Born on February 26, 1876 in Ossendrecht in the Netherlands Pauline Munster’s was almost half of her final height straight from her mother’s womb. At birth, she was just over 12 inches. At age nine, the tiny dynamo weighed only three pounds and in adulthood Pauline Munster weighed less than nine pounds. Her measurements at age 19 were 181/2 -19-17, meaning she had curvy little figure and in truth she had no shortage of male suitors.

Pauline began her profession career as an infant at which time the public simply marveled at her tiny proportions, but as she grew older Pauline took to performing as well. She was eventually known for being an adept acrobat and for skilfully dancing with partners drawn from the audience. As her performances progressed in quality, Pauline took on many unique stage names. She was perhaps best known simply as Princess Pauline and on par with her name she took to wearing remarkable elegant gowns on stage, with details and stitching so minute that the garments themselves were a wonder to behold.

During her career, Princess Pauline toured Belgium, Germany, France and Britain before being invited to perform in the United States in 1894. She debuted in New York City’s Proctor’s Theatre on New Year’s Eve before and stunned and thoroughly charmed audience. She performed with a grace that moved those who saw her. She was a fairy, a tiny regal princess on a huge stage dancing out what she felt in her heart – and it was beautiful. Princess Pauline quickly became the darling of New York.

Tragically, while Pauline’s star burnt brilliantly, it expired far too quickly. Shortly after arriving in New York the diminutive Princess contracted pneumonia and meningitis. Pauline Musters succumbed to illness on March 1, 1895 in New York and the world lost its smallest but greatest miracle.

Joseph Merrick was born on August 5, 1862 in Leicester to Mary Jane and Joseph Rockley Merrick. He had a younger brother and sister and was completely normal until the age of three. In an autobiographical note which appeared on the reverse side of his freak show pamphlet, Merrick noted that his deformity first manifested with small bumps appearing on the left side of his body. By the time he was 12, and his mother passed away, Joseph’s deformities were severe. When his father remarried, his stepmother expelled him from the house and young Joseph began struggling not only against his deformity, but starvation and homelessness as well.

For a time, Joseph Merrick attempted to earn a living by selling door-to-door and on the street. Despite hiding his face behind a burlap mask, Merrick still endured the constant harassment of local children and many adults. His sales attempts were futile and he eventually ended up in the Leicester Union workhouse.

Victorian workhouses were not friendly places. They were akin to prisons, where the unemployed and unemployable toiled in the most unwanted laborious tasks of the era. Due to his progressing deformity, Joseph was soon unable to manually work at all and on August 29, 1884 he took a job as a curiosity attraction.

Contrary to film accounts, Merrick was well treated as an exhibit and well paid for his time. While on exhibit on Mile End Road in London, now the London Sari Centre, his path first crossed with Dr. Fredrick Treves. Treves, who would later chronicle and befriend Merrick, gave him one of his business cards after Merrick politely declined an examination. When human curiosity exhibits were outlawed in the United Kingdome in 1886, Merrick travelled to Belgium for work. There he was indeed mistreated and ultimatly robbed and abandoned by his promoter. He also contracted a severe bronchial infection further complicated by his deformities.

Upon his return to London, Merrick was the involved in a disturbance at Liverpool Street train station when his masked appearance and twisted body caused hysteria. Merrick was unable to speak due to his bronchial infection but had retained the business card of Dr. Treves, which he presented to authorities. Treves was quickly summoned from the London Hospital and soon arranged for Merrick to be given permanent quarters in the hospital.

It was during this time that Joseph Merrick thrived.

Despite a living in constant physical and emotional pain, Merrick possessed an indomitable spirit. He quickly became the subject of much public sympathy and something of a celebrity in Victorian high society. Alexandra, then Princess of Wales and later Queen Consort, demonstrated a kindly interest in Merrick, leading other members of the upper class to embrace him. He eventually became a favourite of Queen Victoria. However, Treves later commented that Merrick always wanted, even after living at the hospital, to go to a hospital for the blind where he might find a woman who would not be repelled by his appearance and love him. In his later years, he found some solace in writing, composing remarkable heartfelt prose and poetry.

In the summer of 1887, Merrick spent time vacationing at the Fawsley Hall estate, Northamptonshire. Special measures were taken for his journey there as he was forced to travel in a carriage with blinds drawn. Merrick enjoyed his time away from urban London greatly and collected wildflowers to take back with him to London. He visited Fawsley Hall again in 1888 and 1889.

Merrick was cared for at the hospital until his death at the age of 27 on April 11, 1890. He died from the accidental dislocation of his neck due to its inability to support the weight of his massive head in sleep. Merrick, unable to sleep reclining due to the weight of his head, may have tried to do so in this instance, in an attempt to imitate normal behaviour.

Joseph Merrick was originally thought to be suffering from elephantiasis. In 1971, Ashley Montagu suggested in his book The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity that Merrick suffered from neurofibromatosis type I, a genetic disorder also known as von Recklinghausen's disease. NF1 is still strongly associated with Merrick in the mind of the public; however, it was postulated in 1986 that Merrick actually suffered from Proteus syndrome, a condition which had only been identified in 1979.

In July 2003, Dr. Charis Eng announced that as a result of DNA tests on samples of Merrick's hair and bone, she had determined that Merrick certainly suffered Proteus syndrome, and may have had neurofibromatosis type I as well. As it stands, many people still mistakenly refer to his condition as elephantiasis.

Merrick's preserved skeleton was previously on display at the Royal London Hospital. While his remains can no longer be viewed by the public, there is a small museum focused on his life, which houses some of his personal effects and period Merrick memorabilia.

Note: While Joseph Merrick is better known as John Merrick, it is not his birth name. Sir Fredrick Treves recalled the name as such in his memoirs. It is unclear if Treves recalled details incorrectly or if Joseph Merrick went by John.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Seneb was a 4th or early 5th Dynasty dwarf and was chief of the royal wardrobe and priest of the funerary cults of Khufu. A statue still exists of him and it depicts him with his family - including his wife who was of normal stature. Also, the Egyptian gods Bes and Ptah were often depicted as dwarves. To say that dwarves were accepted and often revered members of ancient Egyptian society would be an understatement.

Dwarfism was unusually common in ancient Egypt – in fact, over 150 mummified dwarves and skeletons are currently in museum collections and scenes depicting dwarfs often adorned tomb walls. The reason for this is quite simple. The specific form of dwarfism that was present was achondroplasia – which is one of many forms of dwarfism. But Achondroplasia, which is characterized by abnormal bone growth that results in short stature with disproportionately short arms and legs, a large head, and characteristic facial features, is a dominant genetic mutation – thus there is a 50% chance of passing the trait to offspring. Considering the fact that Egypt was a closed society for quite some time and the total acceptance of dwarfs, the chance for these individuals to procreate without prejudice was favorable.

Dwarves are not to be confused with pigmies though. Pygmies are and entire race of persons of small stature first extensively written of by Homer in the Iliad. The Geranomachia, or pygmy war, was a popular topic for ancient writers and during the early modern age naturalist were clamoring to ‘rediscover’ the pygmies. In the late 1699, Edward Tyson wrote a lengthy paper on a pygmy he dissected attempting to prove that the creature was not human and thus modern man was superior. He proved to be correct in his first assumption as, looking back on the document; the pygmy was actually a chimpanzee.

The first pygmy to be rediscovered was named Akadimoo and belonged to the ‘Aka’ tribe who dwell in the forests of Africa. The account, which occurred in 1870, was recorded by botanist George August Schweinfurth:

‘I looked up and, sure enough, was the strange little creature perched upon Mohammed’s right shoulder, nervously hugging his head, and casting glances of alarm in every direction. Thus, at last, I was able to feast my eyes upon a living embodiment of the myths of some thousand years!’

Three years later two children of the Aka tribe, named Thibaut and Chair-Allah were presented to King Victor Emmanuel II in Rome.

In broad terms, a pygmy is a member of a tribe in which the top height is less than 150 centimeters (four feet and ten inches) however the shortest tribe is Efe at 135 centimeters (four feet and five inches). Furthermore, pygmies tend to have shorter legs and longer arms when compared to the average man. Also, their teeth and heads also appear to be larger that what is considered proportional.

And then there are midgets and giants.

A midget is essentially a slang term for a proportioned individual in miniature while a giant is basically a proportion, uh, giant human being. Both have been staples of the sideshow and countless human curiosity stories and both result from a similar cause.

At the base of the brain lies the pituitary gland. On average, it is the size of a pea and it secretes a total of six hormones. But the hormone is question here is growth hormone – of which it makes one thousand times more that any of the other five. Secreted into the bloodstream it tells the cells of the body to grow and divide. By entering the bloodstream, it ensures that all portions of the body grow at an equal rate.

In gigantism – the condition of being a giant, of which there are about 50 subgroups – the pituitary gland produces far too much growth hormone and is usually due to an enlarged gland. This enlargement is either genetic or the result of a tumor and mutation and in one case, that of the Irish giant Charles Byrne (pictured above), the enlarged pituitary was comparable in size to a peach.

In the case of a midget, the gland is either too small or the cells lack the receptors the growth hormone binds to. The lack of a receptor can be a mutation or genetic – as exampled by a village in the Ecuadorian Andes where and entire community, inbreed due to location, are all midgets under four feet in height.

Lastly, there is one documented case in which a man was both a dwarf and a giant during his lifetime. Adam Rainer was born in Graz, Austria in 1899 and at the age of 21 he stood only three feet, ten and a half inches. But his height soon began to increase at an astonishing rate and by his 32nd birthday he stood just less than seven feet and two inches. He died on March 4, 1950, at the age of 51 and at a height of seven feet and ten inches – which was twice his measurement at age 21.

Adam Rainer is the only person in medical history to have been classified both as a dwarf and a giant.

Many of these marvel of early record are baffling in their descriptions. According to Paré there was a boy born in 1493 that was ‘the result of illicit intercourse between a woman and a dog’. The creature was said to have the lower extremities of its canine father. In his 1557 book Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon Conrad Lycosthenes states that in the year 1110, in the ‘Bourg of Liège’, there was born a child with the head, hands, and feet of a man, and the rest of the body like that of a pig. Lycosthenes also references the birth of a ‘serpent’ by a woman. Other animal / human hybrid marvels include a child born at Cracovia in 1547 which ‘had a head shaped like that of a man; a nose long and hooked like an elephant’s trunk; hands and feet looking like the web-foot of a goose; and a tail with a hook in it’. The child was reported to have lived for three days.

These very early accounts are likely quite true, but the descriptions attributed are simply the documenters attempt to relate what they saw in terms they and the audience could comprehend. These animal-men were most certainly human beings born with serious genetic mutations and deformities with features that in some way resembled animal characteristics. Those animal comparisons continued well into the golden age of sideshow with epithets like Lobster Boy, Dog Faced Boy, Alligator-Skinned Man, Monkey Girl and others.

Other marvels are described in legitimate detail; however, their names are lost in history. Roger of Wendover, the English chronicler, in 1062 Normandy there was a report of a ‘female monster’ - two women joined about the umbilicus (belly button) and fused into a single lower extremity. According to Roger of Wendover, the monster took its food by two mouths but expelled it from a single orifice. The account also relates how one of them died, and the survivor bore her dead sister about for three years before she was overcome by the oppression and stench of the cadaver

Lycosthenes reported seeing a ‘double monster’ an infant he also states ‘took its food and drink simultaneously in its two mouths’. Another account by Saint Augustine reports that he knew of a child born in ‘the Orient who’ who was conjoined to his brother from the belly up. Paré gives an account of twins, born near Heidelberg in 1486, that had double bodies joined back to back and most remarkably one of the twins had the aspect of a female and the other of a male and though both had two sets of genitals. Bartholinus wrote of a three-headed monster who survived very briefly after birth and another account of two girls, born in 1495, joined at the These girls were said to be normal in every respect, except for the forehead union, and ‘when one walked forward, the other was compelled to walk backward; their noses almost touched, and their eyes were directed laterally’. When one of these girls died, an attempt to separate the other from the cadaver was made, but proved unsuccessful and the second girl soon died. A second example, almost identical, was made in 1501 and a third allegedly occurred soon after in St. Petersburg. There are also accounts of a ‘two-headed monster’ born in Ferrari, Italy, in 1540 – the child was said to be healthy and well formed but possessed two sets of genitals, one male and the other female.

Other nameless wonders include a boy born in 1529 who had two heads, four ears, four arms, but only two thighs and two legs. A rather detailed account exists of Swiss double headed man who, in 1538 at the age of thirty, ‘possessed of a beard on each face, the two bodies fused at the umbilicus into a single lower extremity. These two twins resembled one another in contour and countenance. They were so joined that at rest they looked upon one another. They had a single wife, with whom they were said to have lived in harmony’. About one hundred and fifty years later in the Gentleman's Magazine a portrait and description of a double woman was featured. Apparently the young was something of exhibition in parts of Europe but little information can be found of her and her physical situation with the exception that it was stated that she had two heads, two necks, four arms, two legs, one pelvis, and one set of pelvic organs.

These are only a few and truly it is a shame that these persons, immortalized by appearance only hundreds of year after there unique lives have ended, are anonymous. What personal stories and recollections they may have had to share. The triumphs and tribulations of the human spirit are far more interesting that the malformed bodies that vessel said spirit.

The Two-Headed Boy of Bengal was born in the village of Mundul Gait in Bengal in May of 1783 into a poor farming family. His remarkable life was very nearly extinguished immediately after his delivery as a terrified midwife tried to destroy the infant by throwing him into a fire. Miraculously, while he was rather badly burned about the eye, ear and upper head, he managed to survive. His parents began to exhibit him in Calcutta, where he attracted a great deal of attention and earned the family a fair amount of money. While the large crowds gathered to see the Two-Headed Boy his parents took to covering the lad with a sheet and often kept him hidden – sometimes for hours at a time and often in darkness. As his fame spread across India, so did the caliber of his observers. Several noblemen, civil servants and city officials arranged to showcase the boy in their own homes for both private gatherings and grand galas – treating their guests to up close examinations. One of these observers was a Colonel Pierce who described the encounter to the President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks and it was Sir Banks who later forwarded the account to the surgeon Everard Home.

The term ‘Two-Headed’ may be a bit misleading as rather that two heads side by side, the Boy actually had head atop the other. When compared to the average child, both heads were of an appropriate size and development. The second head sat atop the main head inverted and simply ended in a neck-like stump. The second head seemed to, at times, function independently from the main head. When the boy cried or smiled the features of the second head did not always match. Yet, when the main head was fed, the second head would produce saliva. Furthermore, if the second head was presented with a breast to suckle – it would attemp to do so. While the main head was well formed the secondary head did posses some irregularities. The eyes and ears were underdeveloped. The tongue was small and the jaw malformed but both were capable of motion. When the Boy slept, the secondary head would often be observed alert and awake – eyes darting about.

Despite the attention the Boy of Bengal received, none of it was medical in nature. There were no intensive first hand medical examinations of the Boy on record and the vast majority of the press attention given to the Boy focused no on his condition, but rather his ‘freakish’ appearance. The Boy, who seemed to suffer no serious ill effects in relation to his condition, died at the age of four from a cobra bite. It was only then, after much unseemly business, that medicine was able to examine the case.

The Boy was buried near the Boopnorain River, outside the city of Tumloch but the grave was soon robbed by Mr. Dent, a salt agent for the East India Company. He dissected the putrefied body himself and gave the skull to a Captain Buchanan of the East Indian Company. Buchanan brought the skull to England, where it ended up in the hands of his close friend- Everard Home.

When Mr. Dent had dissected the heads he discovered that the brains were separate and distinct. Each brain was also enveloped in its proper coverings and it appeared as though both brains received the nutrition required to sustain life and thought. The skull of the Boy of Bengal can still be seen at the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of London.

The classification of this condition is today known as Craniopagus parasiticus and technically falls under the category of parasitic twins however many of the early naturalists have attempted to classify the Bengal case as a case of conjoined twins due to the signs of independent life given by the secondary head.

Previous to 1783 teratology texts listed no fewer that eight suspected cases of Craniopagus parasiticus however the Boy of Bengal case is not only the earliest well documented account, but also the first account of such a case surviving past infancy. Recently on December 10, 2003, Rebeca Martínez was born in the Dominican Republic with this rare condition and she was also the first baby born with the condition to undergo a surgical removal of the second head. She died on February 7, 2004, after the 11-hour operation. On February 19, 2005, Manar Maged – also born with the same condition- underwent a successful 13-hour surgery in Egypt, but died on March 25, 2006 due to repeated infection.

It is believed that Blanche Dumas was born on the island of Martinique in 1860 to a French father and a mother was a quadroon (one quarter black). At the age of 25 Blanche was visited and documented by Bechlinger of Para, Brazil and consequently added to the pages of Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine. According to Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine Blanche had a ‘modified duplication of the lower body’.