f 



shufeldt] rare deformity in a painted turtle 221 



such a condition. Therefore it was surely congenital; but eyen 

 so, it would be a matter of no little interest were we able to ascer- 

 tain the primal cause of such a deformity, and whether it was 

 inherited or whether — in the event of a number of other individuals 

 having appeared from the eggs of the same clutch — any of them 

 presented the same curious enlargement. Its very symmetry and 

 position were puzzling, and the carapace being of normal thickness, 

 it was further evident that whatever the trouble was, it had its 

 origin internally. 



Possibly the enlargement had been formed to accommodate some 

 growth, as an exostosis upon the ventral aspect of one or more of 

 the centra of the dorsal vertebrae of the carapace. As the specimen 

 was probably not more than two or three years old, such a solution 

 was not at all likely, any more than a soft tumor of any of the 

 viscera would be the cause of creating such a concavity for its 

 accommodation. These two suppositions I discarded prior to 

 dissection, the first as being highly improbable, and the latter as 

 quite inconceivable. 



There was a possibility of its being a case of inclusio fastale, and 

 room had been gradually made for the storage of such a product. 

 As turtles of this species are oviparous reptiles, such a suggestion 

 could hardly be entertained as an explanation for the presence of a 

 hump of this kind. To be sure, as pointed out above, double- 

 headed turtles have been found ; but whether a complete inclusion 

 could take place in such an animal, I can only say that I have 

 never seen or heard of such a case. 



In the human species, prominences of this kind usually occur at 

 a very early age, and are due to scrofula or rickets. The victims 

 are known as "humpbacks" or "hunchbacks," and in them the 

 disease, whether active or passive and healed, is usually in evidence. 

 Carious vertebrae are to be found at the seat of the curvature, and 

 ulceration of the intervertebral cartilages is not uncommonly 

 present; as a symptom, we meet with more or less complete loss of 

 power in the pelvic limbs. 



Apart from the diseases mentioned, which the Chelonia arc not 

 known to suffer from, this turtle may have had, at the time it 

 issued from the egg, some vertebral disease, which eventually 

 healed, though it was of sufficient duration to have caused, or been 

 the cause of, this prominent hump. As the turtle exhibited great 

 vigor of limbs, and was extremely healthy in all respects, this 



