That the lesion variously known as chondrodystrophia foetalis, achondroplasia, fetal rickets and the like, is of great antiquity is attested by the numerous instances in which the disease finds representation among pottery and statuary of the ancients (Parrot,1 Pierre Marie,2 Porak and Durante,3 Regnault,4 Charcot and Richie,5 Rischbieth6 and others). The models of the Egyptian gods, Ptah and Bes, to be found in the Louvre, the existing statuette in caricature of the Roman Emperor Caracalla, the figures of the gladiator dwarfs in the service of the Emperor Domitian, as well as the subjects of certain paintings, notably by Velasquez, among them that of Sebastiano de Moro, a dwarf of the Spanish Court, are all recognizable examples of fetal chondrodystrophy.
Historical interest attaches to the statement that, in the sixteenth century, Catherine de Medici revived the ancient custom of according gnome-like creatures a position in