[97] inson. The majority of the embryonic tails contain, how- 

 ever, no prolongation of the vertebral column but are classed 

 as what Yirchow" calls soft tails (weiche Schwdnze). 



Description" of Case. 



About a year ago Dr. Watson exhibited before the Johns 

 Hopkins Hospital Medical Society a baby with a tail, which is 

 an example of the last-named class." The tail was removed 

 later, and through the kindness of Dr. Watson, who gave me 

 the specimen as well as his notes of the case, I am enabled to 

 make a fairly complete report on it, including a description 

 of its histological structure. 



The child, which was the third in the family, was a healthy, 

 well-developed male. In its family history there is nothing 

 which throws any light upon the case. Aside from the tail 

 the baby presented only one other slight deformity, and that 

 was in the four outer toes of the right foot. These toes were 

 shorter than the normal ones of the left foot, their tips were 

 turned up and the nails were small and thick. The phalanges 

 of these toes were short and there were but two in each toe. 

 The' great toe of this foot was normally developed. 



The tail appendage was attached in the mid-line about one 

 centimeter below the tip of the coccyx. Examination of the 

 sacro-coccygeal region showed a well marked foveola coccygea 

 (Ecker) (Figs. 1 and 2), but owing to the extreme fineness 

 of the hairs of this region, which to the unaided eye were 

 quite invisible, it was impossible to distinguish any particular 

 coccygeal bald spot or glabella coccygea (Ecker). Beginning 

 a little to the right and below the foveola is a sharply defined 

 groove, which runs obliquely downward and to the left be- 

 tween the buttocks and passes to the left of the root of the 

 tail. 



The appendage itself was of firm consistency, though con- 



's R. Virchow : Schwanzbildung beim Menschen. Deutsche med. Woch- 

 enschr., 10. Jahrg., 1884. 



•3 W. T. Watson : Exhibition of a Three-months' Infant with a Caudal 

 Appendage. Proc. J. H. H. Med. Soe. Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, 

 vol. xi, 1900. 



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