ON HUMAN HORNS. 
623 
up, leaving the substance from which the horn proceeded distinguish- 
able at the bottom. The cists gave little pain till the liorns began to 
shoot, and then became very distressing, and continued with sliort 
intervals till they were removed. This case is drawn up by the sur- 
geon who attended the woman for many years, which gave him fre- 
quent opportunities of seeing the disease in its different stages, and 
acquiring an accurate history of its symptoms. 
Mrs. Allen, a middle-aged woman, resident in Leicestershire, had 
an incisted tumor upon her head, immediately under the scalp, very 
moveable, and evidently containing a fluid. It gave no pain unless 
pressed upon, and grew to the size of a small hen’s egg. A few years 
ago it burst, and discharged a fluid ; this diminished in quantity, and 
in a short time a horny excrescence, similar to those above-mentioned, 
grew out from the orifice, which has continued to increase in size ; 
and in the month of November, 1700, the time I saw it, it was about 
five inches long, and a' little more than an inch in circumference at 
its base. It was a good deal contorted, and the surface very irregu- 
lar, having a laminated appearance. It moved readily with the scalp, 
and seemed to give no pain upon motion ; but, when much handled, 
the surrounding skin became inflamed. This woman came to London, 
and exhibited herself as a show, for money ; and it is highly probable, 
that so rare an occurrence would have sufficiently excited the public 
attention to have made it answer her expectations in point of emolu- 
ment, had not the circumstance been made known to her neighbours 
in the country, who were much dissatisfied with the measure, and by 
their importunity obliged her husband to take her into the country. 
That the cases which 1 have related may not be considered as pecu • 
liar instances, from which no conclusion can be drawn, it may not be 
amiss to take notice of some of the most remarkable histories of this 
kind, mentioned by authors, and see how far they agree with those I 
have stated, in the general characters, that are sufliciently obvious to 
strike a common observer ; for the vague and indefinite terms in which 
authors express themselves on this subject, shew plainly that they 
did not understand the nature of the disease. 
In the Ephemerides Academise Naturae Curiosorum, there are twa) 
cases of horns growing from the human body. One of these instances 
was a German woman, who had several swellings or ganglions upon 
diflerent parts of her head, from one of which a horn grew. The 
other was a nobleman, who had a small tumor, about the size of a. 
a nut, growing upon the parts covering the two last or lowermost 
vertebrae of the back. It continued for ten years w ithout undergoing 
any apparent change ; but afterwards enlarged in size, and a horny 
excrescence grew out from it. 
In the History of the Royal Society of Medicine, there is an account 
of a woman , ninety-seven years old, who had several tumors on her 
head, wh] 3 f had been fourteen years in growing to the state they 
were in at that time ; she had also a horn which had originated from 
a similar tumor. The horn was very moveable, being attached to 
the scalp, without any adhesion to the skull. It was sawn off, but 
grew' again, and although the operation was repeated several times, 
the horn always returned. 
