Reproduction
Object numberRCSHM/Osteo. 227
Scientific nameHomo sapiens
CollectionCollege Museum
CategoryDry preparations
Object nameSkeleton, Seckel Syndrome, Skeleton, articulated
DescriptionThe mounted skeleton of Caroline Crachami (d. 1824), known as the 'Sicilian Fairy', with casts and some clothing belonging to her.
Caroline Crachami was reputedly born, full-term, at or near Palermo in Sicily on the day after the Battle of Waterloo - 19 June 1815. She was said to be the daughter of a Sicilian father, Louis Emmanuel Crachami and an Italian mother, who moved to Dublin after her birth to work in the Theatre Royal. At birth it was claimed she weighed 450 grams, with a body length of about twenty centimetres.
In 1823 Caroline’s health began to fail. A Dr Gilligan advised that she should be taken to the ‘healthier atmosphere’ of England. Her parents agreed that she might occasionally be exhibited to medical audiences to defray expenses. Gilligan had other ideas. He brought Caroline to England in the summer of 1823 and made considerable profits by exhibiting her as ‘The Sicilian Dwarf’ in Oxford, Birmingham, Liverpool and Bond Street, London. Caroline’s presence aroused much interest among medical professionals and London Society figures. The famous surgeon Sir Everard Home showed Caroline to King George IV. He wrote that she 'could walk alone, but with no confidence. Its sight was very quick, much attracted by bright objects, delighted with everything that glittered, mightily pleased with fine clothes, had a shrill voice and spoke in a low tone; had some taste for music but could speak few words of English; was very sensible of kindness and quickly recognised any person who had treated it kindly.'
Caroline died on 4 June 1824. After attempting to sell her body to various anatomy schools for £100, Gilligan approached Sir Everard Home who arranged for it to be kept in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. Caroline’s father read of her death and traced her body to Home. On arrival at the College he found that the autopsy was already in progress, and he left in distress. Post-mortem findings revealed that Caroline had been suffering from tuberculosis, which was probably the cause of her death.
The reason for Caroline's short stature is not known. Caroline’s parents and four siblings were average height. Her condition has been attributed to a type of dwarfism called ‘Seckel syndrome’. This is a rare inherited disorder characterised by intra-uterine growth retardation, post-natal dwarfism, a small head and a large beak-like nose. Recent study of the state of development of the skeleton and the dentition has suggested that she was considerably younger than nine years when she died, and that she was possibly as young as three years. Two main questions arise in interpreting the difference between the recorded age of Caroline Crachami and the age indicated by her dentition. If she was nine years old at death, it seems that problems associated with dwarfism had delayed the development of her dentition. Alternatively, her apparent dental age would suggest that she was considerably younger than nine years when she died.
Production date 1824
Preparator
Patient/subject
purchased
Related objectsRCSHM/Osteo. 227.1RCSSC/P 252
Physical Location
Location
Not on public display: contact museum for access conditions
Physical Information
Physical descriptionDry
Bibliography
SourceSeckel 1960
64-70
NotesSeckel reproduces descriptions of Crachami from earlier sources, including a table of osteometric measurements. The skeleton is shown as Figure 31.
SourceFlower 1879
Transcript227. The skeleton of a female child of unusually stunted growth and arrested osseous development, who was exhibited in London in 1824, under the name of "Caroline Crachami, the Sicilian Dwarf," of the reputed age of nine years. O.C. 5906.
Some particulars of her life and of the post mortem examination arc given in Sir Everard Home's 'Lectures on Comparative Anatomy,' vol. v. (1828), p. 191, from which the following is extracted: -
"The child when I saw it could walk alone, but with no confidence. Its sight was very quick, much attracted by bright objects, delighted with every thing that glittered, mightily pleased with fine clothes, had a shrill voice, and spoke in a low tone; had some taste for music, but could speak few words of English; was very sensible of kindness, and quickly recognized any person who had treated it kindly."
The height of the skeleton is 19.8 inches = 505 millims. Only the deciduous teeth are in place, of which the first upper molars in both jaws have suffered decay. The right lateral upper incisor would appear not to have been developed. The fontanelle is not quite closed; and the ossifieation of the bones of the trunk and extremities is scarcely more advanced than in a child at birth.
With this skeleton are preserved casts of the face, of the arm and hand, and of a foot of the same individual, also the stockings and ring which she wore; and upon the staircase of Room I. is an oil-painting from life, of the natural size, side and front view, by A. Chalon.
Presented by Sir Everard Home, Bart.
SourceOwen 1853 Vol. 2
Transcript5906. The skeleton of a female child of unusually stunted growth, who was exhibited in London, in 1824, as a dwarf, under the name of 'Mademoiselle Crachami*.'
The great fontanelle is unossified. Only the deciduous teeth are in place, of which the first molar above has suffered decay on each side. The right lateral incisor would appear not to have been developed. The maxillo-premaxillary sutures are retained on the palate. The exoccipitals are still distinct from the basioccipital, but have anchylosed with the superoccipital and with the mastoids. The mastoid tubercles are hardly more developed than the paroccipital ones. The neurapophyses of the atlas are ununited above. The so-called body is still unossified. The odontoid and succeeding bodies of the cervical vertebrae are also independent elements. The parapophysial and diapophysial parts of the perforated transverse processes are united by dried cartilage, in all these cervical vertebrae. There is no distinct or ossified costal rudiment observable, the foramen appearing to be completed by continuous ossification of the two exogenous elements above mentioned, both of which are here developed from the neurapophysis. The distinction of the centrum from the neural arch is preserved through the rest of the vertebral column. In the first and second sacrals the costal element of the thick transverse process is distinctly shown. Four centres of ossification have been established in the sternum, one for the manubrium and three for the body of that bone. The bones of the extremities exhibit the usual immature characters.
With this skeleton are preserved casts of the face, of the arm and hand, and of a foot of the same individual.
Presented by Sir Everard Home, Bart., VPRS
* See Home, 'Lectures on Comparative Anatomy,' vol. v. p. 191.
NotesWilliam Clift's manuscript diary containing working notes.
TranscriptEXTRACT FROM "A ROUGH LIST OF PREPARATIONS IN THE MUSEUM STORE ROOM" 1832
compiled by William Home Clift [
177 The Thoracic and Abdominal Viscera of the Sicilian Dwarf, Mlle Crachami (an assumed name, the Child was not a Sicilian, but the daughter of a Trumpeter in the 12 Regiment of Lancers) (R Keate Esq Augt 5th 1831). The thoracic duct was, at the suggestion of Sir W Blizard, carefully examined, but it was found to be of the natural size and unobstructed. Oct. 16th 1828. The Child died June 1824.
Added some Spirit.
