The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-01-07
HE HAS TWO HEARTS.
A ColoRED PHENOMENON APPEARS
IN NEWARK, N. J.
Distinct Beating OF Organs In the Right
and Left Sides of His Chsst-Couid Low,
er One at wni--while Physicians Won
dered the Subject Quit with Their Gifts.

A shabby old colored man called on DR..
George O'Gorman at 9S6 Broad street,
Newark, y. j.. tho day before Christmas
and said:
doctor, have two hearts, ono on each
side Of my body. wish you To sec for
yourself"
The doctor, though suspecting that the
man had n mania or WAS playing trick,
determined To go through form OF exam
ination. Placing his ear over his visitors
left breast, the place where the heart ought
to be, he found the pulsation regular.
Then he moved over to the right side.
To the physicians amazenent, he heard
some kind OF an impulse mt work there.
He could scarcely believe his own ears, but
humping was going on under the right
breast The man stated that he would
lower one of his hearts To % spot near thN
abdomen. So tho doctor placed his ear TO
spot indicated on the lower part Of tho
body and heard boatings within. This
was n little too much. The last impulse,
the doctor knew, could have been produced
by the forcing out OF the aorta from the
spine to the point where the impulse was
felt an extraordinary thing In itself; but
Dr. O'Gorman made up his mind that the
case before him was worth looking Into
farther, even IL tho colored man were only
trickster, with some educated power
over his muscles or something else equally
unusual. The doctor took the colored
man to the office Of the medical examiners
of the Prudential Insurance company, on
Broad street, above Market.
In the Prudential building Or. Hamill,
the chief examiner; DIR. Burridge his first
assistant, and two other physicians, on
hearing DIR. O'Gorman's statement, made
thorough examinations OF the man. They
all heard the two impulses in the breasts
and the one near the abdomen. One Of
them was unkind enough 10 say no would
give good deal of money to be present at
the mans autopsy.
While they were consulting, their subject
made some remarks about Christmas pres
ents and the doctors promptly made up
purse for him. Then they went on con-
sulting, and when they again looked for
their curiosity ho had disappeared This
was most disappointing to the physicians,
for, as Dr. Burridge said yesterday, he had
intended to have the man on exhibition
before the Practitioners club, the local
organization of doctors. In the interest
which the case had excited nobody had
thought of taking the mans name or nd
dress, and now they had lost him. The
littlc that Was got from the wonder was
that he was s6 years old (Which the doctors
did not believe, for he looked To bo 20
years younger); that his mother had dis
covered that he had two hearts when he
was q few months old. and that lately he
had been making living by exhibiting"
himself To doctors, on whom he relied for
fees. He named many widely known
physicians by whom, he said, he had been
examined, and oil, according to his state.
meut, had been mystificd.
None of tho doctors would say that he
thought the man had two hearts but all
admitted that they would like To go far
thor i'm making tests. They were unani.
nous in the opinion that the fellow was
worth studying. Now York Journal.