20 THE STRUCTURE OF MAX 



If the supernumerary teat is sufficiently large, it can be used 

 for suckling; but it is generally too small for this purpose, and 

 is merely an encumbrance, since when the child is being fed 

 from the normal breast, milk may dribble from the accessory one. 



Hansemann has recorded the case of a married sempstress, 

 forty-five years old (Fig. 13), who had, above and laterally to 

 the normal breasts, two accessory ones, which possessed teats, but 

 hardly any areolse. Above the supernumerary teat of the left 

 side there was another one showing distinct orifices. Glandular 

 tissue could be discerned below all five teats, and many accessory 

 apertures were found in the areolae of the normal breasts. In 

 the twenty-one years of her married life this woman had given 

 birth to twelve children, twins being born twice, and had had 

 seven advanced miscarriages ; she had thus passed through 

 seventeen pregnancies. All the breasts yielded milk, but a 

 child could only be fed from the normal ones, since these alone 

 were furnished with teats which could be seized by it. 



Hansemann records in his treatise 262 cases in all : 81 males, 

 104 females, and 77 in whom the sex is not stated. The author 

 refers to the goddesses Isis and Diana, who were represented 

 with many breasts as a symbol of fruitfulness ; but he rightly 

 adds that, judging from data of the present day, the myth can 

 have had no foundation in fact. 



I have to thank my pupil Kenkitzi Horiuchi for the record 

 of a case of polymasty, published in the Weekly Medical Journal 

 of Tokio, of 4th July 1891 (No. 692), which may be added to 

 Hansemann's series. It is that of a Japanese girl, aged nineteen, 

 who was examined in the hospital of Fukui. Above the normal 

 well-developed teats, at a distance of 4 cm., there was on each 

 side (Fig. 14 m") an accessory teat of the size of a pea, dark in 

 colour, and in all respects like a true nipple. Above, and at 

 some distance laterally from the normal breast on each side, 

 a second smaller breast (m'"} was found, with a teat. Fig. 14 is 

 taken from a photograph of this case. The girl was in all other 

 respects normal, and menstruation began at the age of fifteen. 



In conclusion, I append some observations for which I am 

 indebted to Otto Ammon, of Karlsruhe, distinguished for his re- 

 searches into the anthropology of Baden. The data were obtained 

 in connection with the recruiting for military service in the 

 year 1890 ; and the manuscript bears the title, " Some Observa- 

 tions on the Occurrence of Supernumerary Teats, and on the 

 Direction of the Hair on the Breasts." Out of 2189 men (of 



