The herald., 1896-01-04
HUMAN MONSTROSITIES

Many of those m Adorned human beings
which we call freaks have never been on
exhibition, have never even been heard of
by he vast majority of readers. Such a
curiosity was discovered in 1888 in vi
emma, Austria, in the person of girl who,
although then seventeen years old, has re-
manned an infant in every respect, except
as to her age. Her head is hardly as big as
d fist, while her legs fail to support her
body.
The miserable being often sleeps for
forty-eight hours without interruption.
During her waking hours her sole occupa-
ton consists in putting out her tongue and
by feebly moving her hands and feet to
and fro. She still occupies the same cradle
iuto which she was laid At her birth The
doctors con slider her a phenomenal speci-
men of microcephalus or "small head"
and predict that she will live to very old
age
few years ago a tourist passing through
Piedmont happened to see girl about 15
years old, OF fine figure, but with a head
whose resemblance TO a hounds head was
unms akabie. 1t is said that until her
tenth year this child habitually went on all
fours. Her father and mother had been
the hand somest par f,r and wide. Al
though in reduced circumstances, the
mother bad eadfastly refused most
tempting offers to place her offspring on
exhibition.
If the delicaoy shown by this Piedmont
mother were common in such cases, the
an, lent Romans would hardly have MAIN
aimed a special market for the sale and
| purchase of humal curios. But cupidity
| being no resnecter of misfortune in any
form, the fame of that market brought
there three freaks not equaled since-a
man the top of whose head tapered to a
point, and who had three eyes; boy
weighing fifteen pounds and possessing
what the historian is pleased to call "a
voice of thunder;" and, in The days of
Nero. a child with four heads.
lady with horses head resi- led at
Vienna during the early part of the cent
ury. In 1929 a mountebank named Ste
phenson exhibited man with a hogs
head. To his sorrow somebody discovered
that this freak was in fact closely shaved
bear which the ingenious inventor caused
to grunt and to cut grimaces by pricking
him with q needle.
Some years ago Professor Bergman of
Berlin received a strange visitor-a child
whose right hand was attached directly to
the shoulder, there being no vestige of an
arm. Tue p,rents of the cripple inno-
Gently requested the learned professor to
supply the missing arm.
The French doctor Demarquay records
fif,y-nine we'll attested cases of horned
people, generally women. Jules Cloquet
mentions woman who had on her head
an excrescence over five inches long, and
Bartnolin saw another over SIX inches long.
In the hospital at Hyeres can still be
seen piece of the scalp of woman to
! which is attached an eXcrescence over ten
inches long, resembling a rams horn;
il is about two and half inches thick
twisted spirally and ornamepted
with dainty stripes. The lady rty
years old when the horn first mad its D.
uearauce; in four years it reached le II
of eight inches. The singular "orli.. .elit'
was com peteiy hidden u der the luxuriant
hair and caused no pain or Inconvenience
! during the day. At night, however, the
poor woman was constrained to lie uncom-
fortably, since even the slightest accidental
pressure against the horn caused intense
suffering. Hence she decided TO submit to
have it removed, and the operation was
performed successfully, but a new protub-
rance az once made its appearance, and if
The woman isn't dead it is probably grow
, ing still.
| Durng his last expedition through South
| Ameiic The Argentnian, Capt. A lbo 'nog, q,
| saw an Indian from whose forehead pro-
| truded pair of horns resembling deer
| horns in every respect.
Not long ago, at Ennigerloh. Prussia, a
! child was born whose eye sockets were
! empty. And to be without eye, is more
| dreadful than to have horns. There seems
| To be practically no limit to huna atfi c.
| ton, and This tale of human misery m ght
| be continued ad infiuitum or ad nauseam.
New York World.