MONSTROSITIES 297 



-contrary, Salvator had two boys and one girl sex-digitate, and one 

 boy normal. Grezio's second son George (who was normal) had 

 three sex-digitate daughters, and one normal boy; and Grezio's 

 daughter (who was also normal) had two boys and one girl normal, 

 and one boy sex-digitate. 



Dr. Prosper Lucas 1 gives the case recorded by Maupertuis. 

 ' Jacob Ruhe, surgeon of Berlin, was born with six digits in his 

 "hands and feet, inherited from his mother Elisabeth Ruhen, -who 

 inherited this abnormality from Elisabeth Horlsmann. Elisabeth 

 Ruhen transmitted it to four children out of eight. The father 

 was Jean Christian Ruhe, who was normal. Jacob Ruhe, one of 

 the sex-digitated boys, married Sophie-Louise de Thingen, a normal 

 woman, and had six children, two of the boys being sex-digitate.' 



Renow recorded several sex-digitate families, who from time 

 immemorial were spread over several parishes of Bas-Anjou. 

 These abnormalities were perpetuated in spite of the alliance of 

 the abnormal individuals with families of normal conformation. 

 The abnormalities were transmitted indifferently to either male or 

 female children. It was also established that a normal child of an 

 abnormal parent can again give birth to an abnormal child. 



Dr. Prosper Lucas (p. 327) quotes some much more interesting 

 phenomena. He says that Vanderbuch collected records of 

 a Spanish family where this abnormality was often complicated 

 with the following : ' In the majority of the members of this 

 numerous family, the third and fourth digits ^ of the hand were 

 united by the integument throughout their length. The phalanges 

 of such double fingers were almost all composed of double bones, 

 situated side by side. The nails, although of one piece, had a 



'^ Hiridite naturelh, vol. i. p. 326. 



2 Exactly those that form the fused metacarpal bone of the Dx and its congeners. 

 In the marsupials this is a common feature. 



