OF VARIETIES IN FORM. 385 



six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot. From 

 her marriage with a man natm'ally formed, were produced ten 

 children with a supernumerary member on each limb ; and 

 an eleventh, in which the peculiarity existed in both feet 

 and one hand, the other hand being naturally formed. The 

 latter married a man of the ordinary formation ; they had four 

 children, of which three had one or two limbs natural, and 

 the rest with the supernumerary parts, while the fourth had 

 six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. The 

 latter married a woman naturally formed, and had issue by 

 her eight children, four with the usual structure, and the 

 same number with supernumerary fingers or toes. Two of 

 them were twins, of which one was naturally formed, the 

 other six-fingered and six-toed *. 



Another remarkable example of the occurrence of a sin- 

 gular organic peculiarity, and of its hereditary transmission, 

 is afforded by the English family of porcupine men, who 

 have derived that name from the greater part of the body 

 being covered by hard dark-coloured excrescences of a horny 

 nature. The whole surface, excepting the head and face, 

 the palms and soles, is occupied by this unnatural kind of 

 integument. The first account of this family is found in 

 the Philosophical Transactions, No. 424 f ; and consists of 

 the description of a boy, named Edward Lambert, fourteen 

 years old, born in Suffolk, and exhibited to the Royal So- 

 ciety in 1731, by Mr. Machin, one of the secretaries. " It 

 was not easy to think of any sort of skin or natural integu- 

 ment that exactly resembled it. Some compared it to the 

 bark of a tree ; others thought it looked like seal skin ; 

 others like the skin of an elephant, or the skin about the 

 legs of the rhinoceros; and some took it to be like a great 

 wart, or number of warts uniting and overspreading the 

 whole body. The bristly parts, which were chiefly about 

 the belly and flanks, looked and rustled like the bristles or 



* Philos. Transact. 1814. part 1. p. 94. 



f The account is accompanied with a figure of the back of the hand, and a 

 magnified view of the excrescences ; pi. I . p. 299. 



CC 



