Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1875 — Small Editions of Humanity. [ARTICLE]

Small Editions of Humanity.

The Troy (N. Y.) Times of a recent date says; “The little two-pound specimen of humanity that was mentioned yesterday as having been reported before the Medical Association was born in this city about a month ago, and when the child first appeared in the world it had much the appearance of a very aged person. Its skin was shriveled, and its eyes covered with a film, as though age had dimmed them; but by careful nursing these peculiarities have disappeared, and its skin is now smooth, its eyes bright, and it has every promise of a long life before it. Its proud mother can entirely hide the little one from view by covering it with her outstretched hands. But this is not a solitary instance. There is now residing in South Troy a lad seven years of age, stout, rugged and hearty, who, at the day of hfs birth, weighed only one and three-fourths pounds. A physician residing in the city relates an instance of a child born in January, 1874, of a mother who was in the last stages of consumption, which weighed one and a half pounds. This little one was perfect in formation, and survived eighteen days. Another old physician relates the circumstance of meeting a short time ago in Detroit, Mich., a young man upward of fifteen years of age, tall, robust and wellformed, who, when he aided him into the world, weighed two and three-quarters pounds. The above births all occurred in this city. Another instance is brought to our knowledge of a case that occurred Albany, of a little one that weighed at birth only two and three-sixteenths pounds. This child was also well formed, and was doing well until seized with that terror to children, the croup, which terminated his life.”