Anomalies and Curiosities of MedicineGould, George M. (George Milbrey)
Science
Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
Gould, George M. (George Milbrey)
Abnormalities, Human; Medicine -- Anecdotes
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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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