The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-05-07
A WONDERFUL PHENOMENON.


An Infant Whose Skull Reflects Light
Enough to Read BY.
New York journal.
The expression that it is possible to see
through some people is almost literally full
filled in the case of male infant twenty-six
months old, the son of Mrs. Mary Cannady,
OF No. 210 Bowery.
Yesterday afternoon a Journal reporter
saw this phenomenon, and found it to be
healthy infant, whose head is semi-transpa-
rent, and reflects with almost incredible in
tensity the light of a lamp, gas, or other
Illuminating power that may be placed near
it. So strong is this radiance that its head,
when exposed within full light of the sun,
Will cast reflection similar in some res pecSt
to pinkish opalescence.
Several experiments were made yesterday
in the presence of the reporter. The child
was taken into darkened room; a lamp was
held near the back of its skull and the re-
hected light was so clear that through its
forehead the frontal division OF the skull
and the veins and arteries of the anterior
portion of the head were distinctly observ-
able Upon placing the hand upon the fore
head the infant felt no pain nor inconven-
fence of any kind, and as the lamp was
moved in various directions so also was the
light reflected at an exactly opposite angle,
Perhaps the most singular feature of this
extraordinary case is that the child's eyes
are only partially observable, the upper por-
ton of the pupils being alone distinguish
able. Yet the infant sees plainly and notes
what is taking place. The reflection already
referred to is not merely confined to the
brain, but also applies to the eye-cells or
sockets two distinct balls of lights appear
ing visible under illuminating power.
The head of the child, from measurements
taken by the reporter, is twenty
inches round the temples from the base of
the forehead to the crown, Twelve inches;
from ear to ear, measured from the top of
the head, sixteen inches and from temple to
temple, twelve inches. The infants weight
is about thirty-ive pounds. Its flesh is
healthy and firm, OF good color and very
plump. 1t has plentiful crop of beautiful
golden hair which is unusually heavy for so
young a child.
In an interview with the mother Mrs.
Cannady, said: ''My baby was born in Wayne
county, West Virginia. When about eight
weeks old first noticed the peculiar rehec-
ton given from its head when light was
applied. At birth the top of the head was
perfectly fiat, but gradually developed in
shape until it is now as you see it. When
seven months old its head measurement was
seventeen and one-half inches, but it has not
grown any within the past year. The power
of reflection may be imagined, though you
may doubt my statement, when l tell you
that its head being placed near calcium
light threw an illumination upon portion
OF newspaper strong enough to make the
type perfectly distingnishable" From what
the reporter saw, this statement is perfectly
creditable.
do you give it any special diet?"
NO. 1t will eat everything that other
children of its age usually eat, such as veg
etabes, milk, meat and eggs. Frankly is
generally good tempered, and except that he
is scarcely strong enough to support the
weight of his head, he is in other respects a
remarkably strong child"
The mother is an intelligent, good-looking
brunette, and takes much pride in explain
ing the peculiarties of her wonderful baby
DR.. Plffard, of West Thirty-seventh street.
called to see the infant phenomenon during
the afternoon. He pronounced the novelty
to be a case of chronic hydrocephalus, only
one instance of the kind having been re-
corded and that was in 1911. 1T is abso-
| lutely the most wonderful freak of nature
ever saw" he remarked, and is simply a
| case of an extraordinary amount of water
pressure, which accounts for the reflection.
| What astonishes me is that the child should
be so perfectly free from any other ailment.
| never saw anything to equal it of the
kind, but it is impossible to say whether the
infant will live many years. 1t is possible
that the size of the head may diminish, but
whether it survives or motif is an extraord-
| narV cuSeD