Couea.] 82 [May 19, 



by outward rotation of the thigh, as to be almost reversed. The 

 femur and convexity of the knee pointed outward, downward and 

 backward, instead of forward ; the leg and convexity of the heel 

 inward, downward and forward, instead of backward; the front of 

 the metatarsus (" tarsus" of ordinary descriptive language) faced 

 directly backward ; the hind toe pointed forward, and the three an- 

 terior toes would have had the opposite direction could they have 

 been extended and outspread. It is needless to go into the details 

 of the articular extremities of the bones, the shapes and planes of 

 which all proclaim the same fact of the reversion of the whole limb. 

 Now in this reversed position of the leg, the fibula, as usual, lies upon 

 the outside of the tibia, and the three-jointed lateral toe, as usual, is 

 the inner one. But on rotating the femur inward, so as to bring its 

 axis, and that of succeeding segments, in the same plane as, and 

 parallel with, the corresponding segments of the other two legs, the 

 fibula is found upon the inner side of the tibia, opposed to the inner 

 condyle of the femur; and also the outer five-jointed toe comes on 

 the inside, where the one with the three joints ought to be. Such a 

 state of things involves an anatomical absurdity; the conclusion is 

 irresistible and almost self-evident, that, in a word, we have here a 

 right leg, turned hind part before, and hung on the left side. 



I should not have considered it necessary to more than simply state 

 this fact, were it not such a unique phenomenon as to excite natural 

 doubts, and call for the proof I have given. 



This four-legged chicken, then, has really two pairs of legs — two 

 right legs and two left legs. The middle leg upon the left side is the 

 right redundant limb — the mate of the left supernumerary member, — 

 that has in some inexplicable way got on the wrong side. Thus far 

 has bilateral symmetry ruled in even such an anomaly as this; it has 

 stamped a misplaced limb with unmistakable characters, in the vain 

 struggle to retain and assert its supremacy. 



Dr. J. Wyman said it was not necessary to suppose that 

 one of the supernumerary legs was transferred from the 

 opposite side. It has often been observed that when a limb 

 is more or less doubled it consists of both right and left parts. 

 A left arm doubled below the elbow has right and left fore 

 arms and hands,; a whole limb may be doubled in an anal- 

 ogous manner. 



