The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-26
NATURES EcoENTR1c1TIEs.
The Jaw-Bone that Never Died on the Boy
Who Grew Goose Feathers.

The Jaw-BOne that Never Died on the Boy
Who Grew Goose Feathers.
New York Telegram.
A Philadelphia paper last week contained the
account of "a bullet which lodged in the brain of
a soldier in one of the battles of the late war;
and to which, when it was extracted, piece of
the scalp adhered Some time afterward, so the
story goes hair began to spPout from the piece
of scalp, until finally the bullet was covered with
hairy growth several inches long This remark
able case was being discussed by several gentle
men yesterday in the Office of a well-known
physician in Thirteenth street. near Fifth ave
nue., and was being generally laughed at. when
DIR. Amos +. Barnes, of st. Louis, the famous
specialist on skin diseases, camein. He listened
quietly TO the rdicule his brother physicians
were heaping upon the gullible Philadelphia
journal until at last some one asked him what
he thought of it.
81 see nothing laughable in the story" he
said gravely. ut is by no means impossible
that hair should grow from the fragments of
scalp adherlng to the bullet. | have met with
some cases quite as strange as that in the course
of my professional life Hair is not the only
part of man that continues to grow after the
human organism to which it originally belonged
has ceased to exist as whole. 1 remember one
striking proof of this fact. My brother is dent
ist in Hannibal, Mo- Several years ago he per
formed an operation upon the teeth of boy
about seven years old, who was a patient in the
free hospital. His teeth were remarkable from
generally called dog teeth. Soon afterward the
boy died, aud his body went to the dissecting
room, where my brother made it point
to secure the lower Jaw as Il speei-
men, He put it in his cabinet of curiosities and
forgot all about it.
"One day, however, aboutsix months afteward
he noticed that some of the teeth had fallen out
of their sockets. Upon examining the jaw BONE
he was astonished to find second set of teeth
growing beneath the first. and gradually push
ing them upward and out of their sockets. This
singular process went on slowly but steadily for
several months, until there was not single one
OF the original set of dog teeth remaining in the
jaw, and what was still more remarkable the
new teeth were all molars, or grinders, accord
ing to the popular name. But this strange
growth from an apparently dead piece of bone
did not end here. During the next year, the
molars were in their turn slowly forced out of
their sockets by still another set of teeth which,
when they had fairly come into view, proved to
be neither CANNES nor molars, but incsors.
This lastliset remained stationary, and il
looked for long time as if this dry jawbone
which, without any nutrition from living body
had successfully raised three distinct sets of
teeth, each one of different kndfrom the Others
had at last come to an end of its prolifeuess
just before | left St Louis last month, however
l received letter from my brother saying that
the incisors are now in their turn being pushed
upward and loosened, evidently by still another
set which is growing beneath them. What kind
OF teeth these newcomers will be | cannot imag
inc, unless, indeed, they are bicuspids
Mature has strange freaks" continued the
Doctor, as he took notebook from his pocket
and turned over its pages. Il have somewhere
here the name of boy who grew feathers-ah!
here it is-James Cashill He lived in Morrison
little town in Egypt down in southern Hi
nois l stopped in the place one day about six
years ago, when the only physician in the town,
old friend of mine, told me he wanted to
show me a curiosity This Cashill was the son
of family of what are called poor whites fur
| Their down South. Some threesyears before, while
he was playing in the house, he had accidentally
upset the tea-kettle over his hands and wrists
His mother ut that time was sitting outside
plucking a goose, and as she rushed into the
house in answer to the childs screams she I'M
consciously carried with her an apron full of
the pin feathers from the goose. When she
took hold of the little sufferers hands the skin
peeled off IN great pieces, and, without knowing
exactly what she was doing she wrapped up
the burned hands in her apron and left them
there until she made poutiee. The boy almost
Immediately ceased to scream, and when the
poultice was made nothing could induce him to
let his mouther take his hands out of the feath-
ers so that she could put it on. He said that the
pain was all gone and that he wanted them to
stay In the feathers, at last the mother yielded
and tied them up in the apron with the soft and
yet living feathers around them In few days
the boy insisted that the apron should be taken
off, as his hands we're we'll
But when it was removed it was found that
his hands were covered with the small pin
feathers which, strange to say, seemed to have
taken root in the flesh. Every effort to pull
them out caused him such intense pain, accom-
panied by commissions, that they ware allowed
to grow there. At the time / saw the boy both
his hands and arms nearly up to the shoulders
were covered with thick growth of soft, snowy
white feathers about an inch long, and, what
was more remarkable, the growth was gradually
extending up the arms, the natural skin appar-
emily being converted into what was very like
goose-skin, from which the feathers grew.
But the most remarkable part of the case