Anomalies and Curiosities of MedicineGould, George M. (George Milbrey)
Science
Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
Gould, George M. (George Milbrey)
Abnormalities, Human; Medicine -- Anecdotes
Meckel tells of a case in which a man had 12 fingers and 12 toes, all
well formed, and whose children and grandchildren inherited the
deformity. Mason has seen nine toes on the left foot. There is recorded
the account of a child who had 12 toes and six fingers on each hand,
one fractured. Braid describes talipes varus in a child of a few months
who had ten toes. There is also on record a collection of cases of from
seven to ten fingers on each hand and from seven to ten toes on each
foot. Scherer gives an illustration of a female infant, otherwise
normally formed, with seven fingers on each hand, all united and
bearing claw-like nails. On each foot there was a double halux and five
other digits, some of which were webbed.
The influence of heredity on this anomaly is well demonstrated.
Reaumur was one of the first to prove this, as shown by the Kelleia
family of Malta, and there have been many corroboratory instances
reported; it is shown to last for three, four, and even five
generations; intermarriage with normal persons finally eradicates it.
It is particularly in places where consanguineous marriages are
prevalent that supernumerary digits persist in a family. The family of
Foldi in the tribe of Hyabites living in Arabia are very numerous and
confine their marriages to their tribe. They all have 24 digits, and
infants born with the normal number are sacrificed as being the
offspring of adultery. The inhabitants of the village of Eycaux in
France, at the end of the last century, had nearly all supernumerary
digits either on the hands or feet. Being isolated in an inaccessible
and mountainous region, they had for many years intermarried and thus
perpetuated the anomaly. Communication being opened, they emigrated or
married strangers and the sexdigitism vanished. Maupertuis recalls the
history of a family living in Berlin whose members had 24 digits for
many generations. One of them being presented with a normal infant
refused to acknowledge it. There is an instance in the Western United
States in which supernumerary digits have lasted through five
generations. Cameron speaks of two children in the same family who were
polydactylic, though not having the same number of supernumerary
fingers.
Smith and Norwell report the case of a boy of fifteen both of whose
hands showed webbing of the middle and ring fingers and accessory
nodules of bone between the metacarpals, and six toes on each foot. The
boy's father showed similar malformations, and in five generations 21
out of 28 individuals were thus malformed, ten females and 11 males.
The deformity was especially transmitted in the female line.
Instances of supernumerary thumbs are cited by Panaroli, Ephemerides,
Munconys, as well as in numerous journals since. This anomaly is not
confined to man alone; apes, dogs, and other lower animals possess it.
Bucephalus, the celebrated horse of Alexander, and the horse of Caesar
were said to have been cloven-hoofed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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