 A traumatic breech birth resulted in Erb's palsy, which left him with a withered left arm about six inches (15 centimetres) shorter than his right.He tried with some success to conceal this; many photographs show him holding a pair of white gloves in his left hand to make the arm seem longer.In others, he holds his left hand with his right, has his crippled arm on the hilt of a sword, or holds a cane to give the illusion of a useful limb posed at a dignified angle.