DWARF, the term generally used to describe an extraordi narily under-sized individual of a race of normal stature (see PYGMY). In Scandinavian mythology the word connoted small ness and deformity, and was used of the elfins and goblins who were supposed to live on the mountains or in the bowels of the earth, and to be kings of metals and mines.
Deficiency in stature is sometimes associated with infantilism, in other cases with injury or deficiency of the pituitary gland, or general endocrine deficiency, with failure of cerebral develop ment. There are two classes, those who are normal in propor tions and the disproportionate.
From the earliest historic times there was much competition on the part of kings and the wealthy to obtain dwarfs as attendants. Members of the Akka race of equatorial Africa figured at the courts of the Pharaohs of the early dynasties. Philetas of Cos. poet and grammarian (c. 33o B.c.), tutor of Ptolemy Philadel phus, was alleged to be so tiny that he had to wear leaden shoes lest he should be blown away. The Romans practised artificial dwarfing, and the Latin nanus or pumilo were terms alternatively used to describe the natural and unnatural dwarf. Julia, the niece of Augustus, had a dwarf named Coropas 2ft. 4in. high, and a freed-maid, Andromeda, who measured the same.
In later days there have been many dwarf-favourites at European courts. British tradition of dwarfs begins in the old ballad "In Arthur's court Tom Thumb did live." The first au thentic English dwarf appears to be John Jarvis (2ft. high), who was page to Queen Mary I. Her brother, Edward VI., had his dwarf Xit. Jeffery Hudson (1610-82), the son of normal parents, at nine years measured scarcely i 8in., though gracefully propor tioned. At a dinner given by the duke to Charles I. and his queen he was brought in to table in a pie out of which he stepped, and was at once adopted by Henrietta Maria. He followed the fortunes of the court in the Civil War, and was a captain of horse, earning the nickname of "strenuous Jeffery" for his activ ity. He fought two duels—one with a turkey-cock, and a second with Crofts, who came to the meeting with a squirt, but who in the more serious encounter which ensued was shot dead by Hud son, who fired from horseback, the saddle putting him on a level with his antagonist. Twice was Jeffery made prisoner—by the Dunkirkers as he was returning from France, and by Turkish pirates. His sufferings during this latter captivity made him grow, and he steadily increased until he was 3ft. 9in. At the Restoration he returned to England, where he lived on a pension granted him by the duke of Buckingham. He was later accused of participation in the "Popish Plot," and was imprisoned in the Gate House. He was released and shortly after died in the 63rd year of his age.
Henrietta Maria had two other dwarfs, Richard Gibson and his wife Anne. They were married by the queen's wish; and the two together measured only sin. over 7ft. They had nine chil dren, five of whom, who lived, were of ordinary stature. Edmund Waller celebrated the nuptials, Evelyn called the husband as the "compendium of a man," and Lely painted them hand in hand. Gibson was miniature painter to Charles I., and drawing-master to the daughters of James II., Queens Mary and Anne, when they were children. He began his career as a page, first in a "gentle," next in the royal family, died in 169o, in his 75th year, and is buried in St. Paul's Covent Garden. The last court dwarf in England was Coppernin, a lively little imp in the service of the princess (Augusta) of Wales, the mother of George III. The last dwarf retainer in a gentleman's family was kept by Beckford, the author of Vatliek and builder of Fonthill.
Of European court dwarfs the most famous were those of Philip IV. of Spain, the hunchbacks whose features have been immortalized by Velazquez. Stanislaus, king of Poland, owned Nicholas Ferry (Bebe), who measured 2ft. 9in. He died in his 23rd year (1764). Richebourg, who died in Paris in 1858, at the age of 9o, was only 23in. high. He began life as a servant in the Orleans family. In later years he was their pensioner. In the Revolution—he passed in and out of Paris as an infant in a nurse's arms, but with despatches, dangerous to carry, in his baby-wrappings! The Pole, Borulwaski (1739-1837), at six measured 17in., and in his 3oth year reached 39 inches. He had a sister shorter than himself by the head and shoulders. Borulwaski was a handsome man, a wit, and something of a scholar. He travelled over all Europe; and—born in the reign of George II.—died in retirement near Durham, in the reign of Victoria, where he is buried at Durham by the side of the Falstaffian Stephen Kemble.
In 1837 Charles Stratton, better known as "General Tom Thumb," was born. When 25 he was 31 in. high. In 1844 he ap peared in England, where he had an extraordinary success. After extensive travel in both hemispheres, Stratton again visited Eng land in 1857, but the man, despite many personal and intellectual qualities, was less attractive than the boy. In 1863, the "General" married the very minute American lady, Lavinia Warren (born in 1842). He died on July 15, 1883.
Other modern dwarfs include Mary Jane Youngman (Aus tralia), who at 15 was 35in. high. She was called the "dwarf giantess" because she was 3ft. 6in. round the shoulders, 4f t. Sin. round the waist, and 2ft. round the leg. The so-called Aztec dwarfs were exhibited in London in 1853. In 1867 the pair were married. Che-mah, a Chinese, 42 years old and 25in. high, ap peared in London in 1880. George Prout (1774-1851), who was less than 3ft. high was well known in London in the early Vic torian period, as a messenger at the Houses of Parliament.
See E. J. Wood, Giants and Dwarfs (186o) ; C. Dieckhoff, The Position of the Iberians and the Dwarfish Races in the Ethnology of the British Isles (Inverness, 1918-25) .