FACIAL ANOMALIES. 73 



FACIAL ANOMALIES. 



By Dr. KAEL MULLER. 



I WAS once sitting in a cool underground saloon at Leipsic, while 

 without people were ready to die from the heat, when a new guest 

 entered and took a seat opposite to me. The sweat rolled in great 

 drops down his face, and he was kept busy with his handkerchief, till at 

 last he found relief in the exclamation, " Fearfully hot ! " I watched 

 him attentively as he called for a cool drink, for I expected every mo- 

 ment that he would fall from his chair in a fit of apoplexy. The man 

 must have noticed that I was observing him, for he turned toward 

 me suddenly, saying, " I am a curious sort of person, am I not ? " 

 " Why ? " I asked. " Because I perspire only on the right side." And 

 so it was ; his right cheek and the right half of his forehead were as 

 hot as fire, while the left side of his face bore not a trace of perspira- 

 tion. I had never seen the like, and, in my astonishment, was about 

 to enter into conversation with him regarding this physiological cu- 

 riosity, when his neighbor on the left broke in with the remark, " Then 

 we are the opposites and counterparts of each other, for I perspire only 

 on the left side." This, too, was the fact. So the pair took seats op- 

 posite to each other, and shook hands like two men who had just found 

 each his other half. " Well ! this makes an end of natural history," 

 exclaimed another guest, who hitherto had quietly gazed on this 

 strange performance as though it were a play ; and every one that had 

 overheard what was said came to look at this novel wonder. 



" This makes an end of natural history ! " This expression excited 

 me to laughter, and involuntarily I exclaimed : " No, sir, this is just 

 the beginning of natural history ; for Nature has many strange ca- 

 prices even as regards her symmetry. I then mentioned the case of a 

 man I had known in my boyhood, who, Janus-like, had two totally 

 different faces on one side laughing, on the other crying. Naturally 

 I dreaded this strange double face, with its one side smooth, plump, 

 and comely, like a girl's cheek, while the other side was all scarred 

 by the small-pox. This side of the face denoted churlishness ; and, 

 while the other side wore a smile, this boded mischief. In this in- 

 stance disease had been unsymmetrical. 



Seated again in a different place, I mentioned to a friend, a physi- 

 ologist, the wonderful anomaly I had seen. " Why," said he, " only 

 look at the young Assessor von Th., yonder ; he will show you an 

 asymmetry such as you will not meet with every day." Sure enough, 

 this man had a nose which was situated by no means in the middle of 

 his face. I had seen this young man often before, but had never clearly 

 made out what it was in his face that impressed me. Now I saw it at 

 once : it was the man's nose ; and since then I have come to see that 



