500 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



they terminate. There is doubt- 

 less a general system in even the 

 errors of nature, as is abundantly 

 evinced by the regular series of 

 monstrosity exhibited both in ani- 

 mals and vegetables. 

 , It has happened in my profes- 

 sional capacity, that I have had to 

 extirpate a supernumerary thumb 

 from each of the hands of two 

 girls, who were both ideots, though 

 the families to whom they belong- 

 ed were unknown to each other. — 



1 have seen many instances of su- 

 pernumerary thumbs and surpernu- 

 merary fingers in persons to whom 

 the singularity was not hereditary, 

 and 1 have read of many others ; 

 but whether of my own experi- 

 ence, or of authentic record, the 

 redundancy has been on the outer 

 side of the little finger, and outer 

 side of the thumb, never on the 

 back or inside of the hand, or on 

 the sides of the intermediate fing- 

 ers: and in similar cases as to the 

 toes, the rule has been invariably 

 the same. In the Sacred Writings 

 an example of this kind is given, 



2 Samuel, ch. xxi. ver. 20 : " And 

 there was yet a battle in Gath, 

 where was a man of great stature, 

 that had on every hand six fingers, 

 eikI on every foot six toes, four- 

 and-twenty in number; and he 

 also was born to the giant." The 

 same account is repeated in 1 

 Chronicles, ch. xx. ver. (i. 



In the Elementa PhysiologicB of 

 JBaron Haller, numerous examples 

 of this deformity are cited from va- 

 rious authors, with some instances 

 of their hereditary descent, and 

 Others of a cutaneous junction be- 

 tween the extra limbs and the next 

 adjoining. 



That local resemblances, such as 

 those of external parts, the hands, 



the feet, the nose, the ears, and the 

 eye-brows, are hereditary, is well 

 known ; and it is almost equally evi- 

 dent, that some parts of the internal 

 structure are in like manner trans- 

 mitted by propagation : we fre- 

 quently see a family form of the 

 legs and joints, whicli gives a pe- 

 culiar gait, and a famil)' character 

 of the shoulders, both of which are 

 derived from an hereditary simila- 

 rity in the skeletons. Family voices 

 are also very common, and are 

 ascribable to a similar cause. Ap- 

 parently many of our English sur- 

 names have been taken from the 

 hereditary peculiarities of families, 

 and the same practice existed among 

 the Romans. Pliny, in his eleventh 

 book, chap, xliii. relates an instance 

 of a Roman poet, named Volcatius, 

 who had six fingers on each hand, 

 and received the surname of Sedi- 

 gitus in consequence. He also 

 states, that two daughter of a noble 

 Roman, named M. Curiatius, had 

 each six fingers, and that they took 

 the surname of Sedigitse. Persons 

 who had the surname of Flaccus 

 were so called from their pendu- 

 lous ears ; and numerous other in- 

 stances are recorded by classic 

 writers of surnames being derived 

 from family marks. 



Anatomical researches have not 

 been so generally extended as to 

 determine the prevalence of inter- 

 nal peculiarities, and perhaps they 

 do not reach to the sanguineous 

 system. I have known two in- 

 stances, in two different families, 

 of the high division of the brachial 

 arteries having the ulnar branch 

 placed above the fascia of the bi- 

 ceps muscle at the inner bend of 

 the elbows, and yet the father, the 

 mother, the brothers and sisters of 

 those two persons were not so de- 



