Curiosities of medical experience / By J. G. Millingen.

  • John G. Millingen
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Curiosities of medical experience / By J. G. Millingen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    DWARFS. We can scarcely believe that the ancients gave any credence to the fabulous accounts of dwarfish nations, or could be persuaded of the existence of those pigmies spoken of by Aristotle and other writers, who, in all probability, described as such a species of diminutive monkeys. Athenseus mentions a race of dwarfs who were in per- petual war with cranes, who harnessed partridges to their chariots, and were obliged to cut down corn with felling- axes, like forest trees. Pliny asserts that their constant enemy, the crane, drove them out of Thracia, but that they still were to be met with in Ethiopia, near the source of the Nile, and above the rise of the Ganges, where they were named Spithania, their stature not exceeding three palms. Nicephorus Calixtus, in his Ecclesiastical History, mentions an Egyptian who was not longer than a partridge, and who, at the age of twenty-five, displayed considerable mental endowment. Strabo, however, judiciously ob- served that these stories arose from the circumstance of the small size of every animal in intemperate regions. Various modern travellers have recorded the most absurd stories of diminutive men, as well as of gigantic nations ; but to most of them we may apply the words of Congreve— Fernandez Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, Thou liar of the first magnitude. It is nevertheless true, that man exhibits differences of stature in various climes. The Laplanders and Samoides in Europe, the Ostiacks and Tungooses in Asia, the Green- landers and Esquimaux in America—all the natives indeed of high northern latitudes are remarkably short, measuring little more than four feet; and Niels Sara, the Laplander mentioned by Von Buch in his Travels, and who measured five feet eight inches, may be considered as a gigantic exception. It had been reported by travellers, that a nation of while dwarfs, called Quimos or Kimos, existed in the interior of Madagascar; but Flacourt has positively denied the fact, although Coiuniersoii, the naturalist of Bougainville, and De Modave, confirm the former state-
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