HFC -^'^ 1892 



Ca 



XIII. Fusion of Hands. 

 By Thomas Dwight, M. D., LL.D. 



Paukman Pitoi'KSSou or Anatomy at IIarvahd Univehsity. 

 [Read April 2U, 1892.] 



ASES oi pulydactylisiii in which the increase of the number of fingers clearly springs 

 from the fusion of two more or less complete hands and forearms are extremely uncom- 

 mon. There are several, for the most part rather imperfect, accounts of this condition 

 as seen in living persons, or in undissected specimens, or recorded in the plates of old 

 authors, but there seems to be no dissection like the one about to be described in any 

 museum, ncjr any description of a similar dissection in literature. This one. indeed, was 

 described forty years ago by Hai'vard's distinguished Professor of Morbid Anatomy, the 

 late Dr. .T. B. S. Jackson, but the dissection had not been carried far enough to show 

 some of the most important features, the account was inadequate, and in parts wanting 

 in the anatomical accuracy which is so essential, but can hardly be expected from any 

 other than a trained anatomist. Moreover the account appeared merely in an abstract of 

 the Proceedings of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement which was published in 

 the American -lournal of the Medical Sciences, Vol. XXV, January, 1853, p. 91. It is 

 practically buried. It is indexed in tlie Journal as "Malformation" without any 

 qualification whatever. Thus this most remarkable case is not mentioned by the most 

 exhaustive writers on the subject. The specimen originally belonged to the Cabinet of 

 the Boston Society for Medical Improvement which some years ago came into the po.s- 

 session of the Harvai-d Medical School. It seems proper to bring it forth from the 

 obscurity in which it has remained so long, especially as it is particularlj^ valuable in 

 connection with a recent observation on the living by Dr. F. Jolly of Berlin. 



A preliminary glance at the bibliography will lielp to the better appreciation of this 

 case. The literature is far from satisfactory. It is all the more obscure from the diversity 

 of interpretations and from the difficulty which often e.xists in deciding in which class a 

 particular case belongs. The following seem to be undoubted cases of the fusion of two 

 more or less perfect hands. In some of these cases we have no question that the fusion 

 extends into the forearm and even beyond the elbow. 



MEMOIRS BOSTON SOC. NAT. HIST., VIII.. IV. (iO * ( + i^3) 



