achondroplasia
- n an inherited skeletal disorder beginning before birth; cartilage is converted to bone resulting in dwarfism
- For victims of the commonest type of dwarfism, achondroplasia, marked by short limbs, large heads and "scooped out" noses, no hormonal or other treatment is effective.
- Doctors who earlier noticed cases of this kind of dwarfism among the Amish mistook it for achondroplasia, a form made familiar by Velsquez's paintings of dwarfs as court .