain imperfect stage.
The subject of dwarfing in both
body and mind has many singular and
important features to the study of
humanity. Thus there is general CO.
relation of inferior or childish intellects
with dwarfish figures, and hence dwarfs
were kept as play-things to make sport
of in the courts of the Middle Ages.
They are so seen in the paintings Of
Velasquez, Paulo Veronese and others.
In some-in fact, in many cases-we
have a normal growth of body and ar
rested development of mind and per-
ceptions; in this way we may explain
and account for most. if not all, the
varieties of human actions in art, re-
ligion and association. To ethnologistS
these Buddhist natives of Ceylon, to-
gether with their elephants, arts,
dresses, decorations and habits are
extremely interesting. Their whole
physical and social condition is the re-
suit of arrested development of mind.
as real as in the stunted and abnormal
figures of several in the troupe, both
male and female The male dwarf in
the company is thirty-seven inches in
height; from head to shoulder the
measurement is ten inches: hand, four
inches, and foot, four and half inches.
Name, Csralic. The woman's height
is thirty-nine inches; head to shoulder,
ten inches; hand, four inches; foot. six
and a half inches. There is slight
distortion from knee to foot in both
eases.-Lecds Mercury.
She used to meet him at the gate
with kiss and a smile like morning
light; but now she comes to the door
in . dingy old calico wrapper and shoes
down At the heel, shades her eyes with