Rough Ways Made Smooth: A series of familiar essays on scientific subjectsProctor, Richard A. (Richard Anthony)
Science
Rough Ways Made Smooth: A series of familiar essays on scientific subjects
Proctor, Richard A. (Richard Anthony)
Science
During this period of seclusion he was much given to drunkenness. His
mental condition does not seem to have suffered, however, and he is
on the whole of a kindly and affectionate disposition. It may be of
interest to state that he is an orthodox member of the Russo-Greek
Church, and that, degraded as he is intellectually, he has very
definite notions about heaven and the hereafter. He hopes to introduce
his frightful countenance into the court of heaven, and he devotes all
the money he makes, over and above his outlay for creature comforts,
to purchasing the prayers of a devout community of monks in his native
village, Kostroma, after his mortal career is ended. He is of medium
stature, but very strongly built. His excessive capillary development
is not true hair, but simply an abnormal growth of the _down_ or fine
hairs which usually cover nearly the entire surface of the human
body. Strictly speaking, he has neither head-hair, beard, moustache,
eyebrows, nor eyelashes, their place being taken by this singular
growth of long silky down. In colour this is of a dirty yellow; it is
about three inches in length all over the face, and feels like the hair
of a Newfoundland dog. The very eyelids are covered with this long
hair, while flowing locks come out of his nostrils and ears. On his
body are isolated patches, strewed but not thickly with hairs one and
a half to two inches long.' Dr. Bertillon, of Paris, compared a hair
from Andrian's chin with a very fine hair from a man's beard, and found
that the latter was three times as thick as the former; and a hair from
Andrian's head is only one-half as thick as an average human hair.
Professor Virchow, of Berlin, made careful inquiry into the family
history of Andrian Jeftichjew. So far as could be learned, Andrian was
the first in whom this wonderful hirsuteness had been noticed. Neither
his reputed father nor his mother presented any peculiarity of the
kind, and a brother and sister of his, who are still living, are in
no way remarkable for capillary development. The son Fedor, who was
exhibited in company with Andrian, was illegitimate, and about three
years of age. Andrian's legitimate children, a son and a daughter, both
died young. Nothing is known of the former; but the daughter resembled
the father. 'Fedor is a sprightly child,' said the account from which
we have already quoted, 'and appears more intelligent than the father.'
The growth of down on his face is not so heavy as to conceal his
features, but there is no doubt that when the child comes to maturity
he will be at least as hirsute as his parent The hairs are as white
and as soft as the fur of the Angora cat, and are longest at the outer
angles of the eyes. There is a thick tuft between the eyes, and the
nose is well covered. The moustache joins the whiskers on each side,
after the English fashion, and this circumstance gives to accurate
pictures of the child a ludicrous resemblance to a well-fed Englishman
of about fifty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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