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.

"The next thirteen cases (Nos. 12-24) were instances of anomalies of

the mouth and nose. The 'bird's beak' (No. 12) may have been a markedly

aquiline nose; No. 13 was a case of astoma; and Nos. 14 and 15 were

instances of stenosis or atresia of the anterior nares. Fetuses with

absence of the maxillae (Nos. 16 and 17) are in modern terminology

called agnathous. Deformities like that existing in Nos. 20 and 21 have

been observed in paracephalic and cyclopic fetuses. The coincident

absence of nose and penis (No. 21) is interesting, especially when

taken in conjunction with the popular belief that the size of the

former organ varies with that of the latter. Enlargement of the upper

lip (No. 22), called epimacrochelia by Taruffi, and absence of the lips

(No. 23), known now under the name of brachychelia, have been not

unfrequently noticed in recent times. The next six cases (Nos. 25-30)

were instances of malformations of the upper limb: Nos. 25, 26. and 27

were probably instances of the so-called spontaneous or intrauterine

amputation; and Nos. 28, 29, and 30 were examples of the comparatively

common deformity known as polydactyly. No. 31 was probably a case of

ectopia cordis.

"Then follow five instances of genital abnormalities (Nos. 32-36),

consisting of absence of the penis (epispadias?), absence of penis and

umbilicus (epispadias and exomphalos?), hermaphroditism, imperforate

anus, and nondescent of one testicle. The nine following cases (Nos.

37-45) were anomalies of the lower limbs: Nos. 37, 38, and 42 may have

been spontaneous amputations; Nos. 39 and 40 were doubtless instances

of webbed toes (syndactyly), and the deformity indicated in No. 45 was

presumably talipes equinus. The infant born with three feet (No. 43)

was possibly a case of parasitic monstrosity, several of which have

been reported in recent teratologic literature; but what is meant by

the statement concerning 'male and female legs' it is not easy to

determine.

"Certain of the ten following prodigies (Nos. 46-55) cannot in the

present state of our knowledge be identified. The presence of

congenital patches of white or gray hair on the scalp, as recorded in

No. 46, is not an unknown occurrence at the present time; but what the

Chaldeans meant by ipga, pinde, hali riksi, and kali on the head of the

new-born infant it is impossible to tell. The guess may be hazarded

that cephalhematoma, hydrocephalus, meningocele, nevi, or an excessive

amount of vernix caseosa were the conditions indicated, but a wider

acquaintance with the meaning of the cuneiform characters is necessary

before any certain identification is possible. The 'pieces of skin

hanging from the head' (No. 51) may have been fragments of the

membranes; but there is nothing in the accompanying prediction to help

us to trace the origin of the popular belief in the good luck following

the baby born with a caul. If No. 53 was a case of congenital horns on

the head, it must be regarded as a unique example, unless, indeed, a

form of fetal ichthyosis be indicated.

"The remaining observations (No. 56-62) refer to cases of congenital

teeth (No. 56) to deformity of the ears (Nos. 60 and 61), and a horn

(No. 62)."

From these early times almost to the present day similar significance

has been attached to minor structural anomalies. In the following pages

the individual anomalies will be discussed separately and the most

interesting examples of each will be cited. It is manifestly evident

that the object of this chapter is to mention the most striking

instances of abnormism and to give accompanying descriptions of

associate points of interest, rather than to offer a scientific

exposition of teratology, for which the reader is referred elsewhere.

Congenital defect of the epidermis and true skin is a rarity in

pathology. Pastorello speaks of a child which lived for two and a half

hours whose hands and feet were entirely destitute of epidermis; the

true skin of those parts looked like that of a dead and already

putrefying child. Hanks cites the history of a case of antepartum

desquamation of the skin in a living fetus. Hochstetter describes a

full-term, living male fetus with cutaneous defect on both sides of the

abdomen a little above the umbilicus. The placenta and membranes were

normal, a fact indicating that the defect was not due to amniotic

adhesions; the child had a club-foot on the left side. The mother had a

fall three weeks before labor.

Abnormal Elasticity of the Skin.--In some instances the skin is affixed

so loosely to the underlying tissues and is possessed of so great

elasticity that it can be stretched almost to the same extent as India

rubber. There have been individuals who could take the skin of the

forehead and pull it down over the nose, or raise the skin of the neck

over the mouth. They also occasionally have an associate muscular

development in the subcutaneous tissues similar to the panniculus

adiposus of quadrupeds, giving them preternatural motile power over the

skin. The man recently exhibited under the title of the "Elastic-Skin

Man" was an example of this anomaly. The first of this class of

exhibitionists was seen in Buda-Pesth some years since and possessed

great elasticity in the skin of his whole body; even his nose could be

stretched. Figure 70 represents a photograph of an exhibitionist named

Felix Wehrle, who besides having the power to stretch his skin could

readily bend his fingers backward and forward. The photograph was taken

in January, 1888.

In these congenital cases there is loose attachment of the skin without

hypertrophy, to which the term dermatolysis is restricted by Crocker.

Job van Meekren, the celebrated Dutch physician of the seventeenth

century, states that in 1657 a Spaniard, Georgius Albes, is reported to

have been able to draw the skin of the left pectoral region to the left

ear, or the skin under the face over the chin to the vertex. The skin

over the knee could be extended half a yard, and when it retracted to

its normal position it was not in folds. Seiffert examined a case of

this nature in a young man of nineteen, and, contrary to Kopp's

supposition, found that in some skin from over the left second rib the

elastic fibers were quite normal, but there was transformation of the

connective tissue of the dermis into an unformed tissue like a myxoma,

with total disappearance of the connective-tissue bundles. Laxity of

the skin after distention is often seen in multipara, both in the

breasts and in the abdominal walls, and also from obesity, but in all

such cases the skin falls in folds, and does not have a normal

appearance like that of the true "elastic-skin man."

Occasionally abnormal development of the scalp is noticed. McDowall of

twenty-two. On each side of the median line of the head there were five

deep furrows, more curved and shorter as the distance from the median

line increased. In the illustration the hair in the furrows is left

longer than that on the rest of the head. The patient was distinctly

microcephalic and the right side of the body was markedly wasted. The

folds were due to hypertrophy of the muscles and scalp, and the same

sort of furrowing is noticed when a dog "pricks his ears." This case

may possibly be considered as an example of reversion to inferior

types. Cowan records two cases of the foregoing nature in idiots. The

first case was a paralytic idiot of thirty-nine, whose cranial

development was small in proportion to the size of the face and body;

the cranium was oxycephalic; the scalp was lax and redundant and the

hair thin; there were 13 furrows, five on each side running

anteroposteriorly, and three in the occipital region running

transversely. The occipitofrontalis muscle had no action on them. The

second case was that of an idiot of forty-four of a more degraded type

than the previous one. The cranium was round and bullet-shaped and the

hair generally thick. The scalp was not so lax as in the other case,

but the furrows were more crooked. By tickling the scalp over the back

of the neck the two median furrows involuntarily deepened.

Impervious Skin.--There have been individuals who claimed that their

skin was impervious to ordinary puncture, and from time to time these

individuals have appeared in some of the larger medical clinics of the

world for inspection. According to a recent number of the London

Graphic, there is in Berlin a Singhalese who baffles all investigations

by physicians by the impenetrability of his skin. The bronzed

Easterner, a Hercules in shape, claims to have found an elixir which

will render the human skin impervious to any metal point or sharpened

edge of a knife or dagger, and calls himself the "Man with Iron Skin."

He is now exhibiting himself, and his greatest feat is to pass with his

entire body through a hoop the inside of which is hardly big enough to

admit his body and is closely set with sharp knife-points, daggers,

nails, and similar things. Through this hoop he squeezes his body with

absolute impunity. The physicians do not agree as to his immunity, and

some of them think that Rhannin, which is his name, is a fakir who has

by long practice succeeded in hardening himself against the impressions

of metal upon his skin. The professors of the Berlin clinic, however,

considered it worth while to lecture about the man's skin, pronouncing

it an inexplicable matter. This individual performed at the London

Alhambra in the latter part of 1895. Besides climbing with bare feet a

ladder whose rungs were sharp-edged swords, and lying on a bed of nail

points with four men seated upon him, he curled himself up in a barrel,

through whose inner edges nails projected, and was rolled about the

stage at a rapid rate. Emerging from thence uninjured, he gracefully

bows himself off the stage.

Some individuals claim immunity from burns and show many interesting

feats in handling fire. As they are nothing but skilful "fire jugglers"

they deserve no mention here. The immunity of the participants in the

savage fire ceremonies will be discussed in Chapter IX.

Albinism is characterized by the absolute or relative absence of

pigment of the skin, due to an arrest, insufficiency, or retardation of

this pigment. Following Trelat and Guinard, we may divide albinism into

two classes,--general and partial.

As to the etiology of albinism, there is no known cause of the complete

form. Heredity plays no part in the number of cases investigated by the

authors. D'Aube, by his observations on white rabbits, believes that

the influence of consanguinity is a marked factor in the production of

albinism; there are, however, many instances of heredity in this

anomaly on record, and this idea is possibly in harmony with the

majority of observers. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire has noted that albinism

can also be a consequence of a pathologic condition having its origin

in adverse surroundings, the circumstances of the parents, such as the

want of exercise, nourishment, light, etc.

Lesser knew a family in which six out of seven were albinos, and in

some tropical countries, such as Loango, Lower Guinea, it is said to be

endemic. It is exceptional for the parents to be affected; but in a

case of Schlegel, quoted by Crocker, the grandfather was an albino, and

Marey describes the case of the Cape May albinos, in which the mother

and father were "fair emblems of the African race," and of their

children three were black and three were white, born in the following

order: two consecutive black boys, two consecutive white girls, one

black girl, one white boy. Sym of Edinburgh relates the history of a

family of seven children, who were alternately white and black. All

but the seventh were living and in good health and mentally without

defect. The parents and other relatives were dark. Figure 73 portrays

an albino family by the name of Cavalier who exhibited in Minneapolis

in 1887.

Examples of the total absence of pigment occur in all races, but

particularly is it interesting when seen in negroes who are found

absolutely white but preserving all the characteristics of their race,

as, for instance, the kinky, woolly hair, flattened nose, thick lips,

etc. Rene Claille, in his "Voyage a Tombouctou," says that he saw a

white infant, the offspring of a negro and negress. Its hair was

white, its eyes blue, and its lashes flaxen. Its pupils were of a

reddish color, and its physiognomy that of a Mandingo. He says such

cases are not at all uncommon; they are really negro albinos. Thomas

Jefferson, in his "History of Virginia," has an excellent description

of these negroes, with their tremulous and weak eyes; he remarks that

they freckle easily. Buffon speaks of Ethiops with white twins, and

says that albinos are quite common in Africa, being generally of

delicate constitution, twinkling eyes, and of a low degree of

intelligence; they are despised and ill-treated by the other negroes.

Prichard, quoted by Sedgwick, speaks of a case of atavic transmission

of albinism through the male line of the negro race. The grandfather

and the grandchild were albinos, the father being black. There is a

case of a brother and sister who were albinos, the parents being of

ordinary color but the grandfather an albino. Coinde, quoted by

Sedgwick, speaks of a man who, by two different wives, had three albino

children.

A description of the ordinary type of albino would be as follows: The

skin and hair are deprived of pigment; the eyebrows and eyelashes are

of a brilliant white or are yellowish; the iris and the choroid are

nearly or entirely deprived of coloring material, and in looking at the

eye we see a roseate zone and the ordinary pink pupil; from absence of

pigment they necessarily keep their eyes three-quarters closed, being

photophobic to a high degree. They are amblyopic, and this is due

partially to a high degree of ametropia (caused by crushing of the

eyeball in the endeavor to shut out light) and from retinal exhaustion

and nystagmus. Many authors have claimed that they have little

intelligence, but this opinion is not true. Ordinarily the reproductive

functions are normal, and if we exclude the results of the union of two

albinos we may say that these individuals are fecund.

Partial albinism is seen. The parts most often affected are the

genitals, the hair, the face, the top of the trunk, the nipple, the

back of the hands and fingers. Folker reports the history of a case of

an albino girl having pink eyes and red hair, the rest of the family

having pink eyes and white hair. Partial albinism, necessarily

congenital, presenting a piebald appearance, must not be confounded

with leukoderma, which is rarely seen in the young and which will be

described later.

Albinism is found in the lower animals, and is exemplified ordinarily

by rats, mice, crows, robins, etc. In the Zoologic Garden at Baltimore

two years ago was a pair of pure albino opossums. The white elephant is

celebrated in the religious history of Oriental nations, and is an

object of veneration and worship in Siam. White monkeys and white

roosters are also worshiped. In the Natural History Museum in London

there are stuffed examples of albinism and melanism in the lower

animals.

Melanism is an anomaly, the exact contrary of the preceding. It is

characterized by the presence in the tissues and skin of an excessive

amount of pigment. True total melanism is unknown in man, in whom is

only observed partial melanism, characterized simply by a pronounced

coloration of part of the integument.

Some curious instances have been related of an infant with a

two-colored face, and of others with one side of the face white and the

other black; whether they were cases of partial albinism or partial

melanism cannot be ascertained from the descriptions.

Such epidermic anomalies as ichthyosis, scleroderma, and molluscum

simplex, sometimes appearing shortly after birth, but generally seen

later in life, will be spoken of in the chapter on Anomalous Skin

Diseases.

Human horns are anomalous outgrowths from the skin and are far more

frequent than ordinarily supposed. Nearly all the older writers cite

examples. Aldrovandus, Amatus Lusitanus, Boerhaave, Dupre, Schenck,

Riverius, Vallisneri, and many others mention horns on the head. In the

ancient times horns were symbolic of wisdom and power. Michael Angelo

in his famous sculpture of Moses has given the patriarch a pair of

horns. Rhodius observed a Benedictine monk who had a pair of horns and

who was addicted to rumination. Fabricius saw a man with horns on his

head, whose son ruminated; the son considered that by virtue of his

ruminating characteristics his father had transmitted to him the

peculiar anomaly of the family. Fabricius Hildanus saw a patient with

horns all over the body and another with horns on the forehead.

Gastaher speaks of a horn from the left temple; Zacutus Lusitanus saw a

horn from the heel; Wroe, one of considerable length from the scapula;

Cosnard, one from the bregma; the Ephemerides, from the foot; Borellus,

from the face and foot, and Ash, horns all over the body. Home, Cooper,

and Treves have collected examples of horns, and there is one 11 inches

long and 2 1/2 in circumference in a London museum. Lozes collected

reports of 71 cases of horns,--37 in females, 31 in males, and three in

infants. Of this number, 15 were on the head, eight on the face, 18 on

the lower extremities, eight on the trunk, and three on the glans

penis. Wilson collected reports of 90 cases,--44 females, 39 males, the

sex not being mentioned in the remainder. Of these 48 were on the head,

four on the face, four on the nose, 11 on the thigh, three on the leg

and foot, six on the back, five on the glans penis, and nine on the

trunk. Lebert's collection numbered 109 cases of cutaneous horns. The

greater frequency among females is admitted by all authors. Old age is

a predisposing cause. Several patients over seventy have been seen and

one of ninety-seven.

Instances of cutaneous horns, when seen and reported by the laity, give

rise to most amusing exaggerations and descriptions. The following

account is given in New South Wales, obviously embellished with

apocryphal details by some facetious journalist: The child, five weeks

old, was born with hair two inches long all over the body; his features

were fiendish and his eyes shone like beads beneath his shaggy brows.

He had a tail 18 inches long, horns from the skull, a full set of

teeth, and claw-like hands; he snapped like a dog and crawled on all

fours, and refused the natural sustenance of a normal child. The mother

almost became an imbecile after the birth of the monster. The country

people about Bomballa considered this devil-child a punishment for a

rebuff that the mother gave to a Jewish peddler selling

Crucifixion-pictures. Vexed by his persistence, she said she would

sooner have a devil in her house than his picture.

Lamprey has made a minute examination of the much-spoken-of "Horned Men

of Africa." He found that this anomaly was caused by a congenital

malformation and remarkable development of the infraorbital ridge of

the maxillary bone. He described several cases, and through an

interpreter found that they were congenital, followed no history of

traumatism, caused little inconvenience, and were unassociated with

disturbance of the sense of smell. He also learned that the deformity

was quite rare in the Cape Coast region, and received no information

tending to prove the conjecture that the tribes in West Africa used

artificial means to produce the anomaly, although such custom is

prevalent among many aborigines.

Probably the most remarkable case of a horn was that of Paul Rodrigues,

a Mexican porter, who, from the upper and lateral part of his head, had

a horn 14 inches in circumference and divided into three shafts, which

he concealed by constantly wearing a peculiarly shaped red cap. There

is in Paris a wax model of a horn, eight or nine inches in length,

removed from an old woman by the celebrated Souberbielle. Figure 75 is

from a wax model supposed to have been taken from life, showing an

enormous grayish-black horn proceeding from the forehead. Warren

mentions a case under the care of Dubois, in a woman from whose

forehead grew a horn six inches in diameter and six inches in height.

It was hard at the summit and had a fetid odor. In 1696 there was an

old woman in France who constantly shed long horns from her forehead,

one of which was presented to the King. Bartholinus mentions a horn 12

inches long. Voigte cites the case of an old woman who had a horn

branching into three portions, coming from her forehead. Sands speaks

of a woman who had a horn 6 3/4 inches long, growing from her head.

There is an account of the extirpation of a horn nearly ten inches in

length from the forehead of a woman of eighty-two. Bejau describes a

woman of forty from whom he excised an excrescence resembling a ram's

horn, growing from the left parietal region. It curved forward and

nearly reached the corresponding tuberosity. It was eight cm. long,

two cm. broad at the base, and 1 1/2 cm. at the apex, and was quite

mobile. It began to grow at the age of eleven and had constantly

increased. Vidal presented before the Academie de Medecine in 1886 a

twisted horn from the head of a woman. This excrescence was ten inches

long, and at the time of presentation reproduction of it was taking

place in the woman. Figure 76 shows a case of ichthyosis cornea

pictured in the Lancet, 1850.

There was a woman of seventy-five, living near York, who had a horny

growth from the face which she broke off and which began to reproduce,

the illustration representing the growth during twelve months. Lall

mentions a horn from the cheek; Gregory reports one that measured 7 1/2

inches long that was removed from the temple of a woman in Edinburgh;

Chariere of Barnstaple saw a horn that measured seven inches growing

from the nape of a woman's neck; Kameya Iwa speaks of a dermal horn of

the auricle; Saxton of New York has excised several horns from the

tympanic membrane of the ear; Noyes speaks of one from the eyelid;

Bigelow mentions one from the chin; Minot speaks of a horn from the

lower lip, and Doran of one from the neck.

Gould cites the instance of a horn growing from an epitheliomatous

penis. The patient was fifty-two years of age and the victim of

congenital phimosis. He was circumcised four years previously, and

shortly after the wound healed there appeared a small wart, followed by

a horn about the size of a marble. Jewett speaks of a penile horn 3 1/2

inches long and 3 3/4 inches in diameter; Pick mentions one 2 1/2

inches long. There is an account of a Russian peasant boy who had a

horn on his penis from his earliest childhood. Johnson mentions a case

of a horn from the scrotum, which was of sebaceous origin and was

subsequently supplanted by an epithelioma.

Ash reported the case of a girl named Annie Jackson, living in

Waterford, Ireland, who had horny excrescences from her joints, arms,

axillae, nipples, ears, and forehead. Locke speaks of a boy at the

Hopital de la Charite in Paris, who had horny excrescences four inches

long and 11 inches in circumference growing from his fingers and toes.

Wagstaffe presents a horn which grew from the middle of the leg six

inches below the knee in a woman of eighty. It was a flattened spiral

of more than two turns, and during forty years' growth had reached the

length of 14.3 inches. Its height was 3.8 inches, its skin-attachment

1.5 inches in diameter, and it ended in a blunt extremity of 0.5 inch

in diameter. Stephens mentions a dermal horn on the buttocks at the

seat of a carcinomatous cicatrix. Harris and Domonceau speak of horns

from the leg. Cruveilhier saw a Mexican Indian who had a horn four

inches long and eight inches in circumference growing from the left

lumbar region. It had been sawed off twice by the patient's son and was

finally extirpated by Faget. The length of the pieces was 12 inches.

Bellamy saw a horn on the clitoris about the size of a tiger's claw in

a its origin from beneath the preputium clitoridis.

Horns are generally solitary but cases of multiple formation are known

Lewin and Heller record a syphilitic case with eight cutaneous horns on

the palms and soles. A female patient of Manzuroff had as many as 185

horns.

Pancoast reports the case of a man whose nose, cheeks, forehead, and

lips were covered with horny growths, which had apparently undergone

epitheliomatous degeneration. The patient was a sea-captain of

seventy-eight, and had been exposed to the winds all his life. He had

suffered three attacks of erysipelas from prolonged exposure. When he

consulted Pancoast the horns had nearly all fallen off and were brought

to the physician for inspection; and the photograph was taken after the

patient had tied the horns in situ on his face.

Anomalies of the Hair.--Congenital alopecia is quite rare, and it is

seldom that we see instances of individuals who have been totally

destitute of hair from birth. Danz knew of two adult sons of a Jewish

family who never had hair or teeth. Sedgwick quotes the case of a man

of fifty-eight who ever since birth was totally devoid of hair and in

whom sensible perspiration and tears were absent. A cousin on his

mother's side, born a year before him, had precisely the same

peculiarity. Buffon says that the Turks and some other people practised

depilatory customs by the aid of ointments and pomades, principally

about the genitals. Atkinson exhibited in Philadelphia a man of forty

who never had any distinct growth of hair since birth, was edentulous,

and destitute of the sense of smell and almost of that of taste. He had

no apparent perspiration, and when working actively he was obliged to

wet his clothes in order to moderate the heat of his body. He could

sleep in wet clothes in a damp cellar without catching cold. There was

some hair in the axillae and on the pubes, but only the slightest down

on the scalp, and even that was absent on the skin. His maternal

grandmother and uncle were similarly affected; he was the youngest of

21 children, had never been sick, and though not able to chew food in

the ordinary manner, he had never suffered from dyspepsia in any form.

He was married and had eight children. Of these, two girls lacked a

number of teeth, but had the ordinary quantity of hair. Hill speaks of

an aboriginal man in Queensland who was entirely devoid of hair on the

head, face, and every part of the body. He had a sister, since dead,

who was similarly hairless. Hill mentions the accounts given of another

black tribe, about 500 miles west of Brisbane, that contained hairless

members. This is very strange, as the Australian aboriginals are a very

hairy race of people.

Hutchinson mentions a boy of three and a half in whom there was

congenital absence of hair and an atrophic condition of the skin and

appendages. His mother was bald from the age of six, after alopecia

areata. Schede reports two cases of congenitally bald children of a

peasant woman (a boy of thirteen and a girl of six months). They had

both been born quite bald, and had remained so. In addition there were

neither eyebrows nor eyelashes and nowhere a trace of lanugo. The

children were otherwise healthy and well formed. The parents and

brothers were healthy and possessed a full growth of hair. Thurman

reports a case of a man of fifty-eight, who was almost devoid of hair

all his life and possessed only four teeth. His skin was very delicate

and there was absence of sensible perspiration and tears. The skin was

peculiar in thinness, softness, and absence of pigmentation. The hair

on the crown of the head and back was very fine, short, and soft, and

not more in quantity than that of an infant of three months. There was

a similar peculiarity in his cousin-german. Williams mentions the case

of a young lady of fifteen with scarcely any hair on the eyebrows or

head and no eyelashes. She was edentulous and had never sensibly

perspired. She improved under tonic treatment.

Rayer quotes the case of Beauvais, who was a patient in the Hopital de

la Charite in 1827. The skin of this man's cranium was apparently

completely naked, although in examining it narrowly it was found to be

beset with a quantity of very white and silky hair, similar to the down

that covers the scalp of infants; here and there on the temples there

were a few black specks, occasioned by the stumps of several hairs

which the patient had shaved off. The eyebrows were merely indicated by

a few fine and very short hairs; the free edges of the eyelids were

without cilia, but the bulb of each of these was indicated by a small,

whitish point. The beard was so thin and weak that Beauvais clipped it

off only every three weeks. A few straggling hairs were observed on the

breast and pubic region, as in young people on the approach of puberty.

There was scarcely any under the axillae. It was rather more abundant

on the inner parts of the legs. The voice was like that of a full-grown

and well-constituted man. Beauvais was of an amorous disposition and

had had syphilis twice. His mother and both sisters had good heads of

hair, but his father presented the same defects as Beauvais.

Instances are on record of women devoid of hair about the genital

region. Riolan says that he examined the body of a female libertine who

was totally hairless from the umbilical region down.

Congenital alopecia is seen in animals. There is a species of dog, a

native of China but now bred in Mexico and in the United States, which

is distinguished for its congenital alopecia. The same fact has been

observed occasionally in horses, cattle, and dogs. Heusner has seen a

pigeon destitute of feathers, and which engendered a female which in

her turn transmitted the same characteristic to two of her young.

Sexualism and Hair Growth.--The growth or development of the hair may

be accelerated by the state of the organs of generation. This is

peculiarly noticeable in the pubic hairs and the beard, and is fully

exemplified in the section on precocious development (Chapter VII);

however, Moreau de la Sarthe showed a child to the Medical Faculty of

Paris in whom precocious development of the testicles had influenced

that of the hair to such a degree that, at the age of six, the chest of

this boy was as thickly set with hair as is usually seen in adults. It

is well known that eunuchs often lose a great part of their beards, and

after removal of the ovaries women are seen to develop an extra

quantity of hair. Gerberon tells of an infant with a beard, and

Paullini and the Ephemerides mention similar instances.

Bearded women are not at all infrequent. Hippocrates mentions a female

who grew a beard shortly after menstruation had ceased. It is a

well-recognized fact that after the menopause women become more

hirsute, the same being the case after removal of any of the functional

generative apparatus. Vicat saw a virgin who had a beard, and Joch

speaks of "foeminis barbati." Leblond says that certain women of

Ethiopia and South America have beards and little or no menstruation.

He also says that sterility and excessive chastity are causes of female

beards, and cites the case of Schott of a young widow who secluded

herself in a cloister, and soon had a beard.

Barbara Urster, who lived in the 16th century, had a beard to her

girdle. The most celebrated "bearded woman" was Rosine-Marguerite

Muller, who died in a hospital in Dresden in 1732, with a thick beard

and heavy mustache. Julia Pastrana had her face covered with thick hair

and had a full beard and mustache. She exhibited defective dentition in

both jaws, and the teeth present were arranged in an irregular fashion.

She had pronounced prognathism, which gave her a simian appearance.

Ecker examined in 1876 a woman who died at Fribourg, whose face

contained a full beard and a luxuriant mustache.

Harris reports several cases of bearded women, inmates of the Coton

Hill Lunatic Asylum. One of the patients was eighty-three years of age

and had been insane forty-four years following a puerperal period. She

would not permit the hair on her face to be cut, and the curly white

hairs had attained a length of from eight to ten inches on the chin,

while on the upper lip the hairs were scarcely an inch. This patient

was quite womanly in all her sentiments. The second case was a woman of

thirty-six, insane from emotional melancholia. She had tufts of thick,

curly hair on the chin two inches long, light yellowish in color, and a

few straggling hairs on the upper lip. The third case was that of a

woman of sixty-four, who exhibited a strong passion for the male sex.

Her menstruation had been regular until the menopause. She plaited her

beard, and it was seven or eight inches long on the chin and one inch

on the lip. This woman had extremely hairy legs. Another case was that

of a woman of sixty-two, who, though bald, developed a beard before the

climacteric. Her structural proportions were feminine in character, and

it is said that her mother, who was sane, had a beard also. A curious

case was that of a woman of twenty-three (Mrs. Viola M.), who from the

age of three had a considerable quantity of hair on the side of the

cheek which eventually became a full beard. She was quite feminine was

free from excessive hair elsewhere, her nose and forehead being

singularly bare. Her voice was very sweet; she was married at seventeen

and a half, having two normal children, and nursed each for one month.

"The bearded woman" of every circus side-show is an evidence of the

curious interest in which these women are held. The accompanying

illustration is a representation of a "bearded woman" born in Bracken

County, Ky. Her beard measured 15 inches in length.

There is a class of anomalies in which there is an exaggerated

development of hair. We would naturally expect to find the primitive

peoples, who are not provided with artificial protection against the

wind, supplied with an extra quantity of hair or having a hairy coat

like animals; but this is sometimes found among civilized people. This

abnormal presence of hair on the human body has been known for many

years; the description of Esau in the Bible is an early instance.

Aldrovandus says that in the sixteenth century there came to the Canary

Islands a family consisting of a father, son, and two daughters, who

were covered all over their bodies by long hair, and their portrait,

certainly reproduced from life, resembles the modern instances of "dog

men."

In 1883 there was shown in England and France, afterward in America, a

girl of seven named "Krao," a native of Indo-China. The whole body of

this child was covered with black hair. Her face was of the prognathic

type, and this, with her extraordinary prehensile powers of feet and

lips, gave her the title of "Darwin's missing link." In 1875 there was

exhibited in Paris, under the name of "l'homme-chien" Adrien Jeftichew,

a Russian peasant of fifty-five, whose face, head, back, and limbs were

covered with a brown hairy coat looking like wool and several

centimeters long. The other parts of the body were also covered with

hair, but less abundantly. This individual had a son of three,

Theodore, who was hairy like himself.

A family living in Burmah (Shive-Maon, whose history is told by

Crawford and Yule), consisting of a father, a daughter, and a

granddaughter, were nearly covered with hair. Figure 84 represents a

somewhat similar family who were exhibited in this country.

Teresa Gambardella, a young girl of twelve, mentioned by Lombroso, was

covered all over the body, with the exception of the hands and feet, by

thick, bushy hair. This hypertrichosis was exemplified in this country

only a few months since by a person who went the rounds of the dime

museums under the euphonious name of "Jo-Jo, the dog-face boy." His

face was truly that of a skye-terrier.

Sometimes the hairy anomalies are but instances of naevus pilosus. The

Indian ourang-outang woman examined at the office of the Lancet was an

example of this kind. Hebra, Hildebrandt, Jablokoff, and Klein describe

similar cases. Many of the older "wild men" were individuals bearing

extensive hairy moles.

Rayer remarks that he has seen a young man of sixteen who exhibited

himself to the public under the name of a new species of wild man whose

breast and back were covered with light brown hair of considerable

length.

The surface upon which it grew was of a brownish hue, different from

the color of the surrounding integument. Almost the whole of the right

arm was covered in the same manner. On the lower extremity several

tufts of hair were observed implanted upon brown spots from seven to

eight lines in diameter symmetrically disposed upon both legs. The hair

was brown, of the same color as that of the head. Bichat informs us

that he saw at Paris an unfortunate man who from his birth was

afflicted with a hairy covering of his face like that of a wild boar,

and he adds that the stories which were current among the vulgar of

individuals with a boar's head, wolf's head, etc., undoubtedly referred

to cases in which the face was covered to a greater or less degree with

hair. Villerme saw a child of six at Poitiers in 1808 whose body,

except the feet and hands, was covered with a great number of prominent

brown spots of different dimensions, beset with hair shorter and not so

strong as that of a boar, but bearing a certain resemblance to the

bristles of that animal. These spots occupied about one-fifth of the

surface of this child's skin. Campaignac in the early part of this

century exhibited a case in which there was a large tuft of long black

hair growing from the shoulder. Dufour has detailed a case of a young

man of twenty whose sacral region contained a tuft of hair as long and

black, thick and pliant, as that of the head, and, particularly

remarkable in this case, the skin from which it grew was as fine and

white as the integument of the rest of the body. There was a woman

exhibited recently, under the advertisement of "the lady with a mane,"

who had growing from the center of her back between the shoulders a

veritable mane of long, black hair, which doubtless proceeded from a

form of naevus.

Duyse reports a case of extensive hypertrichosis of the back in a girl

aged nine years; her teeth were normal; there was pigmentation of the

back and numerous pigmentary nevi on the face. Below each scapula there

were tumors of the nature of fibroma molluscum. In addition to hairy

nevi on the other parts of the body there was localized ichthyosis.

Ziemssen figures an interesting case of naevus pilosus resembling

"bathing tights". There were also present several benign tumors

(fibroma molluscum) and numerous smaller nevi over the body. Schulz

first observed the patient in 1878. This individual's name was Blake,

and he stated that he was born with a large naevus spreading over the

upper parts of the thighs and lower parts of the trunk, like

bathing-tights, and resembling the pelt of an animal. The same was true

of the small hairy parts and the larger and smaller tumors.

Subsequently the altered portions of the skin had gradually become

somewhat larger. The skin of the large hairy naevus, as well as that of

the smaller ones, was stated by Schulz to have been in the main

thickened, in part uneven, verrucose, from very light to intensely dark

brown in color; the consistency of the larger mammiform and smaller

tumors soft, doughy, and elastic. The case was really one of large

congenital naevus pilosus and fibroma molluscum combined.

A Peruvian boy was shown at the Westminster Aquarium with a dark, hairy

mole situated in the lower part of the trunk and on the thighs in the

position of bathing tights. Nevins Hyde records two similar cases with

dermatolytic growths. A sister of the Peruvian boy referred to had a

still larger growth, extending from the nucha all over the back. Both

she and her brother had hundreds of smaller hairy growths of all sizes

scattered irregularly over the face, trunk, and limbs. According to

Crocker, a still more extraordinary case, with extensive dermatolytic

growths all over the back and nevi of all sizes elsewhere, is described

and engraved in "Lavater's Physiognomy," 1848. Baker describes an

operation in which a large mole occupying half the forehead was removed

by the knife.

In some instances the hair and beard is of an enormous length. Erasmus

Wilson of London saw a female of thirty-eight, whose hair measured 1.65

meters long. Leonard of Philadelphia speaks of a man in the interior of

this country whose beard trailed on the ground when he stood upright,

and measured 2.24 meters long. Not long ago there appeared the famous

so-called "Seven Sutherland Sisters," whose hair touched the ground,

and with whom nearly every one is familiar through a hair tonic which

they extensively advertised. In Nature, January 9, 1892, is an account

of a Percheron horse whose mane measured 13 feet and whose tail

measured almost ten feet, probably the greatest example of excessive

mane development on record. Figure 88 represents Miss Owens, an

exhibitionist, whose hair measured eight feet three inches. In Leslie's

Weekly, January 2, 1896, there is a portrait of an old negress named

Nancy Garrison whose woolly hair was equally as long.

The Ephemerides contains the account of a woman who had hair from the

mons veneris which hung to the knees; it was affected with plica

polonica, as was also the other hair of the body.

Rayer saw a Piedmontese of twenty-eight, with an athletic build, who

had but little beard or hair on the trunk, but whose scalp was covered

with a most extraordinary crop. It was extremely fine and silky, was

artificially frizzled, dark brown in color, and formed a mass nearly

five feet in circumference.

Certain pathologic conditions may give rise to accidental growths of

hair. Boyer was accustomed to quote in his lectures the case of a man

who, having an inflamed tumor in the thigh, perceived this part

becoming covered in a short time with numerous long hairs. Rayer speaks

of several instances of this kind. In one the part affected by a

blister in a child of two became covered with hair. Another instance

was that of a student of medicine, who after bathing in the sea for a

length of time, and exposing himself to the hot sun, became affected

with coppery patches, from which there sprang a growth of hair.

Bricheteau, quoted by the same authority, speaks of a woman of

twenty-four, having white skin and hair of deep black, who after a long

illness occasioned by an affection analogous to marasmus became

covered, especially on the back, breast, and abdomen, with a multitude

of small elevations similar to those which appear on exposure to cold.

These little elevations became brownish at the end of a few days, and

short, fair, silky hair was observed on the summit of each, which grew

so rapidly that the whole surface of the body with the exception of the

hands and face became velvety. The hair thus evolved was afterward

thrown out spontaneously and was not afterward reproduced.

Anomalies of the Color of the Hair.--New-born infants sometimes have

tufts of hair on their heads which are perfectly white in color.

Schenck speaks of a young man whose beard from its first appearance

grew white. Young men from eighteen to twenty occasionally become gray;

and according to Rayer, paroxysms of rage, unexpected and unwelcome

news, diseases of the scalp such as favus, wounds of the head, habitual

headache, over-indulgence of the sexual appetite, mercurial courses too

frequently repeated, too great anxiety, etc., have been known to blanch

the hair prematurely.

The well-accepted fact of the sudden changing of the color of the hair

from violent emotions or other causes has always excited great

interest, and many ingenious explanations have been devised to account

for it. There is a record in the time of Charles V of a young man who

was committed to prison in 1546 for seducing his girl companion, and

while there was in great fear and grief, expecting a death-sentence

from the Emperor the next day. When brought before his judge, his face

was wan and pale and his hair and beard gray, the change having taken

place in the night. His beard was filthy with drivel, and the Emperor,

moved by his pitiful condition, pardoned him. There was a clergyman of

Nottingham whose daughter at the age of thirteen experienced a change

from jet-blackness of the hair to white in a single night, but this was

confined to a spot on the back of the head 1 1/2 inches in length. Her

hair soon became striped, and in seven years was totally white. The

same article speaks of a girl in Bedfordshire, Maria Seeley, aged

eight, whose face was swarthy, and whose hair was long and dark on one

side and light and short on the other. One side of her body was also

brown, while the other side was light and fair. She was seen by the

faculty in London, but no cause could be established.

Voigtel mentions the occurrence of canities almost suddenly. Bichat

had a personal acquaintance whose hair became almost entirely gray in

consequence of some distressing news that reached him. Cassan records a

similar case. According to Rayer, a woman by the name of Perat,

summoned before the Chamber of Peers to give evidence in the trial of

the assassin Louvel, was so much affected that her hair became entirely

white in a single night Byron makes mention of this peculiar anomaly in

the opening stanzas of the "Prisoner of Chillon:"--

"My hair is gray, but not with years, Nor grew it white In a single

night. As men's have grown from sudden fears."

The commentators say that Byron had reference to Ludovico Sforza and

others. The fact of the change is asserted of Marie Antoinette, the

wife of Louis XVI, though in not quite so short a period, grief and not

fear being the cause. Ziemssen cites Landois' case of a compositor of

thirty-four who was admitted to a hospital July 9th with symptoms of

delirium tremens; until improvement began to set in (July 13th) he was

continually tormented by terrifying pictures of the imagination. In the

night preceding the day last mentioned the hair of the head and beard

of the patient, formerly blond, became gray. Accurate examination by

Landois showed the pigment contents of the hair to be unchanged, and

led him to believe that the white color was solely due to the excessive

development of air-bubbles in the hair shaft. Popular belief brings the

premature and especially the sudden whitening into connection with

depressing mental emotions. We might quote the German

expression--"Sich graue Haare etwas wachsen lassen" ("To worry one's

self gray"). Brown-Sequard observed on several occasions in his own

dark beard hairs which had turned white in a night and which he

epileptoid. He closes his brief communication on the subject with the

belief that it is quite possible for black hair to turn white in one

night or even in a less time, although Hebra and Kaposi discredit

sudden canities (Duhring). Raymond and Vulpian observed a lady of

neurotic type whose hair during a severe paroxysm of neuralgia

following a mental strain changed color in five hours over the entire

scalp except on the back and sides; most of the hair changed from black

to red, but some to quite white, and in two days all the red hair

became white and a quantity fell off. The patient recovered her general

health, but with almost total loss of hair, only a few red, white, and

black hairs remaining on the occipital and temporal regions. Crocker

cites the case of a Spanish cock which was nearly killed by some pigs.

The morning after the adventure the feathers of the head had become

completely white, and about half of those on the back of the neck were

also changed.

Dewees reports a case of puerperal convulsions in a patient under his

care which was attended with sudden canities. From 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. 50

ounces of blood were taken. Between the time of Dr. Dewees' visits, not

more than an hour, the hair anterior to the coronal suture turned

white. The next day it was less light, and in four or five days was

nearly its natural color. He also mentions two cases of sudden

blanching from fright.

Fowler mentions the case of a healthy girl of sixteen who found one

morning while combing her hair, which was black, that a strip the whole

length of the back hair was white, starting from a surface about two

inches square around the occipital protuberance. Two weeks later she

had patches of ephelis over the whole body.

Prentiss, in Science, October 3, 1890, has collected numerous instances

of sudden canities, several of which will be given:--

"In the Canada Journal of Medical Science, 1882, p. 113, is reported a

case of sudden canities due to business-worry. The microscope showed a

great many air-vesicles both in the medullary substance and between the

medullary and cortical substance.

"In the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 1851, is reported a case

of a man thirty years old, whose hair 'was scared' white in a day by a

grizzly bear. He was sick in a mining camp, was left alone, and fell

asleep. On waking he found a grizzly bear standing over him.

"A second case is that of a man of twenty-three years who was gambling

in California. He placed his entire savings of $1100 on the turn of a

card. He was under tremendous nervous excitement while the cards were

being dealt. The next day his hair was perfectly white.

"In the same article is the statement that the jet-black hair of the

Pacific Islanders does not turn gray gradually, but when it does turn

it is sudden, usually the result of fright or sudden emotions."

D'Alben, quoted by Fournier, describes a young man of twenty-four, an

officer in the regiment of Touraine in 1781, who spent the night in

carnal dissipation with a mulatto, after which he had violent spasms,

rendering flexion of the body impossible. His beard and hair on the

right side of the body was found as white as snow, the left side being

unchanged. He appeared before the Faculte de Montpelier, and though

cured of his nervous symptoms his hair was still white, and no

suggestion of relief was offered him.

Louis of Bavaria, who died in 1294, on learning of the innocence of his

wife, whom he had put to death on a suspicion of her infidelity, had a

change of color in his hair, which became white almost immediately.

Vauvilliers, the celebrated Hellenist, became white-haired almost

immediately after a terrible dream, and Brizard, the comedian,

experienced the same change after a narrow escape from drowning in the

Rhone. The beard and the hair of the Duke of Brunswick whitened in

twenty-four hours after hearing that his father had been mortally

wounded at the battle of Auerstadt.

De Schweinitz speaks of a well-formed and healthy brunette of eighteen

in whom the middle portion of the cilia of the right upper eyelid and a

number of the hairs of the lower lid turned white in a week. Both eyes

were myopic, but no other cause could be assigned. Another similar case

is cited by Hirshberg, and the authors have seen similar cases.

Thornton of Margate records the case of a lady in whom the hair of the

left eyebrow and eyelashes began to turn white after a fortnight of

sudden grief, and within a week all the hair of these regions was quite

white and remained so. No other part was affected nor was there any

other symptom. After a traumatic ophthalmitis of the left and

sympathetic inflammation of the right eye in a boy of nine, Schenck

observed that a group of cilia of the right upper lid and nearly all

the lashes of the upper lid of the left eye, which had been enucleated,

turned silvery-white in a short time. Ludwig has known the eyelashes to

become white after small-pox. Communications are also on record of

local decolorization of the eyebrows and lashes in neuralgias of

isolated branches of the trigeminus, especially of the supraorbital

nerve.

Temporary and Partial Canities.--Of special interest are those cases in

which whiteness of the hair is only temporary. Thus, Compagne mentions

a case in which the black hair of a woman of thirty-six began to fade

on the twenty-third day of a malignant fever, and on the sixth day

following was perfectly white, but on the seventh day the hairs became

darker again, and on the fourteenth day after the change they had

become as black as they were originally. Wilson records a case in which

the hair lost its color in winter and regained it in summer. Sir John

Forbes, according to Crocker, had gray hair for a long time, then

suddenly it all turned white, and after remaining so for a year it

returned to its original gray.

Grayness of the hair is sometimes only partial. According to Crocker an

adult whose hair was generally brown had a tuft of white hair over the

temple, and several like cases are on record. Lorry tells us that

grayness of one side only is sometimes occasioned by severe headache.

Hagedorn has known the beard to be black in one place and white in

another. Brandis mentions the hair becoming white on one side of the

face while it continued of its former color on the other. Rayer quotes

cases of canities of the whole of one side of the body.

Richelot observed white mottling of hair in a girl sick with chlorosis.

The whitening extended from the roots to a distance of two inches. The

probable cause was a temporary alteration of the pigment-forming

function. When the chlorosis was cured the natural color returned.

Paullini and Riedlin, as well as the Ephemerides, speak of different

colored hair in the same head, and it is not at all rare to see

individuals with an anomalously colored patch of hair on the head. The

members of the ancient house of Rohan were said to possess a tuft of

white hair on the front of their heads.

Michelson of Konigsberg describes a curious case in a barrister of

twenty-three affected with partial canities. In the family of both

parents there was stated to be congenital premature canities, and some

white hairs had been observed even in childhood. In the fifteenth year,

after a grave attack of scarlet fever, the hair to a great extent fell

out. The succeeding growth of hair was stated to have been throughout

lighter in tissue and color and fissured at the points. Soon after

bunches of white hair appeared on the occiput, and in the succeeding

years small patches of decolored hairs were observed also on the

anterior and lateral portions of the scalp. In the spring of 1880 the

patient exhibited signs of infiltration of the apex of the right lung,

and afterward a violent headache came on. At the time of the report the

patient presented the appearance shown in Figure 89. The complexion

was delicate throughout, the eyelashes and eyelids dark brown, the

moustache and whiskers blond, and in the latter were a few groups of

white hair. The white patches were chiefly on the left side of the

head. The hairs growing on them were unpigmented, but otherwise normal.

The patient stated that his head never sweated. He was stout and

exhibited no signs of internal disease, except at the apex of the right

lung.

Anomalous Color Changes of the Hair.--The hair is liable to undergo

certain changes of color connected with some modification of that part

of the bulb secreting its coloring-matter. Alibert, quoted by Rayer,

gives us a report of the case of a young lady who, after a severe fever

which followed a very difficult labor, lost a fine head of hair during

a discharge of viscid fluid, which inundated the head in every part. He

tells us, further, that the hair grew again of a deep black color after

the recovery of the patient. The same writer tells of the case of James

B--, born with brown hair, who, having lost it all during the course of

a sickness, had it replaced with a crop of the brightest red. White

and gray hair has also, under peculiar circumstances, been replaced by

hair of the same color as the individual had in youth. We are even

assured by Bruley that in 1798 the white hair of a woman sixty years of

age changed to black a few days before her death. The bulbs in this

case were found of great size, and appeared gorged with a substance

from which the hair derived its color. The white hairs that remained,

on the contrary, grew from shriveled bulbs much smaller than those

producing the black. This patient died of phthisis.

A very singular case, published early in the century, was that of a

woman whose hair, naturally fair, assumed a tawny red color as often as

she was affected with a certain fever, and returned to its natural hue

as soon as the symptoms abated. Villerme alludes to the case of a young

lady, sixteen years of age, who had never suffered except from trifling

headaches, and who, in the winter of 1817, perceived that the hair

began to fall out from several parts of her head, so that before six

months were over she became entirely bald. In the beginning of January,

1819, her head became covered with a kind of black wool over those

places that were first denuded, and light brown hair began to develop

from the rest of the scalp. Some of this fell out again when it had

grown from three to four inches; the rest changed color at different

distances from its end and grew of a chestnut color from the roots. The

hair, half black, half chestnut, had a very singular appearance.

Alibert and Beigel relate cases of women with blond hair which all came

off after a severe fever (typhus in one case), and when it grew again

it was quite black. Alibert also saw a young man who lost his brown

hair after an illness, and after restoration it became red. According

to Crocker, in an idiotic girl of epileptic type (in an asylum at

Edinburgh), with alternating phases of stupidity and excitement, the

hair in the stupid phase was blond and in the excited condition red.

The change of color took place in the course of two or three days,

beginning first at the free ends, and remaining of the same tint for

seven or eight days. The pale hairs had more air-spaces than the darker

ones. There was much structural change in the brain and spinal cord.

Smyly of Dublin reported a case of suppurative disease of the temporal

bone, in which the hair changed from a mouse-color to a reddish-brown;

and Squire records a congenital case in a deaf mute, in whom the hair

on the left side was in light patches of true auburn and dark patches

of dark brown like a tortoise-shell cap; on the other side the hair was

a dark brown. Crocker mentions the changes which have occurred in rare

instances after death from dark brown to red.

Chemic colorations of various tints occur. Blue hair is seen in workers

in cobalt mines and indigo works; green hair in copper smelters; deep

red-brown hair in handlers of crude anilin; and the hair is dyed a

purplish-brown whenever chrysarobin applications used on a scalp come

in contact with an alkali, as when washed with soap. Among such cases

in older literature Blanchard and Marcellus Donatus speak of green

hair; Rosse saw two instances of the same, for one of which he could

find no cause; the other patient worked in a brass foundry.

Many curious causes are given for alopecia. Gilibert and Merlet mention

sexual excess; Marcellus Donatus gives fear; the Ephemerides speaks of

baldness from fright; and Leo Africanus, in his description of Barbary,

describes endemic baldness. Neyronis makes the following observation: A

man of seventy-three, convalescent from a fever, one morning, about six

months after recovery perceived that he had lost all his hair, even his

eyelashes, eyebrows, nostril-hairs, etc. Although his health continued

good, the hair was never renewed.

The principal anomalies of the nails observed are absence, hypertrophy,

and displacement of these organs. Some persons are born with

finger-nails and toe-nails either very rudimentary or entirely absent;

in others they are of great length and thickness. The Chinese nobility

allow their finger-nails to grow to a great length and spend much time

in the care of these nails. Some savage tribes have long and thick

nails resembling the claws of beasts, and use them in the same way as

the lower animals. There is a description of a person with

finger-nails that resembled the horns of a goat.

Neuhof, in his books on Tartary and China, says that many Chinamen have

two nails on the little toe, and other instances of double nails have

been reported.

The nails may be reversed or arise from anomalous positions.

Bartholinus speaks of nails from the inner side of the digits; in

another case, in which the fingers were wanting, he found the nails

implanted on the stumps. Tulpius says he knew of a case in which nails

came from the articulations of three digits; and many other curious

arrangements of nails are to be found.

Rouhuot sent a description and drawing of some monstrous nails to the

Academie des Sciences de Paris. The largest of these was the left great

toe-nail, which, from its extremity to its root, measured 4 3/4 inches;

the laminae of which it consisted were placed one over the other, like

the tiles on a roof, only reversed. This nail and several of the others

were of unequal thickness and were variously curved, probably on

account of the pressure of the shoe or the neighboring digits. Rayer

mentions two nails sent to him by Bricheteau, physician of the Hopital

Necker, belonging to an old woman who had lived in the Salpetriere.

They were very thick and spirally twisted, like the horns of a ram.

Saviard informs us that he saw a patient at the Hotel Dieu who had a

horn like that of a ram, instead of a nail, on each great toe, the

extremities of which were turned to the metatarsus and overlapped the

whole of the other toes of each foot. The skeleton of Simore, preserved

in Paris, is remarkable for the ankylosis of all the articulations and

the considerable size of all the nails. The fingers and toes, spread

out and ankylosed, ended in nails of great length and nearly of equal

thickness. A woman by the name of Melin, living in the last century in

Paris, was surnamed "the woman with nails;" according to the

description given by Saillant in 1776 she presented another and not

less curious instance of the excessive growth of the nails.

Musaeus gives an account of the nails of a girl of twenty, which grew

to such a size that some of those of the fingers were five inches in

length. They were composed of several layers, whitish interiorly,

reddish-gray on the exterior, and full of black points. These nails

fell off at the end of four months and were succeeded by others. There

were also horny laminae on the knees and shoulders and elbows which

bore a resemblance to nails, or rather talons. They were sensitive only

at the point of insertion into the skin. Various other parts of the

body, particularly the backs of the hands, presented these horny

productions. One of them was four inches in length. This horny growth

appeared after small-pox. Ash, in the Philosophical Transactions,

records a somewhat similar case in a girl of twelve.

Anomalies of the Teeth.--Pliny, Colombus, van Swieten, Haller,

Marcellus Donatus, Baudelocque, Soemmering, and Gardien all cite

instances in which children have come into the world with several teeth

already erupted. Haller has collected 19 cases of children born with

teeth. Polydorus Virgilus describes an infant who was born with six

teeth. Some celebrated men are supposed to have been born with teeth;

Louis XIV was accredited with having two teeth at birth. Bigot, a

physician and philosopher of the sixteenth century; Boyd, the poet;

Valerian, Richard III, as well as some of the ancient Greeks and

Romans, were reputed to have had this anomaly. The significance of the

natal eruption of teeth is not always that of vigor, as many of the

subjects succumb early in life. There were two cases typical of fetal

dentition shown before the Academie de Medecine de Paris. One of the

subjects had two middle incisors in the lower jaw and the other had one

tooth well through. Levison saw a female born with two central incisors

in the lower jaw.

Thomas mentions a case of antenatal development of nine teeth. Puech,

Mattei, Dumas, Belluzi, and others report the eruption of teeth in the

newborn. In Dumas' case the teeth had to be extracted on account of

ulceration of the tongue. Instances of triple dentition late in life

are quite numerous, many occurring after a hundred years. Mentzelius

speaks of a man of one hundred and ten who had nine new teeth. Lord

Bacon cites the case of a Countess Desmond, who when over a century old

had two new teeth; Hufeland saw an instance of dentition at one hundred

and sixteen; Nitzsch speaks of one at one hundred, and the Ephemerides

contain an account of a triple dentition at one hundred and twenty.

There is an account of a country laborer who lost all his teeth by the

time he arrived at his sixtieth year of age, but about a half year

afterward a new set made their appearance. Bisset mentions an account

of an old woman who acquired twelve molar teeth at the age of

ninety-eight. Carre notes a case of dental eruption in an individual of

eighty-five. Mazzoti speaks of a third dentition, and Ysabeau writes of

dentition of a molar at the age of ninety-two. There is a record of a

physician of the name of Slave who retained all his second teeth until

the age of eighty, when they fell out; after five years another set

appeared, which he retained until his death at one hundred. In the same

report there is mentioned an old Scotchman who died at one hundred and

ten, whose teeth were renewed at an advanced age after he had lost his

second teeth. One of the older journals speaks of dentition at seventy,

eighty-four, ninety, and one hundred and fourteen. The Philosophical

Transactions of London contain accounts of dentition at seventy-five

and eighty-one. Bassett tells of an old woman who had twelve molar

teeth at the age of eighty-eight. In France there is recorded dentition

at eighty-five and an account of an old man of seventy-three who had

six new teeth. Von Helmont relates an instance of triple dentition at

the same age. There is recorded in Germany an account of a woman of

ninety who had dentition at forty-seven and sixty-seven, each time a

new set of teeth appearing; Hunter and Petrequin have observed similar

cases. Carter describes an example of third dentition. Lison makes a

curious observation of a sixth dentition.

Edentulousness.--We have already noticed the association of congenital

alopecia with edentulousness, but, strange to say, Magitot has remarked

that "l'homme-chien," was the subject of defective dentition. Borellus

found atrophy of all the dental follicles in a woman of sixty who never

had possessed any teeth. Fanton-Touvet saw a boy of nine who had never

had teeth, and Fox a woman who had but four in both jaws; Tomes cites

several similar instances. Hutchinson speaks of a child who was

perfectly edentulous as to temporary teeth, but who had the permanent

teeth duly and fully erupted. Guilford describes a man of forty-eight,

who was edentulous from birth, who also totally lacked the sense of

smell, and was almost without the sense of taste; the surface of his

body was covered with fine hairs and he had never had visible

perspiration. This is probably the same case quoted in the foregoing

paragraph in regard to the anomalies of hair. Otto, quoted by Sedgwick,

speaks of two brothers who were both totally edentulous. It might be

interesting in this connection to note that Oudet found in a fetus at

term all the dental follicles in a process of suppuration, leaving no

doubt that, if the fetus had been born viable, it would have been

edentulous. Giraldes mentions the absence of teeth in an infant of

sixteen months. Bronzet describes a child of twelve, with only half

its teeth, in whom the alveolar borders receded as in age. Baumes

remarks that he had seen a man who never had any teeth.

The anomalies of excessive dentition are of several varieties, those of

simple supernumerary teeth, double or triple rows, and those in

anomalous positions. Ibbetson saw a child with five incisors in the

inferior maxillary bone, and Fanton-Touvet describes a young lady who

possessed five large incisors of the first dentition in the superior

maxilla. Rayer notes a case of dentition of four canines, which first

made their appearance after pain for eight days in the jaws and

associated with convulsions. In an Ethiopian Soemmering has seen one

molar too many on each side and in each jaw. Ploucquet and Tesmer have

seen five incisors and Fanchard six. Many persons have the

supernumerary teeth parallel with their neighbors, anteriorly or

posteriorly. Costa reports a case in which there were five canine teeth

in the upper jaw, two placed laterally on either side, and one on the

right side behind the other two. The patient was twenty-six years of

age, well formed and in good health.

In some cases there is fusion of the teeth. Pliny, Bartholinus, and

Melanthon pretend to have seen the union of all the teeth, making a

continuous mass. In the "Musee de l'ecole dentaire de Paris" there are

several milk-teeth, both of the superior and inferior maxilla, which

are fused together. Bloch cites a case in which there were two rows of

teeth in the superior maxilla. Hellwig has observed three rows of

teeth, and the Ephemerides contain an account of a similar anomaly.

Extraoral Dentition.--Probably the most curious anomaly of teeth is

that in which they are found in other than normal positions. Albinus

speaks of teeth in the nose and orbit; Borellus, in the palate;

Fabricius Hildanus, under the tongue; Schenck, from the palate; and

there are many similar modern records. Heister in 1743 wrote a

dissertation on extraoral teeth. The following is a recent quotation:--

"In the Norsk Magazin fur Laegevidenskaben, January, 1895, it is

reported that Dr. Dave, at a meeting of the Medical Society in

Christiania, showed a tooth removed from the nose of a woman aged

fifty-three. The patient had consulted him for ear-trouble, and the

tooth was found accidentally during the routine examination. It was

easily removed, having been situated in a small depression at the

junction of the floor and external wall of the nasal cavity, 22 mm.

from the external nares. This patient had all her teeth; they were

placed somewhat far from each other. The tooth resembled a milk canine;

the end of the imperfect root was covered with a fold of mucous

membrane, with stratified epithelium. The speaker suggested that part

of the mucous membrane of the mouth with its tooth-germ had become

impacted between the superior and premaxillary bones and thus cut off

from the cavity of the mouth. Another speaker criticised this fetal

dislocation and believed it to be due to an inversion--a development in

the wrong direction--by which the tooth had grown upward into the nose.

The same speaker also pointed out that the stratified epithelium of the

mucous membrane did not prove a connection with the cavity of the

mouth, as it is known that cylindric epithelium-cells after irritative

processes are replaced by flat ones."

Delpech saw a young man in 1829 who had an opening in the palatine

vault occasioned by the extraction of a tooth. This opening

communicated with the nasal fossa by a fracture of the palatine and

maxillary bones; the employment of an obturator was necessary. It is

not rare to see teeth, generally canine, make their eruption from the

vault of the palate; and these teeth are not generally supernumerary,

but examples of vice and deviation of position. Fanton-Touvet, however,

gives an example of a supernumerary tooth implanted in the palatine

arch. Branch a describes a little negro boy who had two large teeth in

the nose; his dentition was otherwise normal, but a portion of the nose

was destroyed by ulceration. Roy describes a Hindoo lad of fourteen who

had a tooth in the nose, supposed to have been a tumor. It was of the

canine type, and was covered with enamel to the junction with the root,

which was deeply imbedded in the side and upper part of the antrum. The

boy had a perfect set of permanent teeth and no deformity, swelling, or

cystic formation of the jaw. This was clearly a case of

extrafollicular development and eruption of the tooth in an anomalous

position, the peculiarity being that while in other similar cases the

crown of the tooth shows itself at the floor of the nasal cavity from

below upward, in this instance the dental follicle was transposed, the

eruption being from above downward. Hall cites an instance in which the

right upper canine of a girl erupted in the nose. The subject showed

marked evidence of hereditary syphilis. Carver describes a child who

had a tooth growing from the lower right eyelid. The number of

deciduous teeth was perfect; although this tooth was canine it had a

somewhat bulbulous fang.