Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-22
M E N WITH TAIL S
" Homo Caudatus" is What Science
Calls the Species.
A HIGH DISTINCTION IN INDIA
Hereabouts the Appendage is
Quickly Removed.
VERSION TO MONKEY
VERSION TO MONKEY

Written for The Evening Star.
| There actually dwell on earth today a
| tailed species of human beings according to
DR.. r. Granville Harrison, associate PRO-
fessor of anatomy, Johns Hopkins Uni
versfty Such a surprising announcement
from the faculty of this dignitied and pro-
found institution of learning is calculated
to create a sensation.
Homo caudatus Is what Dr. Harrison
calls this grotesque species. He says that
real, live specimen was lately exhibited
before the Johns Hopkins Hospital Medical
Society. 1t was six-months-old boy, born
| with the superfuous appendage. which, ac-
cording to the doctor. gave an impression
not unlike that of pigs tail, similarity
noted in number of cases." The append
age was A centimeters long when the
child was two weeks old. but by the end of
six months, when amputated, had length
ened to five centimeters.
1T seemed advisable to remove it, added
| the doctor, mot only to accede to the
wishes of the chAds parents, who regarded
| its presence with chagrn, but also on more
practical grounds. Its rate of growth was
| considerable, and it did not seem unlikely
| that the appendage might have later at
| tanned undue proportions, causing, as has
| been reported in several instances, con-
| siderable inconvenience in sitting" DR..
| Harrison has preserved the amputated
member in fluid.
From the United States five such cases
| have been reported to the doctors knowl-
| edge. Prior to 1854 116 authorities had
recorded observations of tailed men. Since
| then twenty-five additional cases have come
| to light. The species appears to be widely
distributed.
AS far back as the writings of PIiny and
Pausanias, DR. Harrison finds references
to tailed men. Seventeen years ago a Ger
man scientist published map showing the
various lands supposed to have been. at one
time or another. the haunts of human
| races with tails. These regions include not
only widely distant portions OF South
America, Asia and Africa. but the greater
part of western Europe. The belief III such
races has been persistent and wide.
LOnG-TaiIed Princes of India.
The tail is considered a distinction of the
highest degree, even a mark of divine
descent, in some of the ancient records TO
which the doctor has referred. The Ranas
of Poorbunder, rulers of one of the Raipoot
tribes of India. trace their descent, he
says, from their monkey-god Hanuman,
| and confirm this by the caudal appendages
of their princes. known as the long-tailed
Ranas of Saurashtra." Such an append
age has, on the other hand. he relates
of degradation, by some races. He finds
record of certain community of tailed
men in Turkestan., They were held in con-
tempt by other peoples and We're therefore
condemned to constant Interviewing They
were referred to as the "Kuju rukly Tar
tar The tan was cursed by these people
because it Murdered the possessor from sit
ting properly upon his horse
Tailed races of human beings are sup
posed to have resided in nearly every coun-
try, according to Drs. G. NJ Gould and w.
l.. Pyle, two weH-known pathologists in
new work which has just left the press
q dat,
in present times, has given rise to discus
sion between friends and opponents of the
Darwinian theory. By the former this
queer species Is considered a reyerSiOn to
a monkey ancestor.
The great Darwin speaks of a person be-
longing to this strange species. Virchow,
the great pathologist of Berlin. once
studied a boy of eight weeks from whom
was amputated a caudal appendage three
inches long. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes,
in the Atlantic Monthly, June, 1890, states
that he in London the photograph of
a boy similarly afflicted The chief ply
stefan of the Greek army reports.a recruit
of twentySiX who had such an adornment
containing three vertebrae and mentions
other recruits with the same deformities.
\ certain DR.. Miller studied a West Point
| cadet belonging to the same category and
| reports that exercise at the riding school
always gave him great distress" A negro
| child born near Louisville, Ky, was re-
| ported, when eight weeks old. to have had
| ''pedunculated tail" 2A inches long and
| similar in shape to that of a pig
Many Tales Of Men With Tails.
That all Cornishmen have tails was at
one time generally believed. Certain men
| of Kent, England, were said to be similar
| ly decorated, and the cause was believed
| to be retribution for their insults to Thos.
| a Beckett
| A wild man caught and tied for execu-
| ton in Formosa had tail more than a
nd nd
| like that Of red COW, according to one
| Struys. a Dutch traveller who wrote of
| his observations in the seventeenth CEN
| fury.
The Nam Mans a Central African race.
| are reported to have tails from two to ten
| inches long. Hubsch, an investigator of
| Constantinople, contends that both men
| and women Of this tribe are so afflicted.
In Hibernia there were many people with
| long tails, but they could not be approach
ed sufficiently for close study according to
| Berengarius Carpensis in one Of his COM
mentaries.
Here is the additional testimony Of a min
lister of the gospel: Rev. George Brown, a
Wesleyan missionary, in 1876 reported the
breeding Of a tailed race Of human beings
on the Island of Kali, off the coast Of New
Britain. Talless children Of these people
were slain just after birth to deliver them
from exposure to public ridicule To be
tailless was considered by the HAM Island
ers to be cursed.
There really are tailed men Of Borneo
but some authorities advance the theory
that they are afflicted with hereditary NAL
formation which would tend to add color
to the belief that this relic Of remote
ancestor can be transmitted.
"A tailed race Of princes have ruled RAJ
joopootana and are fond of their ancestral
mark says one authority. writing Of an
East Indian tribe.
In the East Indies there is said to be a
tailed race Of natives, the benches of whose
canoes are made with apertures to fit the
caudal appendage of each rover At one
time, according to another authority, the
presence Of tails in the orient was taken
as a sign of brute force.
A Tale of Paraguay.
Here is a remarkable story from Para
quay where a tribe Of long-tailed Indians
is said to have been discovered: Zone day
a number of worknen belonging to Tacura
Tuyn, while engaged in cutting glass, had
their mules attacked by some Guayacuyan
Indians. The workmen pursued the In
dams, but only succeeded In capturing a
boy of eight. He was taken to the house
of Senior Francisco Galeochoa at Posedas,
and was there discovered to have a tail
\