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Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
by George M. Gould
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There is an account of two united females, similar in conjunction to the "Hungarian sisters," who were born in Italy in 1700. They were killed at the age of four months by an attempt of a surgeon to separate them.

In 1856 there was reported to have been born in Texas, twins after the manner of Helen and Judith, united back to back, who lived and attained some age. They were said to have been of different natures and dispositions, and inclined to quarrel very often.

Pancoast gives an extensive report of Millie-Christine, who had been extensively exhibited in Europe and the United States. They were born of slave parents in Columbus County, N.C., July 11, 1851; the mother, who had borne 8 children before, was a stout negress of thirty-two, with a large pelvis. The presentation was first by the stomach and afterward by the breech. These twins were united at the sacra by a cartilaginous or possibly osseous union. They were exhibited in Paris in 1873, and provoked as much discussion there as in the United States. Physically, Millie was the weaker, but had the stronger will and the dominating spirit. They menstruated regularly from the age of thirteen. One from long habit yielded instinctively to the other's movements, thus preserving the necessary harmony. They ate separately, had distinct thoughts, and carried on distinct conversations at the same time. They experienced hunger and thirst generally simultaneously, and defecated and urinated nearly at the same times. One, in tranquil sleep, would be wakened by a call of nature of the other. Common sensibility was experienced near the location of union. They were intelligent and agreeable and of pleasant appearance, although slightly under size; they sang duets with pleasant voices and accompanied themselves with a guitar; they walked, ran, and danced with apparent ease and grace. Christine could bend over and lift Millie up by the bond of union.

A recent example of the pygopagus type was Rosa-Josepha Blazek, born in Skerychov, in Bohemia, January 20, 1878. These twins had a broad bony union in the lower part of the lumbar region, the pelvis being obviously completely fused. They had a common urethral and anal aperture, but a double vaginal orifice, with a very apparent septum. The sensation was distinct in each, except where the pelves joined. They were exhibited in Paris in 1891, being then on an exhibition tour around the world. Rosa was the stronger, and when she walked or ran forward she drew her sister with her, who must naturally have reversed her steps. They had independent thoughts and separate minds; one could sleep while the other was awake. Many of their appetites were different, one preferring beer, the other wine; one relished salad, the other detested it, etc. Thirst and hunger were not simultaneous. Baudoin describes their anatomic construction, their mode of life, and their mannerisms and tastes in a quite recent article. Fig. 42 is a reproduction of an early photograph of the twins, and Fig. 43 represents a recent photograph of these "Bohemian twins," as they are now called.

The latest record we have of this type of monstrosity is that given by Tynberg to the County Medical Society of New York, May 27, 1895. The mother was present with the remarkable twins in her arms, crying at the top of their voices. These two children were born at midnight on April 15th. Tynberg remarked that he believed them to be distinct and separate children, and not dependent on a common arterial system; he also expressed his intention of separating them, but did not believe the operation could be performed with safety before another year. Jacobi describes in full Tynberg's instance of pygopagus. He says the confinement was easy; the head of one was born first, soon followed by the feet and the rest of the twins. The placenta was single and the cord consisted of two branches. The twins were united below the third sacral vertebrae in such a manner that they could lie alongside of each other. They were females, and had two vaginae, two urethrae four labia minora, and two labia majora, one anus, but a double rectum divided by a septum. They micturated independently but defecated simultaneously. They virtually lived separate lives, as one might be asleep while the other cried, etc.

CLASS V.—While instances of ischiopagi are quite numerous, few have attained any age, and, necessarily, little notoriety. Pare speaks of twins united at the pelves, who were born in Paris July 20, 1570. They were baptized, and named Louis and Louise. Their parents were well known in the rue des Gravelliers. According to Bateman, and also Rueff, in the year 1552 there were born, not far from Oxford, female twins, who, from the description given, were doubtless of the ischiopagus type. They seldom wept, and one was of a cheerful disposition, while the other was heavy and drowsy, sleeping continually. They only lived a short time, one expiring a day before the other. Licetus speaks of Mrs. John Waterman, a resident of Fishertown, near Salisbury, England, who gave birth to a double female monster on October 26, 1664, which evidently from the description was joined by the ischii. It did not nurse, but took food by both the mouths; all its actions were done in concert; it was possessed of one set of genitourinary organs; it only lived a short while. Many people in the region flocked to see the wonderful child, whom Licetus called "Monstrum Anglicum." It is said that at the same accouchement the birth of this monster was followed by the birth of a well-formed female child, who survived. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire quotes a description of twins who were born in France on October 7, 1838, symmetrically formed and united at their ischii. One was christened Marie-Louise, and the other Hortense-Honorine. Their avaricious parents took the children to Paris for exhibition, the exposures of which soon sacrificed their lives. In the year 1841 there was born in the island of Ceylon, of native parents, a monstrous child that was soon brought to Columbo, where it lived only two months. It had two heads and seemed to have duplication in all its parts except the anus and male generative organs. Montgomery speaks of a double child born in County Roscommon, Ireland, on the 24th of July, 1827. It had two heads, two chests with arms complete, two abdominal and pelvic cavities united end to end, and four legs, placed two on either side. It had only one anus, which was situated between the thighs. One of the twins was dark haired and was baptized Mary, while the other was a blonde and was named Catherine. These twins felt and acted independently of each other; they each in succession sucked from the breast or took milk from the spoon, and used their limbs vigorously. One vomited without affecting the other, but the feces were discharged through a common opening.

Goodell speaks of Minna and Minnie Finley, who were born in Ohio and examined by him. They were fused together in a common longitudinal axis, having one pelvis, two heads, four legs, and four arms. One was weak and puny and the other robust and active; it is probable that they had but one rectum and one bladder. Goodell accompanies his description by the mention of several analogous cases. Ellis speaks of female twins, born in Millville, Tenn., and exhibited in New York in 1868, who were joined at the pelves in a longitudinal axis. Between the limbs on either side were to be seen well-developed female genitals, and the sisters had been known to urinate from both sides, beginning and ending at the same time.

Huff details a description of the "Jones twins," born on June 24, 1889, in Tipton County, Indiana, whose spinal columns were in apposition at the lower end. The labor, of less than two hours' duration, was completed before the arrival of the physician. Lying on their mother's back, they could both nurse at the same time. Both sets of genitals and ani were on the same side of the line of union, but occupied normal positions with reference to the legs on either side. Their weight at birth was 12 pounds and their length 22 inches. Their mother was a medium-sized brunette of 19, and had one previous child then living at the age of two; their father was a finely formed man 5 feet 10 inches in height. The twins differed in complexion and color of the eyes and hair. They were publicly exhibited for some time, and died February 19 and 20, 1891, at St. John's Hotel, Buffalo, N.Y. Figure 45 shows their appearance several months after birth.

CLASS VI.—In our sixth class, the first record we have is from the Commentaries of Sigbert, which contains a description of a monstrosity born in the reign of the Emperor Theodosius, who had two heads, two chests with four arms attached, but a single lower extremity. The emotions, affections, and appetites were different. One head might be crying while the other laughed, or one feeding while the other was sleeping. At times they quarreled and occasionally came to blows. This monster is said to have lived two years, one part dying four days before the other, which evinced symptoms of decay like its inseparable neighbor.

Roger of Wendover says that in Lesser Brittany and Normandy, in 1062, there was seen a female monster, consisting of two women joined about the umbilicus and fused into a single lower extremity. They took their food by two mouths but expelled it at a single orifice. At one time, one of the women laughed, feasted, and talked, while the other wept, fasted, and kept a religious silence. The account relates how one of them died, and the survivor bore her dead sister about for three years before she was overcome by the oppression and stench of the cadaver. Batemen describes the birth of a boy in 1529, who had two heads, four ears, four arms, but only two thighs and two legs. Buchanan speaks at length of the famous "Scottish Brothers," who were the cynosure of the eyes of the Court of James III of Scotland. This monster consisted of two men, ordinary in appearance in the superior extremities, whose trunks fused into a single lower extremity. The King took diligent care of their education, and they became proficient in music, languages, and other court accomplishments. Between them they would carry on animated conversations, sometimes merging into curious debates, followed by blows. Above the point of union they had no synchronous sensations, while below, sensation was common to both. This monster lived twenty-eight years, surviving the royal patron, who died June, 1488. One of the brothers died some days before the other, and the survivor, after carrying about his dead brother, succumbed to "infection from putrescence." There was reported to have been born in Switzerland a double headed male monster, who in 1538, at the age of thirty, was possessed of a beard on each face, the two bodies fused at the umbilicus into a single lower extremity. These two twins resembled one another in contour and countenance. They were so joined that at rest they looked upon one another. They had a single wife, with whom they were said to have lived in harmony. In the Gentleman's Magazine about one hundred and fifty years since there was given the portrait and description of a double woman, who was exhibited all over the large cities of Europe. Little can be ascertained anatomically of her construction, with the exception that it was stated that she had two heads, two necks, four arms, two legs, one pelvis, and one set of pelvic organs.

The most celebrated monster of this type was Ritta-Christina, who was born in Sassari, in Sardinia, March 23, 1829. These twins were the result of the ninth confinement of their mother, a woman of thirty-two. Their superior extremities were double, but they joined in a common trunk at a point a little below the mammae. Below this point they had a common trunk and single lower extremities. The right one, christened Ritta, was feeble and of a sad and melancholy countenance; the left, Christina, was vigorous and of a gay and happy aspect. They suckled at different times, and sensations in the upper extremities were distinct. They expelled urine and feces simultaneously, and had the indications in common. Their parents, who were very poor, brought them to Paris for the purpose of public exhibition, which at first was accomplished clandestinely, but finally interdicted by the public authorities, who feared that it would open a door for psychologic discussion and speculation. This failure of the parents to secure public patronage increased their poverty and hastened the death of the children by unavoidable exposure in a cold room. The nervous system of the twins had little in common except in the line of union, the anus, and the sexual organs, and Christina was in good health all through Ritta's sickness; when Ritta died, her sister, who was suckling at the mother's breast, suddenly relaxed hold and expired with a sigh. At the postmortem, which was secured with some difficulty on account of the authorities ordering the bodies to be burned, the pericardium was found single, covering both hearts. The digestive organs were double and separate as far as the lower third of the ilium, and the cecum was on the left side and single, in common with the lower bowel. The livers were fused and the uterus was double. The vertebral columns, which were entirely separate above, were joined below by a rudimentary os innorminatum. There was a junction between the manubrium of each. Sir Astley Cooper saw a monster in Paris in 1792 which, by his description, must have been very similar to Ritta-Christina.

The Tocci brothers were born in 1877 in the province of Turin, Italy. They each had a well-formed head, perfect arms, and a perfect thorax to the sixth rib; they had a common abdomen, a single anus, two legs, two sacra, two vertebral columns, one penis, but three buttocks, the central one containing a rudimentary anus. The right boy was christened Giovanni-Batista, and the left Giacomo. Each individual had power over the corresponding leg on his side, but not over the other one. Walking was therefore impossible. All their sensations and emotions were distinctly individual and independent. At the time of the report, in 1882, they were in good health and showed every indication of attaining adult age. Figure 48 represents these twins as they were exhibited several years ago in Germany.

McCallum saw two female children in Montreal in 1878 named Marie-Rosa Drouin. They formed a right angle with their single trunk, which commenced at the lower part of the thorax of each. They had a single genital fissure and the external organs of generation of a female. A little over three inches from the anus was a rudimentary limb with a movable articulation; it measured five inches in length and tapered to a fine point, being furnished with a distinct nail, and it contracted strongly to irritation. Marie, the left child, was of fair complexion and more strongly developed than Rosa. The sensations of hunger and thirst were not experienced at the same time, and one might be asleep while the other was crying. The pulsations and the respiratory movements were not synchronous. They were the products of the second gestation of a mother aged twenty-six, whose abdomen was of such preternatural size during pregnancy that she was ashamed to appear in public. The order of birth was as follows: one head and body, the lower extremity, and the second body and head.

CLASS VII.—There are many instances of bicephalic monsters on record. Pare mentions and gives an illustration of a female apparently single in conformation, with the exception of having two heads and two necks. The Ephemerides, Haller, Schenck, and Archenholz cite examples, and there is an old account of a double-headed child, each of whose heads were baptized, one called Martha and the other Mary. One was of a gay and the other a sad visage, and both heads received nourishment; they only lived a couple of days. There is another similar record of a Milanese girl who had two heads, but was in all other respects single, with the exception that after death she was found to have had two stomachs. Besse mentions a Bavarian woman of twenty-six with two heads, one of which was comely and the other extremely ugly; Batemen quotes what is apparently the same case—a woman in Bavaria in 1541 with two heads, one of which was deformed, who begged from door to door, and who by reason of the influence of pregnant women was given her expenses to leave the country.

A more common occurrence of this type is that in which there is fusion of the two heads. Moreau speaks of a monster in Spain which was shown from town to town. Its heads were fused; it had two mouths and two noses; in each face an eye well conformed and placed above the nose; there was a third eye in the middle of the forehead common to both heads; the third eye was of primitive development and had two pupils. Each face was well formed and had its own chin. Buffon mentions a cat, the exact analogue of Moreau's case. Sutton speaks of a photograph sent to Sir James Paget in 1856 by William Budd of Bristol. This portrays a living child with a supernumerary head, which had mouth, nose, eyes, and a brain of its own. The eyelids were abortive, and as there was no orbital cavity the eyes stood out in the form of naked globes on the forehead. When born, the corneas of both heads were transparent, but then became opaque from exposure. The brain of the supernumerary head was quite visible from without, and was covered by a membrane beginning to slough. On the right side of the head was a rudimentary external ear. The nurse said that when the child sucked some milk regurgitated through the supernumerary mouth. The great physiologic interest in this case lies in the fact that every movement and every act of the natural face was simultaneously repeated by the supernumerary face in a perfectly consensual manner, i.e., when the natural mouth sucked, the second mouth sucked; when the natural face cried, yawned, or sneezed, the second face did likewise; and the eyes of the two heads moved in unison. The fate of the child is not known.

Home speaks of a child born in Bengal with a most peculiar fusion of the head. The ordinary head was nearly perfect and of usual volume, but fused with its vertex and reversed was a supernumerary head. Each head had its own separate vessels and brain, and each an individual sensibility, but if one had milk first the other had an abundance of saliva in its mouth. It narrowly escaped being burned to death at birth, as the midwife, greatly frightened by the monstrous appearance, threw it into the fire to destroy it, from whence it was rescued, although badly burned, the vicious conformation of the accessory head being possibly due to the accident. At the age of four it was bitten by a venomous serpent and, as a result, died. Its skull is in the possession of the Royal College of Surgeons in London.

The following well-known story of Edward Mordake, though taken from lay sources, is of sufficient notoriety and interest to be mentioned here:—

"One of the weirdest as well as most melancholy stories of human deformity is that of Edward Mordake, said to have been heir to one of the noblest peerages in England. He never claimed the title, however, and committed suicide in his twenty-third year. He lived in complete seclusion, refusing the visits even of the members of his own family. He was a young man of fine attainments, a profound scholar, and a musician of rare ability. His figure was remarkable for its grace, and his face—that is to say, his natural face—was that of an Antinous. But upon the back of his head was another face, that of a beautiful girl, 'lovely as a dream, hideous as a devil.' The female face was a mere mask, 'occupying only a small portion of the posterior part of the skull, yet exhibiting every sign of intelligence, of a malignant sort, however.' It would be seen to smile and sneer while Mordake was weeping. The eyes would follow the movements of the spectator, and the lips would 'gibber without ceasing.' No voice was audible, but Mordake avers that he was kept from his rest at night by the hateful whispers of his 'devil twin,' as he called it, 'which never sleeps, but talks to me forever of such things as they only speak of in hell. No imagination can conceive the dreadful temptations it sets before me. For some unforgiven wickedness of my forefathers I am knit to this fiend—for a fiend it surely is. I beg and beseech you to crush it out of human semblance, even if I die for it.' Such were the words of the hapless Mordake to Manvers and Treadwell, his physicians. In spite of careful watching he managed to procure poison, whereof he died, leaving a letter requesting that the 'demon face' might be destroyed before his burial, 'lest it continues its dreadful whisperings in my grave.' At his own request he was interred in a waste place, without stone or legend to mark his grave."

A most curious case was that of a Fellah woman who was delivered at Alexandria of a bicephalic monster of apparently eight months' pregnancy. This creature, which was born dead, had one head white and the other black the change of color commencing at the neck of the black head. The bizarre head was of negro conformation and fully developed, and the colored skin was found to be due to the existence of pigment similar to that found in the black race. The husband of the woman had a light brown skin, like an ordinary Fellah man, and it was ascertained that there were some negro laborers in port during the woman's pregnancy; but no definite information as to her relations with them could be established, and whether this was a case of maternal impression or superfetation can only be a matter of conjecture.

Fantastic monsters, such as acephalon, paracephalon, cyclops, pseudencephalon, and the janiceps, prosopthoracopagus, disprosopus, etc., although full of interest, will not be discussed here, as none are ever viable for any length of time, and the declared intention of this chapter is to include only those beings who have lived.

CLASS VIII.—The next class includes the parasitic terata, monsters that consist of one perfect body, complete in every respect, but from the neighborhood of whose umbilicus depends some important portion of a second body. Pare, Benivenius, and Columbus describe adults with acephalous monsters attached to them. Schenck mentions 13 cases, 3 of which were observed by him. Aldrovandus shows 3 illustrations under the name of "monstrum bicorpum monocephalon." Bustorf speaks of a case in which the nates and lower extremities of one body proceeded out of the abdomen of the other, which was otherwise perfect. Reichel and Anderson mention a living parasitic monster, the inferior trunk of one body proceeding from the pectoral region of the other.

Pare says that there was a man in Paris in 1530, quite forty years of age, who carried about a parasite without a head, which hung pendant from his belly. This individual was exhibited and drew great crowds. Pare appends an illustration, which is, perhaps, one of the most familiar in all teratology. He also gives a portrait of a man who had a parasitic head proceeding from his epigastrium, and who was born in Germany the same year that peace was made with the Swiss by King Francis. This creature lived to manhood and both heads were utilized in alimentation. Bartholinus details a history of an individual named Lazarus-Joannes Baptista Colloredo, born in Genoa in 1617, who exhibited himself all over Europe. From his epigastrium hung an imperfectly developed twin that had one thigh, hands, body, arms, and a well-formed head covered with hair, which in the normal position hung lowest. There were signs of independent existence in the parasite, movements of respiration, etc., but its eyes were closed, and, although saliva constantly dribbled from its open mouth, nothing was ever ingested. The genitals were imperfect and the arms ended in badly formed hands. Bartholinus examined this monster at twenty-two, and has given the best report, although while in Scotland in 1642 he was again examined, and accredited with being married and the father of several children who were fully and admirably developed. Moreau quotes a case of an infant similar in conformation to the foregoing monster, who was born in Switzerland in 1764, and whose supernumerary parts were amputated by means of a ligature. Winslow reported before the Academie Royale des Sciences the history of a girl of twelve who died at the Hotel-Dieu in 1733. She was of ordinary height and of fair conformation, with the exception that hanging from the left flank was the inferior half of another girl of diminutive proportions. The supernumerary body was immovable, and hung so heavily that it was said to be supported by the hands or by a sling. Urine and feces were evacuated at intervals from the parasite, and received into a diaper constantly worn for this purpose. Sensibility in the two was common, an impression applied to the parasite being felt by the girl. Winslow gives an interesting report of the dissection of this monster, and mentions that he had seen an Italian child of eight who had a small head proceeding from under the cartilage of the third left rib. Sensibility was common, pinching the ear of the parasitic head causing the child with the perfect head to cry. Each of the two heads received baptism, one being named John and the other Matthew. A curious question arose in the instance of the girl, as to whether the extreme unction should be administered to the acephalous fetus as well as to the child.

In 1742, during the Ambassadorship of the Marquis de l'Hopital at Naples, he saw in that city an aged man, well conformed, with the exception that, like the little girl of Winslow, he had the inferior extremities of a male child growing from his epigastric region. Haller and Meckel have also observed cases like this. Bordat described before the Royal Institute of France, August, 1826, a Chinaman, twenty-one years of age, who had an acephalous fetus attached to the surface of his breast (possibly "A-ke").

Dickinson describes a wonderful child five years old, who, by an extraordinary freak of nature, was an amalgamation of two children. From the body of an otherwise perfectly formed child was a supernumerary head protruding from a broad base attached to the lower lumbar and sacral region. This cephalic mass was covered with hair about four or five inches long, and showed the rudiments of an eye, nose, mouth, and chin. This child was on exhibition when Dickinson saw it. Montare and Reyes were commissioned by the Academy of Medicine of Havana to examine and report on a monstrous girl of seven months, living in Cuba. The girl was healthy and well developed, and from the middle line of her body between the xiphoid cartilage and the umbilicus, attached by a soft pedicle, was an accessory individual, irregular, of ovoid shape, the smaller end, representing the head, being upward. The parasite measured a little over 1 foot in length, 9 inches about the head, and 7 3/4 inches around the neck. The cranial bones were distinctly felt, and the top of the head was covered by a circlet of hair. There were two rudimentary eyebrows; the left eye was represented by a minute perforation encircled with hair; the right eye was traced by one end of a mucous groove which ran down to another transverse groove representing the mouth; the right third of this latter groove showed a primitive tongue and a triangular tooth, which appeared at the fifth month. There was a soft, imperforate nose, and the elements of the vertebral column could be distinguished beneath the skin; there were no legs; apparently no vascular sounds; there was separate sensation, as the parasite could be pinched without attracting the perfect infant's notice. The mouth of the parasite constantly dribbled saliva, but showed no indication of receiving aliment.

Louise L., known as "La dame a quatre jambes," was born in 1869, and had attached to her pelvis another rudimentary pelvis and two atrophied legs of a parasite, weighing 8 kilos. The attachment was effected by means of a pedicle 33 cm. in diameter, having a bony basis, and being fixed without a joint. The attachment almost obliterated the vulva and the perineum was displaced far backward. At the insertion of the parasite were two rudimentary mammae, one larger than the other. No genitalia were seen on the parasite and it exhibited no active movements, the joints of both limbs being ankylosed. The woman could localize sensations in the parasite except those of the feet. She had been married five years, and bore, in the space of three years, two well-formed daughters.

Quite recently there was exhibited in the museums of the United States an individual bearing the name "Laloo," who was born in Oudh, India, and was the second of four children. At the time of examination he was about nineteen years of age. The upper portion of a parasite was firmly attached to the lower right side of the sternum of the individual by a bony pedicle, and lower by a fleshy pedicle, and apparently contained intestines. The anus of the parasite was imperforate; a well-developed penis was found, but no testicles; there was a luxuriant growth of hair on the pubes. The penis of the parasite was said to show signs of erection at times, and urine passed through it without the knowledge of the boy. Perspiration and elevation of temperature seemed to occur simultaneously in both. To pander to the morbid curiosity of the curious, the "Dime Museum" managers at one time shrewdly clothed the parasite in female attire, calling the two brother and sister; but there is no doubt that all the traces of sex were of the male type. An analogous case was that of "A-Ke," a Chinaman, who was exhibited in London early in the century, and of whom and his parasite anatomic models are seen in our museums. Figure 58 represents an epignathus, a peculiar type parasitic monster, in which the parasite is united to the inferior maxillary bone of the autosite.

CLASS IX.—Of "Lusus naturae" none is more curious than that of duplication of the lower extremities. Pare says that on January 9, 1529, there was living in Germany a male infant having four legs and four arms. In Paris, at the Academie des Sciences, on September 6, 1830, there was presented by Madame Hen, a midwife, a living male child with four legs, the anus being nearly below the middle of the third buttock; and the scrotum between the two left thighs, the testicles not yet descended. There was a well-formed and single pelvis, and the supernumerary legs were immovable. Aldrovandus mentions several similar instances, and gives the figure of one born in Rome; he also describes several quadruped birds. Bardsley speaks of a male child with one head, four arms, four legs, and double generative organs. He gives a portrait of the child when it was a little over a year old. Heschl published in Vienna in 1878 a description of a girl of seventeen, who instead of having a duplication of the superior body, as in "Millie-Christine, the two-headed nightingale," had double parts below the second lumbar vertebra. Her head and upper body resembled a comely, delicate girl of twelve.

Wells a describes Mrs. B., aged twenty, still alive and healthy. The duplication in this case begins just above the waist, the spinal column dividing at the third lumbar vertebra, below this point everything being double. Micturition and defecation occur at different times, but menstruation occurs simultaneously. She was married at nineteen, and became pregnant a year later on the left side, but abortion was induced at the fourth month on account of persistent nausea and the expectation of impossible delivery. Whaley, in speaking of this case, said Mrs. B. utilized her outside legs for walking; he also remarks that when he informed her that she was pregnant on the left side she replied, "I think you are mistaken; if it had been on my right side I would come nearer believing it;"—and after further questioning he found, from the patient's observation, that her right genitals were almost invariably used for coitus. Bechlinger of Para, Brazil, describes a woman of twenty-five, a native of Martinique, whose father was French and mother a quadroon, who had a modified duplication of the lower body. There was a third leg attached to a continuation of the processus coceygeus of the sacrum, and in addition to well developed mammae regularly situated, there were two rudimentary ones close together above the pubes. There were two vaginae and two well-developed vulvae, both having equally developed sensations. The sexual appetite was markedly developed, and coitus was practised in both vaginae. A somewhat similar case, possibly the same, is that of Blanche Dumas, born in 1860. She had a very broad pelvis, two imperfectly developed legs, and a supernumerary limb attached to the symphysis, without a joint, but with slight passive movement. There was a duplication of bowel, bladder, and genitalia. At the junction of the rudimentary limb with the body, in front, were two rudimentary mammary glands, each containing a nipple.

Other instances of supernumerary limbs will be found in Chapter VI.

CLASS X.—The instances of diphallic terata, by their intense interest to the natural bent of the curious mind, have always elicited much discussion. To many of these cases have been attributed exaggerated function, notwithstanding the fact that modern observation almost invariably shows that the virile power diminishes in exact proportion to the extent of duplication. Taylor quotes a description of a monster, exhibited in London, with two distinct penises, but with only one distinct testicle on either side. He could exercise the function of either organ.

Schenck, Schurig, Bartholinus, Loder, and Ollsner report instances of diphallic terata; the latter case a was in a soldier of Charles VI, twenty-two years old, who applied to the surgeon for a bubonic affection, and who declared that he passed urine from the orifice of the left glans and also said that he was incapable of true coitus. Valentini mentions an instance in a boy of four, in which the two penises were superimposed. Bucchettoni speaks of a man with two penises placed side by side. There was an anonymous case described of a man of ninety-three with a penis which was for more than half its length divided into two distinct members, the right being somewhat larger than the left. From the middle of the penis up to the symphysis only the lower wall of the urethra was split. Jenisch describes a diphallic infant, the offspring of a woman of twenty-five who had been married five years. Her first child was a well-formed female, and the second, the infant in question, cried much during the night, and several times vomited dark-green matter. In lieu of one penis there were two, situated near each other, the right one of natural size and the left larger, but not furnished with a prepuce. Each penis had its own urethra, from which dribbled urine and some meconium. There was a duplication of each scrotum, but only one testicle in each, and several other minor malformations.

Gore, reported by Velpeau, has seen an infant of eight and one-half months with two penises and three lower extremities. The penises were 4 cm. apart and the scrotum divided, containing one testicle in each side. Each penis was provided with a urethra, urine being discharged from both simultaneously. In a similar case, spoken of by Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, the two organs were also separate, but urine and semen escaped sometimes from one, sometimes from both.

The most celebrated of all the diphallic terata was Jean Baptista dos Santos, who when but six months old was spoken of by Acton. His father and mother were healthy and had two well-formed children. He was easily born after an uneventful pregnancy. He was good-looking, well proportioned, and had two distinct penises, each as large as that of a child of six months. Urination proceeded simultaneously from both penises; he had also two scrotums. Behind and between the legs there was another limb, or rather two, united throughout their length. It was connected to the pubis by a short stem 1/2 inch long and as large as the little finger, consisting of separate bones and cartilages. There was a patella in the supernumerary limb on the anal aspect, and a joint freely movable. This compound limb had no power of motion, but was endowed with sensibility. A journal in London, after quoting Acton's description, said that the child had been exhibited in Paris, and that the surgeons advised operation. Fisher, to whom we are indebted for an exhaustive work in Teratology, received a report from Havana in July, 1865, which detailed a description of Santos at twenty-two years of age, and said that he was possessed of extraordinary animal passion, the sight of a female alone being sufficient to excite him. He was said to use both penises, after finishing with one continuing with the other; but this account of him does not agree with later descriptions, in which no excessive sexual ability had been noticed. Hart describes the adult Santos in full, and accompanies his article with an illustration. At this time he was said to have developed double genitals, and possibly a double bladder communicating by an imperfect septum. At adulthood the anus was three inches anterior to the os coceygeus. In the sitting or lying posture the supernumerary limb rested on the front of the inner surface of the lower third of his left thigh. He was in the habit of wearing this limb in a sling, or bound firmly to the right thigh, to prevent its unseemly dangling when erect. The perineum proper was absent, the entire space between the anus and the posterior edge of the scrotum being occupied by the pedicle. Santos' mental and physical functions were developed above normal, and he impressed everybody with his accomplishments. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire records an instance in which the conformation was similar to that of Santos. There was a third lower extremity consisting of two limbs fused into one with a single foot containing ten distinct digits. He calls the case one of arrested twin development.

Van Buren and Keyes describe a case in a man of forty-two, of good, healthy appearance. The two distinct penises of normal size were apparently well formed and were placed side by side, each attached at its root to the symphysis. Their covering of skin was common as far as the base of the glans; at this point they seemed distinct and perfect, but the meatus of the left was imperforate. The right meatus was normal, and through it most of the urine passed, though some always dribbled through an opening in the perineum at a point where the root of the scrotum should have been. On lifting the double-barreled penis this opening could be seen and was of sufficient size to admit the finger. On the right side of the aperture was an elongated and rounded prominence similar in outline to a labium majus. This prominence contained a testicle normal in shape and sensibility, but slightly undersized, and surrounded, as was evident from its mobility, by a tunica vaginalis. The left testicle lay on the tendon of the adductor longus in the left groin; it was not fully developed, but the patient had sexual desires, erections, and emissions. Both penises became erect simultaneously, the right more vigorously. The left leg was shorter than the right and congenitally smaller; the mammae were of normal dimensions.

Sangalli speaks of a man of thirty-five who had a supernumerary penis, furnished with a prepuce and capable of erection. At the apex of the glans opened a canal about 12 cm. long, through which escaped monthly a serous fluid. Smith mentions a man who had two penises and two bladders, on one of which lithotomy was performed. According to Ballantyne, Taruffi, the scholarly observer of terata, mentions a child of forty-two months and height of 80 cm. who had two penises, each furnished with a urethra and well-formed scrotal sacs which were inserted in a fold of the groin. There were two testicles felt in the right scrotum and one in the left. Fecal evacuations escaped through two anal orifices. There is also another case mentioned similar to the foregoing in a man of forty; but here there was an osseous projection in the middle line behind the bladder. This patient said that erection was simultaneous in both penises, and that he had not married because of his chagrin over his deformity. Cole speaks of a child with two well-developed male organs, one to the left and the other to the right of the median line, and about 1/4 or 1/2 inch apart at birth. The urethra bifurcated in the perineal region and sent a branch to each penis, and urine passed from each meatus. The scrotum was divided into three compartments by two raphes, and each compartment contained a testicle. The anus at birth was imperforate, but the child was successfully operated on, and at its sixtieth day weighed 17 pounds.

Lange says that an infant was brought to Karg for relief of anal atresia when fourteen days old. It was found to possess duplicate penises, which communicated each to its distinct half of the bladder as defined by a median fold. The scrotum was divided into three portions by two raphes, and each lateral compartment contained a fully formed testicle. This child died because of its anal malformation, which we notice is a frequent associate of malformations or duplicity of the penis. There is an example in an infant described in which there were two penises, each about 1/2 inch long, and a divided scrotal sac 21 inches long. Englisch speaks of a German of forty who possessed a double penis of the bifid type.

Ballantyne and his associates define diphallic terata as individuals provided with two more or less well-formed and more or less separate penises, who may show also other malformations of the adjoining parts and organs (e.g., septate bladder), but who are not possessed of more than two lower limbs. This definition excludes, therefore, the cases in which in addition to a double penis there is a supernumerary lower extremity—such a case, for example, as that of Jean Baptista dos Santos, so frequently described by teratologists. It also excludes the more evident double terata, and, of course, the cases of duplication of the female genital organs (double clitoris, vulva, vagina, and uterus). Although Schurig, Meckel, Himly, Taruffi, and others give bibliographic lists of diphallic terata, even in them erroneous references are common, and there is evidence to show that many cases have been duplicated under different names. Ballantyne and Skirving have consulted all the older original references available and eliminated duplications of reports and, adhering to their original definition, have collected and described individually 20 cases; they offer the following conclusions:—

1. Diphallus, or duplication of the penis in an otherwise apparently single individual, is a very rare anomaly, records of only 20 cases having been found in a fairly exhaustive search through teratologic literature. As a distinct and well-authenticated type it has only quite recently been recognized by teratologists.

2. It does not of itself interfere with intrauterine or extrauterine life; but the associated anomalies (e.g., atresia ani) may be sources of danger. If not noticed at birth, it is not usually discovered till adult life, and even then the discovery is commonly accidental.

3. With regard to the functions of the pelvic viscera, urine may be passed by both penises, by one only, or by neither. In the last instance it finds exit by an aperture in the perineum. There is reason to believe that semen may be passed in the same way; but in most of the recorded cases there has been sterility, if not inability to perform the sexual act.

4. All the degrees of duplication have been met with, from a fissure of the glans penis to the presence of two distinct penises inserted at some distance from each other in the inguinal regions.

5. The two penises are usually somewhat defective as regards prepuce, urethra, etc.; they may lie side by side, or more rarely may be situated anteroposteriorly; they may be equal in size, or less commonly one is distinctly larger than the other; and one or both may be perforate or imperforate.

6. The scrotum may be normal or split; the testicles, commonly two in number, may be normal or atrophic, descended or undescended; the prostate may be normal or imperfectly developed, as may also the vasa deferentia and vesiculae seminales.

7. The commonly associated defects are: More or less completely septate bladder, atresia ani, or more rarely double anus, double urethra, increased breadth of the bony pelvis with defect of the symphysis pubis, and possibly duplication of the lower end of the spine, and hernia of some of the abdominal contents into a perineal pouch. Much more rarely, duplication of the heart, lungs, stomach, and kidneys has been noted, and the lower limbs may be shorter than normal.

CLASS XI.—Cases of fetus in fetu, those strange instances in which one might almost say that a man may be pregnant with his brother or sister, or in which an infant may carry its twin without the fact being apparent, will next be discussed. The older cases were cited as being only a repetition of the process by which Eve was born of Adam. Figure 63 represents an old engraving showing the birth of Eve. Bartholinus, the Ephemerides, Otto, Paullini, Schurig, and Plot speak of instances of fetus in fetu. Ruysch describes a tumor contained in the abdomen of a man which was composed of hair, molar teeth, and other evidences of a fetus. Huxham reported to the Royal Society in 1748 the history of a child which was born with a tumor near the anus larger than the whole body of the child; this tumor contained rudiments of an embryo. Young speaks of a fetus which lay encysted between the laminae of the transverse mesocolon, and Highmore published a report of a fetus in a cyst communicating with the duodenum. Dupuytren gives an example in a boy of thirteen, in whom was found a fetus. Gaetano-Nocito, cited by Philipeaux, has the history of a taken with a great pain in the right hypochondrium, and from which issued subsequently fetal bones and a mass of macerated embryo. His mother had had several double pregnancies, and from the length of the respective tibiae one of the fetuses seemed to be of two months' and the other of three months' intrauterine life. The man died five years after the abscess had burst spontaneously.

Brodie speaks of a case in which fetal remains were taken from the abdomen of a girl of two and one-half years. Gaither describes a child of two years and nine months, supposed to be affected with ascites, who died three hours after the physician's arrival. In its abdomen was found a fetus weighing almost two pounds and connected to the child by a cord resembling an umbilical cord. This child was healthy for about nine months, and had a precocious longing for ardent spirits, and drank freely an hour before its death.

Blundell says that he knew "a boy who was literally and without evasion with child, for the fetus was contained in a sac communicating with the abdomen and was connected to the side of the cyst by a short umbilical cord; nor did the fetus make its appearance until the boy was eight or ten years old, when after much enlargement of pregnancy and subsequent flooding the boy died." The fetus, removed after death, on the whole not very imperfectly formed, was of the size of about six or seven months' gestation. Bury cites an account of a child that had a second imperfectly developed fetus in its face and scalp. There was a boy by the name of Bissieu who from the earliest age had a pain in one of his left ribs; this rib was larger than the rest and seemed to have a tumor under it. He died of phthisis at fourteen, and after death there was found in a pocket lying against the transverse colon and communicating with it all the evidences of a fetus.

At the Hopital de la Charite in Paris, Velpeau startled an audience of 500 students and many physicians by saying that he expected to find a rudimentary fetus in a scrotal tumor placed in his hands for operation. His diagnosis proved correct, and brought him resounding praise, and all wondered as to his reasons for expecting a fetal tumor. It appears that he had read with care a report by Fatti of an operation on the scrotum of a child which had increased in size as the child grew, and was found to contain the ribs, the vertebral column, the lower extremities as far as the knees, and the two orbits of a fetus; and also an account of a similar operation performed by Wendt of Breslau on a Silesian boy of seven. The left testicle in this case was so swollen that it hung almost to the knee, and the fetal remains removed weighed seven ounces.

Sulikowski relates an instance of congenital fetation in the umbilicus of a girl of fourteen, who recovered after the removal of the anomaly. Aretaeos described to the members of the medical fraternity in Athens the case of a woman of twenty-two, who bore two children after a seven months' pregnancy. One was very rudimentary and only 21 inches long, and the other had an enormous head resembling a case of hydrocephalus. On opening the head of the second fetus, another, three inches long, was found in the medulla oblongata, and in the cranial cavity with it were two additional fetuses, neither of which was perfectly formed.

Broca speaks of a fetal cyst being passed in the urine of a man of sixty-one; the cyst contained remnants of hair, bone, and cartilage. Atlee submits quite a remarkable case of congenital ventral gestation, the subject being a girl of six, who recovered after the discharge of the fetal mass from the abdomen. McIntyre speaks of a child of eleven, playing about and feeling well, but whose abdomen progressively increased in size 1 1/2 inches each day. After ten days there was a large fluctuating mass on the right side; the abdomen was opened and the mass enucleated; it was found to contain a fetal mass weighing nearly five pounds, and in addition ten pounds of fluid were removed. The child made an early recovery. Rogers mentions a fetus that was found in a man's bladder. Bouchacourt reports the successful extirpation of the remains of a fetus from the rectum of a child of six. Miner describes a successful excision of a congenital gestation.

Modern literature is full of examples, and nearly every one of the foregoing instances could be paralleled from other sources. Rodriguez is quoted as reporting that in July, 1891, several newspapers in the city of Mexico published, under the head of "A Man-mother," a wonderful story, accompanied by wood-cuts, of a young man from whose body a great surgeon had extracted a "perfectly developed fetus." One of these wood-cuts represented a tumor at the back of a man opened and containing a crying baby. In commenting upon this, after reviewing several similar cases of endocymian monsters that came under his observation in Mexico, Rodriguez tells what the case which had been so grossly exaggerated by the lay journals really was: An Indian boy, aged twenty-two, presented a tumor in the sacrococcygeal region measuring 53 cm. in circumference at the base, having a vertical diameter of 17 cm. and a transverse diameter of 13 cm. It had no pedicle and was fixed, showing unequal consistency. At birth this tumor was about the size of a pigeon's egg. A diagnosis of dermoid cyst was made and two operations were performed on the boy, death following the second. The skeleton showed interesting conditions; the rectum and pelvic organs were natural, and the contents of the cyst verified the diagnosis.

Quite similar to the cases of fetus in fetu are the instances of dermoid cysts. For many years they have been a mystery to physiologists, and their origin now is little more than hypothetic. At one time the fact of finding such a formation in the ovary of an unmarried woman was presumptive evidence that she was unchaste; but this idea was dissipated as soon as examples were reported in children, and to-day we have a well-defined difference between congenital and extrauterine pregnancy. Dermoid cysts of the ovary may consist only of a wall of connective tissue lined with epidermis and containing distinctly epidermic scales which, however, may be rolled up in firm masses of a more or less soapy consistency; this variety is called by Orth epidermoid cyst; or, according to Warren, a form of cyst made up of skin containing small and ill-defined papillae, but rich in hair follicles and sebaceous glands. Even the erector pili muscle and the sudoriparous gland are often found. The hair is partly free and rolled up into thick balls or is still attached to the walls. A large mass of sebaceous material is also found in these cysts. Thomson reports a case of dermoid cyst of the bladder containing hair, which cyst he removed. It was a pedunculated growth, and it was undoubtedly vesical and not expelled from some ovarian source through the urinary passage, as sometimes occurs.

The simpler forms of the ordinary dermoid cysts contain bone and teeth. The complicated teratoma of this class may contain, in addition to the previously mentioned structures, cartilage and glands, mucous and serous membrane, muscle, nerves, and cerebral substance, portions of eyes, fingers with nails, mammae, etc. Figure 64 represents a cyst containing long red hair that was removed from a blonde woman aged forty-four years who had given birth to six children. Cullingworth reports the history of a woman in whom both ovaries were apparently involved by dermoids, who had given birth to 12 children and had three miscarriages—the last, three months before the removal of the growths. The accompanying illustration, taken from Baldy, pictures a dermoid cyst of the complicated variety laid open and exposing the contents in situ. Mears of Philadelphia reports a case of ovarian cyst removed from a girl of six and a half by Bradford of Kentucky in 1875. From this age on to adult life many similar cases are recorded. Nearly every medical museum has preserved specimens of dermoid cysts, and almost all physicians are well acquainted with their occurrence. The curious formations and contents and the bizarre shapes are of great variety. Graves mentions a dermoid cyst containing the left side of a human face, an eye, a molar tooth, and various bones. Dermoid cysts are found also in regions of the body quite remote from the ovary. The so-called "orbital wens" are true inclusion of the skin of a congenital origin, as are the nasal dermoids and some of the cysts of the neck.

Weil reported the case of a man of twenty-two years who was born with what was supposed to be a spina bifida in the lower sacral region. According to Senn, the swelling never caused any pain or inconvenience until it inflamed, when it opened spontaneously and suppurated, discharging a large quantity of offensive pus, hair, and sebaceous material, thus proving it to have been a dermoid. The cyst was freely incised, and there were found numerous openings of sweat glands, from which drops of perspiration escaped when the patient was sweating.

Dermoid cysts of the thorax are rare. Bramann reported a case in which a dermoid cyst of small size was situated over the sternum at the junction of the manubrium with the gladiolus, and a similar cyst in the neck near the left cornu of the hyoid bone. Chitten removed a dermoid from the sternum of a female of thirty-nine, the cyst containing 11 ounces of atheromatous material. In the Museum of St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London there is a congenital tumor which was removed from the anterior mediastinum of a woman of twenty one, and contained portions of skin, fat, sebaceous material, and two pieces of bone similar to the superior maxilla, and in which several teeth were found. Dermoids are found in the palate and pharynx, and open dermoids of the conjunctiva are classified by Sutton with the moles. According to Senn, Barker collected sixteen dermoid tumors of the tongue. Bryk successfully removed a tumor of this nature the size of a fist. Wellington Gray removed an enormous lingual dermoid from the mouth of a negro. It contained 40 ounces of atheromatous material. Dermoids of the rectum are reported. Duyse reports the history of a case of labor during which a rectal dermoid was expelled. The dermoid contained a cerebral vesicle, a rudimentary eye, a canine and a molar tooth, and a piece of bone. There is little doubt that many cases of fetus in fetu reported were really dermoids of the scrotum.

Ward reports the successful removal of a dermoid cyst weighing 30 pounds from a woman of thirty-two, the mother of two children aged ten and twelve, respectively. The report is briefly as follows: "The patient has always been in good health until within the last year, during which time she has lost flesh and strength quite rapidly, and when brought to my hospital by her physician, Dr. James of Williamsburg, Kansas, was quite weak, although able to walk about the house. A tumor had been growing for a number of years, but its growth was so gradual that the patient had not considered her condition critical until quite recently. The tumor was diagnosed to be cystoma of the left ovary. Upon opening the sac with the trocar we were confronted by complications entirely unlooked for, and its use had to be abandoned entirely because the thick contents of the cyst would not flow freely, and the presence of sebaceous matter blocked the instrument. As much of the fluid as possible was removed, and the abdominal incision was enlarged to allow of the removal of the large tumor. An ovarian hematoma the size of a large orange was removed from the right side. We washed the intestines quite as one would wash linen, since some of the contents of the cyst had escaped into the abdominal cavity. The abdomen was closed without drainage, and the patient placed in bed without experiencing the least shock. Her recovery was rapid and uneventful. She returned to her home in four weeks after the operation.

"The unusual feature in this case was the nature of the contents of the sac. There was a large quantity of long straight hair growing from the cyst wall and an equal amount of loose hair in short pieces floating through the tumor-contents, a portion of which formed nuclei for what were called 'moth-balls,' of which there were about 1 1/2 gallons. These balls, or marbles, varied from the size of moth-balls, as manufactured and sold by druggists, to that of small walnuts. They seemed to be composed of sebaceous matter, and were evidently formed around the short hairs by the motion of the fluid produced by walking or riding. There was some tissue resembling true skin attached to the inner wall of the sac."

There are several cases of multiple dermoid cysts on record, and they may occur all over the body. Jamieson reports a case in which there were 250, and in Maclaren's case there were 132. According to Crocker, Hebra and Rayer also each had a case. In a case of Sangster, reported by Politzer, although most of the dermoids, as usual, were like fibroma-nodules and therefore the color of normal skin, those over the mastoid processes and clavicle were lemon-yellow, and were generally thought to be xanthoma until they were excised, and Politzer found they were typical dermoid cysts with the usual contents of degenerated epithelium and hair.

Hermaphroditism.—Some writers claim that Adam was the first hermaphrodite and support this by Scriptural evidence. We find in some of the ancient poets traces of an Egyptian legend in which the goddess of the moon was considered to be both male and female. From mythology we learn that Hermaphroditus was the son of Hermes, or Mercury, and Venus Aphrodite, and had the powers both of a father and mother. In speaking of the foregoing Ausonius writes, "Cujus erat facies in qua paterque materque cognosci possint, nomen traxit ab illis." Ovid and Virgil both refer to legendary hermaphrodites, and the knowledge of their existence was prevalent in the olden times. The ancients considered the birth of hermaphrodites bad omens, and the Athenians threw them into the sea, the Romans, into the Tiber. Livy speaks of an hermaphrodite being put to death in Umbria, and another in Etruria. Cicero, Aristotle, Strabonius, and Pliny all speak concerning this subject. Martial and Tertullian noticed this anomaly among the Romans. Aetius and Paulus Aegineta speak of females in Egypt with prolonged clitorides which made them appear like hermaphrodites. Throughout the Middle Ages we frequently find accounts, naturally exaggerated, of double-sexed creatures. Harvey, Bartholinus, Paullini, Schenck, Wolff, Wrisberg, Zacchias, Marcellus Donatus, Haller, Hufeland, de Graff, and many others discuss hermaphroditism. Many classifications have been given, as, e.g., real and apparent; masculine, feminine, or neuter; horizontal and vertical; unilateral and bilateral, etc. The anomaly in most cases consists of a malformation of the external genitalia. A prolonged clitoris, prolapsed ovaries, grossness of figure, and hirsute appearance have been accountable for many supposed instances of hermaphrodites. On the other hand, a cleft scrotum, an ill-developed penis, perhaps hypospadias or epispadias, rotundity of the mammae, and feminine contour have also provoked accounts of similar instances. Some cases have been proved by dissection to have been true hermaphrodites, portions or even entire genitalia of both sexes having been found.

Numerous accounts, many mythical, but always interesting, are given of these curious persons. They have been accredited with having performed the functions of both father and mother, notwithstanding the statements of some of the best authorities that they are always sterile. Observation has shown that the sexual appetite diminishes in proportion to the imperfections in the genitalia, and certainly many of these persons are sexually indifferent.

We give descriptions of a few of the most famous or interesting instances of hermaphroditism. Pare speaks of a woman who, besides a vulva, from which she menstruated, had a penis, but without prepuce or signs of erectility. Haller alludes to several cases in which prolonged clitorides have been the cause of the anomaly. In commenting on this form of hermaphroditism Albucasiusus describes a necessary operation for the removal of the clitoris.

Columbus relates the history of an Ethiopian woman who was evidently a spurious female hermaphrodite. The poor wretch entreated him to cut off her penis, an enlarged clitoris, which she said was an intolerable hindrance to her in coitus. De Graff and Riolan describe similar cases. There is an old record of a similar creature, supposing herself to be a male, who took a wife, but previously having had connection with a man, the outcome of which was pregnancy, was shortly after marriage delivered of a daughter. There is an account of a person in Germany who, for the first thirty years of life, was regarded as feminine, and being of loose morals became a mother. At a certain period she began to feel a change in her sexual inclinations; she married and became the father of a family. This is doubtless a distortion of the facts of the case of Catherine or Charles Hoffman, born in 1824, and who was considered a female until the age of forty. At puberty she had the instincts of a woman, and cohabitated with a male lover for twenty years. Her breasts were well formed and she menstruated at nineteen. At the age of forty-six her sexual desires changed, and she attempted coitus as a man, with such evident satisfaction that she married a woman soon afterward. Fitch speaks of a house-servant with masculine features and movements, aged twenty-eight, and 5 feet and 9 inches tall, who was arrested by the police for violating the laws governing prostitution. On examination, well-developed male and female organs of generation were found. The labia majora were normal and flattened on the anterior surface. The labia minora and hymen were absent. The vagina was spacious and the woman had a profuse leukorrhea. She stated that several years previously she gave birth to a normal child. In place of a clitoris she had a penis which, in erection, measured 5 1/4 inches long and 3 5/8 inches in circumference. The glans penis and the urethra were perfectly formed. The scrotum contained two testicles, each about an inch long; the mons veneris was sparsely covered with straight, black hair. She claimed functional ability with both sets of genitalia, and said she experienced equal sexual gratification with either. Semen issued from the penis, and every three weeks she had scanty menstruation, which lasted but two days.

Beclard showed Marie-Madeline Lefort, nineteen years of age, 1 1/2 meters in height. Her mammae were well developed, her nipples erectile and surrounded by a brown areola, from which issued several hairs. Her feet were small, her pelvis large, and her thighs like those of a woman. Projecting from the vulva was a body looking like a penis 7 cm. long and slightly erectile at times; it was imperforate and had a mobile prepuce. She had a vulva with two well-shaped labia as shown by the accompanying illustration. She menstruated slightly and had an opening at the root of the clitoris. The parotid region showed signs of a beard and she had hair on her upper lip. On August 20, 1864, a person came into the Hotel-Dieu, asking treatment for chronic pleurisy. He said his age was sixty-five, and he pursued the calling of a mountebank, but remarked that in early life he had been taken for a woman. He had menstruated at eight and had been examined by doctors at sixteen. The menstruation continued until 1848, and at its cessation he experienced the feelings of a male. At this time he presented the venerable appearance of a long-bearded old man. At the autopsy, about two months later, all the essentials of a female were delineated. A Fallopian tube, ovaries, uterus, and round ligaments were found, and a drawing in cross-section of the parts was made. There is no doubt but that this individual was Marie-Madeline Lefort in age.

Worbe speaks of a person who was supposed to be feminine for twenty-two years. At the age of sixteen she loved a farmer's son, but the union was delayed for some reason, and three years later her grace faded and she became masculine in her looks and tastes. It was only after lengthy discussion, in which the court took part, that it was definitely settled that this person was a male.

Adelaide Preville, who was married as a female, and as such lived the last ten years of her life in France, was found on dissection at the Hotel-Dieu to be a man. A man was spoken of in both France and Germany a who passed for many years as a female. He had a cleft scrotum and hypospadias, which caused the deception. Sleeping with another servant for three years, he constantly had sexual congress with her during this period, and finally impregnated her. It was supposed in this case that the posterior wall of the vagina supplied the deficiency of the lower boundary of the urethra, forming a complete channel for the semen to proceed through. Long ago in Scotland a servant was condemned to death by burial alive for impregnating his master's daughter while in the guise and habit of a woman. He had always been considered a woman. We have heard of a recent trustworthy account of a pregnancy and delivery in a girl who had been impregnated by a bed-fellow who on examination proved to be a male pseudohermaphrodite.

Fournier speaks of an individual in Lisbon in 1807 who was in the highest degree graceful, the voice feminine, the mammae well developed, The female genitalia were normal except the labia majora, which were rather diminutive. The thighs and the pelvis. were not so wide as those of a woman. There was some beard on the chin, but it was worn close. the male genitalia were of the size and appearance of a male adult and were covered with the usual hair. This person had been twice pregnant and aborted at the third and fifth month. During coitus the penis became erect, etc.

Schrell describes a case in which, independent of the true penis and testicles, which were well formed, there existed a small vulva furnished with labia and nymphae, communicating with a rudimentary uterus provided with round ligaments and imperfectly developed ovaries. Schrell remarks that in this case we must notice that the female genitalia were imperfectly developed, and adds that perfect hermaphroditism is a physical impossibility without great alterations of the natural connections of the bones and other parts of the pelvis. Cooper describes a woman with an enormous development of the clitoris, an imperforate uterus, and absence of vagina; at first sight of the parts they appeared to be those of a man.

In 1859 Hugier succeeded in restoring a vagina to a young girl of twenty who had an hypertrophied clitoris and no signs of a vagina. The accompanying illustrations show the conformation of the parts before operation with all the appearance of ill-developed male genitalia, and the appearance afterward with restitution of the vaginal opening.

Virchow in 1872, Boddaert in 1875, and Marchand in 1883 report cases of duplication of the genitalia, and call their cases true hermaphrodites from an anatomic standpoint. There is a specimen in St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London from a man of forty-four, who died of cerebral hemorrhage. He was well formed and had a beard and a full-sized penis. He was married, and it was stated that his wife had two children. The bladder and the internal organs of generation were those of a man in whom neither testis had descended into the scrotum, and in whom the uterus masculinus and vagina were developed to an unusual degree. The uterus, nearly as large as in the adult female, lay between the bladder and rectum, and was enclosed between two layers of peritoneum, to which, on either side of the uterus, were attached the testes. There was also shown in London the pelvic organs from a case of complex or vertical hermaphroditism occurring in a child of nine months who died from the effects of an operation for the radical cure of a right inguinal hernia. The external organs were those of a male with undescended testes. The bladder was normal and its neck was surrounded by a prostate gland. Projecting backward were a vagina, uterus, and broad ligaments, round ligaments, and Fallopian tubes, with the testes in the position of the ovaries. There were no seminal vesicles. The child died eleven days after the operation. The family history states that the mother had had 14 children and eight miscarriages. Seven of the children were dead and showed no abnormalities. The fifth and sixth children were boys and had the same sexual arrangement.

Barnes, Chalmers, Sippel, and Litten describe cases of spurious hermaphroditism due to elongation of the clitoris. In Litten's case a the clitoris was 3 1/2 inches long, and there was hydrocele of the processus vaginalis on both sides, making tumors in the labium on one side and the inguinal canal on the other, which had been diagnosed as testicles and again as ovaries. There was associate cystic ovarian disease. Plate 4 is taken from a case of false external bilateral hermaphroditism. Phillips mentions four cases of spurious hermaphroditism in one family, and recently Pozzi tells of a family of nine individuals in whom this anomaly was observed. The first was alive and had four children; the second was christened a female but was probably a male; the third, fourth, and fifth were normal but died young; the sixth daughter was choreic and feeble-minded, aged twenty-nine, and had one illegitimate child; the seventh, a boy, was healthy and married; the eighth was christened a female, but when seventeen was declared by the Faculty to be a male; the ninth was christened a female, but at eighteen the genitals were found to be those of a male, though the mammae were well developed.

O'Neill speaks of a case in which the clitoris was five inches long and one inch thick, having a groove in its inferior surface reaching down to an oblique opening in the perineum. The scrotum contained two hard bodies thought to be testicles, and the general appearance was that of hypospadias. Postmortem a complete set of female genitalia was found, although the ovaries were very small. The right round ligament was exceedingly thick and reached down to the bottom of the false scrotum, where it was firmly attached. The hard bodies proved to be on one side an irreducible omental hernia, probably congenital, and on the other a hardened mass having no glandular structure. The patient was an adult. As we have seen, there seems to be a law of evolution in hermaphroditism which prevents perfection. If one set of genitalia are extraordinarily developed, the other set are correspondingly atrophied. In the case of extreme development of the clitoris and approximation to the male type we must expect to find imperfectly developed uterus or ovaries. This would answer for one of the causes of sterility in these cases.

There is a type of hermaphroditism in which the sex cannot be definitely declared, and sometimes dissection does not definitely indicate the predominating sex. Such cases are classed under the head of neuter hermaphrodites, possibly an analogy of the "genus epicoenum" of Quintilian. Marie Dorothee, of the age of twenty-three, was examined and declared a girl by Hufeland and Mursina, while Stark, Raschig, and Martens maintained that she was a boy. This formidable array of talent on both sides provoked much discussion in contemporary publications, and the case attracted much notice. Marc saw her in 1803, at which time she carried contradicting certificates as to her sex. He found an imperforate penis, and on the inferior face near the root an opening for the passage of urine. No traces of nymphae, vagina, testicles, nor beard were seen. The stature was small, the form debilitated, and the voice effeminate. Marc came to the conclusion that it was impossible for any man to determine either one sex or the other. Everard Home dissected a dog with apparent external organs of the female, but discovered that neither sex was sufficiently pronounced to admit of classification. Home also saw at the Royal Marine Hospital at Plymouth, in 1779, a marine who some days after admission was reported to be a girl. On examination Home found him to possess a weak voice, soft skin, voluminous breasts, little beard, and the thighs and legs of a woman. There was fat on the pubis, the penis was short and small and incapable of erection, the testicles of fetal size; he had no venereal desires whatever, and as regards sex was virtually neuter.

The legal aspect of hermaphroditism has always been much discussed. Many interesting questions arise, and extraordinary complications naturally occur. In Rome a hermaphrodite could be a witness to a testament, the exclusive privilege of a man, and the sex was settled by the predominance. If the male aspect and traits together with the generative organs of man were most pronounced, then the individual could call himself a man. "Hermaphroditus an ad testamentum adhiberi possit qualitas sesus incalescentis ostendit."

There is a peculiar case on record in which the question of legal male inheritance was not settled until the individual had lived as a female for fifty-one years. This person was married when twenty-one, but finding coitus impossible, separated after ten years, and though dressing as a female had coitus with other women. She finally lived with her brother, with whom she eventually came to blows. She prosecuted him for assault, and the brother in return charged her with seducing his wife. Examination ensued, and at this ripe age she was declared to be a male.

The literature on hermaphroditism is so extensive that it is impossible to select a proper representation of the interesting cases in this limited space, and the reader is referred to the modern French works on this subject, in which the material is exhaustive and the discussion thoroughly scientific.



CHAPTER VI.

MINOR TERATA.

Ancient Ideas Relative to Minor Terata.—The ancients viewed with great interest the minor structural anomalies of man, and held them to be divine signs or warnings in much the same manner as they considered more pronounced monstrosities. In a most interesting and instructive article, Ballantyne quotes Ragozin in saying that the Chaldeo-Babylonians, in addition to their other numerous subdivisions of divination, drew presages and omens for good or evil from the appearance of the liver, bowels, and viscera of animals offered for sacrifice and opened for inspection, and from the natural defects or monstrosities of babies or the young of animals. Ballantyne names this latter subdivision of divination fetomancy or teratoscopy, and thus renders a special chapter as to omens derived from monstrous births, given by Lenormant:—

"The prognostics which the Chaldeans claimed to draw from monstrous births in man and the animals are worthy of forming a class by themselves, insomuch the more as it is the part of their divinatory science with which, up to the present time, we are best acquainted. The development that their astrology had given to 'genethliaque,' or the art of horoscopes of births, had led them early to attribute great importance to all the teratologic facts which were there produced. They claimed that an experience of 470,000 years of observations, all concordant, fully justified their system, and that in nothing was the influence of the stars marked in a more indubitable manner than in the fatal law which determined the destiny of each individual according to the state of the sky at the moment when he came into the world. Cicero, by the very terms which he uses to refute the Chaldeans, shows that the result of these ideas was to consider all infirmities and monstrosities that new-born infants exhibited as the inevitable and irremediable consequence of the action of these astral positions. This being granted, the observation of similar monstrosities gave, as it were, a reflection of the state of the sky; on which depended all terrestrial things; consequently, one might read in them the future with as much certainty as in the stars themselves. For this reason the greatest possible importance was attached to the teratologic auguries which occupy so much space in the fragments of the great treatise on terrestrial presages which have up to the present time been published."

The rendering into English of the account of 62 teratologic cases in the human subject with the prophetic meanings attached to them by Chaldean diviners, after the translation of Opport, is given as follows by Ballantyne, some of the words being untranslatable:—

"When a woman gives birth to an infant—

(1) that has the ears of a lion, there will be a powerful king in the country;

(2) that wants the right ear, the days of the master (king) will be prolonged (reach old age);

(3) that wants both ears, there will be mourning in the country, and the country will be lessened (diminished);

(4) whose right ear is small, the house of the man (in whose house the birth took place) will be destroyed;

(5) whose ears are both small, the house of the man will be built of bricks;

(6) whose right ear is mudissu tehaat (monstrous), there will be an androgyne in the house of the new-born

(7) whose ears are both mudissu (deformed), the country will perish and the enemy rejoice;

(8) whose right ear is round, there will be an androgyne in the house of the new-born;

(9) whose right ear has a wound below, and tur re ut of the man, the house will be estroyed;

(10) that has two ears on the right side and none on the left, the gods will bring about a stable reign, the country will flourish, and it will be a land of repose;

(11) whose ears are both closed, sa a au;

(12) that has a bird's beak, the country will be peaceful;

(13) that has no mouth, the mistress of the house will die;

(14) that has no right nostril, the people of the world will be injured;

(15) whose nostrils are absent, the country will be in affliction, and the house of the man will be ruined;

(16) whose jaws are absent, the days of the master (king) will be prolonged, but the house (where the infant is born) will be ruined.

When a woman gives birth to an infant—

(17) that has no lower jaw, mut ta at mat, the name will not be effaced;

(20) that has no nose, affliction will seize upon the country, and the master of the house will die;

(21) that has neither nose nor virile member (penis), the army of the king will be strong, peace will be in the land, the men of the king will be sheltered from evil influences, and Lilit (a female demon) shall not have power over them;

(22) whose upper lip overrides the lower, the people of the world will rejoice (or good augury for the troops);

(23) that has no lips, affliction will seize upon the land, and the house of the man will be destroyed;

(24) whose tongue is kuri aat, the man will be spared (?);

(25) that has no right hand, the country will be convulsed by an earthquake;

(26) that has no fingers, the town will have no births, the bar shall be lost;

(27) that has no fingers on the right side, the master (king) will not pardon his adversary (or shall be humiliated by his enemies);

(28) that has six fingers on the right side, the man will take the lukunu of the house;

(29) that has six very small toes on both feet, he shall not go to the lukunu;

(30) that has six toes on each foot, the people of the world will be injured (calamity to the troops);

(31) that has the heart open and that has no skin, the country will suffer from calamities;

(32) that has no penis, the master of the house will be enriched by the harvest of his field;

(33) that wants the penis and the umbilicus, there will be ill-will in the house, the woman (wife) will have an overbearing eye (be haughty); but the male descent of the palace will be more extended.

When a woman gives birth to an infant—

(34) that has no well-marked sex, calamity and affliction will seize upon the land; the master of the house shall have no happiness;

(35) whose anus is closed, the country will suffer from want of nourishment;

(36) whose right testicle (?) is absent, the country of the master (king) will perish;

(37) whose right foot is absent, his house will be ruined and there will be abundance in that of the neighbor;

(38) that has no feet, the canals of the country will be cut (intercepted) and the house ruined;

(39) that has the right foot in the form of a fish's tail, the booty of the country of the humble will not be imas sa bir;

(40) whose hands and feet are like four fishes' tails (fins), the master (king) shall perish (?) and his country shall be consumed;

(41) whose feet are moved by his great hunger, the house of the su su shall be destroyed;

(42) whose foot hangs to the tendons of the body, there will be great prosperity in the land;

(43) that has three feet, two in their normal position (attached to the body) and the third between them, there will be great prosperity in the land;

(44) whose legs are male and female, there will be rebellion;

(45) that wants the right heel, the country of the master (king) will be destroyed.

When a woman gives birth to an infant—

(46) that has many white hairs on the head, the days of the king will be prolonged;

(47) that has much ipga on the head, the master of the house will die, the house will be destroyed;

(48) that has much pinde on the head, joy shall go to meet the house (that has a head on the head, the good augury shall enter at its aspect into the house);

(49) that has the head full of hali, there will be ill-will toward him and the master (king) of the town shall die;

(50) that has the head full of siksi the king will repudiate his masters;

(51) that has some pieces of flesh (skin) hanging on the head, there shall be ill-will;

(52) that has some branches (?) (excrescences) of flesh (skin) hanging on the head, there shall be ill-will, the house will perish;

(53) that has some formed fingers (horns?) on the head, the days of the king will be less and the years lengthened (in the duration of his old age);

(54) that has some kali on the head, there will be a king of the land;

(55) that has a —— of a bird on the head, the master of the house shall not prosper;

(56) that has some teeth already through (cut), the days of the king will arrive at old age, the country will show itself powerful over (against) strange (feeble) lands, but the house where the infant is born will be ruined;

(57) that has the beard come out, there will be abundant rains;

(58) that has some birta on the head, the country will be strengthened (reinforced);

(59) that has on the head the mouth of an old man and that foams (slabbers), there will be great prosperity in the land, the god Bin will give a magnificent harvest (inundate the land with fertility), and abundance shall be in the land;

(60) that has on one side of the head a thickened ear, the first-born of the men shall live a long time (?);

(61) that has on the head two long and thick ears, there will be tranquility and the pacification of litigation (contests);

(62) that has the figure in horn (like a horn?)..."

As ancient and as obscure as are these records, Ballantyne has carefully gone over each, and gives the following lucid explanatory comments:—

"What 'ears like a lion' (No. 1) may have been it is difficult to determine; but doubtless the direction and shape of the auricles were so altered as to give them an animal appearance, and possibly the deformity was that called 'orechio ad ansa' by Lombroso. The absence of one or both ears (Nos. 2 and 3) has been noted in recent times by Virchow (Archiv fur path. Anat. xxx., p. 221), Gradenigo (Taruffi's 'Storia della Teratologia,' vi., p. 552), and others. Generally some cartilaginous remnant is found, but on this point the Chaldean record is silent. Variations in the size of the ears (Nos. 4 and 5) are well known at the present time, and have been discussed at length by Binder (Archiv fur Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, xx., 1887) and others. The exact malformation indicated in Nos. 6 and 7 is, of course, not to be determined, although further researches in Assyriology may clear up this point. The 'round ear' (No. 8) is one of Binder's types, and that with a 'wound below' (No. 9) probably refers to a case of fistula auris congenita (Toynbee, 'Diseases of the Ear,' 1860). The instance of an infant born with two ears on the right side (No. 10) was doubtless one of cervical auricle or preauricular appendage, whilst closure of the external auditory meatus (No. 11) is a well-known deformity.

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