On the Continent some old records are obtainable. Thus, according to
Grenser, of 14,466 infants born living at the Maternity at Dresden from
1816 to 1864 there were sixteen cases of simple harelip, and nine with
fissures of the palate. Credé states that amongst 2044 infants examined
at birth, only one case of simple harelip was observed, and one of
complete division of the hard and soft palate.
OCCURRENCE IN ANIMALS.
These conditions obtain not only in the human subject, but also in
animals, though not so commonly.
Thus Sutton figures a right-sided harelip in a slink calf, and mentions
a specimen of a harelip in a lamb in the museum of the Odontological
Society; and in our museum at King’s College there is a specimen of a
right-sided harelip in a kitten with a cleft alveolus, but the palate is
intact.
Cleft palate occurs more frequently in animals, particularly in those
born in a state of captivity. Thus it appears that from statistics taken
ten years ago 99 per cent. of the lion cubs born in the London Zoological
Gardens had cleft palates, indicating that either the food-supply of
these animals was not all that was requisite for perfect development,
or that enforced confinement has a deleterious effect upon the
multiplication of the species. It is a curious fact that in the Dublin
Zoological Gardens the deformity was rarely noticed amongst the lion
cubs, and the reason for this was supposed to be the supply of such food
that the mother could eat both flesh and bone. Since the same practice
has been followed in London, viz. giving the lions twice a week a young
goat which they can eat, bones and all, the proportion of cleft palates
in the young subsequently born has become considerably diminished.
ASSOCIATION WITH OTHER DEFORMITIES.
Occasionally, besides the fissured palate or lip, other deformities
are noted in the same patient, but not so often as one might be led to
expect. Mason records two or three cases as having come under his notice,
the coincident deformities being respectively fistulous openings of
buccal glands in an everted lower lip, congenital fissure of the lobe
of the right ear, congenital talipes calcaneus and hypospadias. Dr. F.
Warner records in the ‘Medical Times and Gazette,’ January, 1882, some
cases of cleft palate associated with congenital defects of the heart
and smallness of head, and also notes in his more recent report[7] that
in 117 cases of malformations of the palate, other than cleft, only
42 were not in combination with other defects. Thus in 55 cases there
were abnormalities in the shape of the cranium, in 16 cases defective
development of the ear, in 12 the existence of an epicanthic fold, and in
15 cases other defects not tabulated.
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