An undated rendering of the debonair Joseph Boruwlaski. He grew to be 39 inches tall.

From Armand Maire Leroi’s 2005 book, Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body, a brief biographical sketch of Joseph Boruwłaski (1739–1837), a Polish-born man with dwarfism (likely the pituitary kind) who became an unlikely fixture in European royal courts:

“Joseph Boruwlaski died in his sleep on 5 December 1837 in the quiet English cathedral town of Durham. He had had a happy life, a rich life. Born into obscurity, he had achieved dizzying social heights. Famed for his conversation and his skill with the violin, he had known most of the crowned heads of Europe. Ennobled by the King of the Poles, he had also won the patronage of the Prince of Wales. He could call the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire his friends. He was an ornament of Durham, its council paid him merely to live there. He had married a noble beauty, raised a family and, when he died at the distinguished age of ninety-eight, had outlived nearly all his contemporaries. It was a graceful end to a remarkable life. For Joseph, le Comte de Boruwlaski, was not merely any Continental aristocrat exiled from his homeland. He was the last of the court dwarfs.”