“ Frequent'instances have happened where common ewes
have had twins by otter rams, when one exhibited' the 4co replete
marks and features óf thé ewe, the other of the ram.
The contrast has. been rendered singularly striking when one
short-legged, and onelong-lëgged lamb, produced at a birth,
have been seen sucking the dam at the same time.”* ■'
Several instances may be adduced of variety in structure
equally striking originating in the human kind, and in like
.manner propagated through many generations.
The growth o f: supernumerary fingers or toes, and corresponding
deficiencies, is a fact of this description. Mauper-
tuis has mentioned this phenomenon; he assures-,us that
there were two families in Germany, who have been_distinguished
for several generations b y six fingers on ieach hand,
and the same number of toes on each foot. Jacob Ruhe, a
surgeon of Berlin, was of one of these families, and marked
by their peculiarities, which he inherited from his mother
and grandmother. His mother had been married to a man
of the ordinary make. She bore’eight children) of whom four
resembled the father; the other four partook of the mother’s
peculiarity. Jacob Ruhe transmitted his supernumerary
members to his posterity.
Reaumur mentions a family which had a similar peculiarity.
The grandfather had a supernumerary finger on each hand,
and an additional toe on each foot. His eldest-son had three
children with the same peculiarity. The second*, who had
the usual number of fingers, but in whom the th um bw a s
very thick and appeared as if composed of two united, together,
had three daughters with the supernumerary members;
the third had the natural structure; ar daughter with a very
thick thumb brought forth a son with the -additional finger.f-
* Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy, No. 2. Col. Humphries, on a New Breed of
Sheep. Philos. Transact; 1813. Part. i.
•f* This variety has frequently occurred. Instances are tecorded among the ancients.
Pliny says, “ Digiti quibusdam in manibus seni. C. Horatii ex patricia
gente Alias duas, ob id sedigitas appellatas, accepimus, et Volcatium sedigitum illus-
trem in Poetica;”
The six fingered variety springs up sometimes among the Negroes in the West
India islands and the American states. Dr. Gibson, author of an inaugural disser-
Vsigir Anthony Carlisle.has given an. account of a family, in
which the supernumerary’«tbeS] an^. fingers were -transmitted
throughfour - generations;*. The first» instance-was a female,’
who/had six fihgets on each hand; and six toes on each foot.
She had ten children like hW d f, and ameleventh, who‘only
differed from her in having one hand n^tafally formed#
* The following phenomenon iss-pmhfeps^more curious than
any of the foregoing. In a family at Iver, the individuals for
nine generations had petfe&Hhumbs,%ut instead$of fingers,
had only the'first phalanx of ea&hyund the first and sec
joint of- the ring-finger of the left hapd, these rudiments- of
fingers having no nails.* Thisissaidl|b ^CUheiffCsieription of
the whole family, as it had been with* ^Ijghf.variations' that of
nine numerous^ ‘'-generations";- Itfi^added that-ikwas^the women;
only 'who had the misfoAI$|} ‘b f -entailing this defeat!
upon their offspri-ngywhich they did almost u n ifo rm ^ ^ ^
• BerKaps the mp§#£)ermanent peculi-arity^recorded, is
gtilar upper lip, in the Imperiab*ho#se\io£
Austria. *> .^Thip peculiarity is b'elieve^lto have been introduced
into the Hapsburg family, mkriy centuries tigo^ibyan intermarriage
with Ahe ancient house of J agellon^p^i
Itu s^ d ll known to medicaf practitioners); th a t the same|q|>»
servation-fnquaUy applies to those " minute.1 varieties-of organisation,
which give rise to peculiarities 4a%habit or temperament,
and predispose-to a variety of morbid afibdt:i'ons,;,as
deafnessy scrofulous complaints, and the whole .e a ta lo ^ d -bf
disorders in the nervous system. Even-those singular peculiarities
termed idiosyncrasies are often hereditary, as in the instance
of a remarkable susceptibility of the action of particular
medicines.
Many examples of similar variety will be mentioned in the
tation, in which are many curious and original observations, says, that He has met
tvith such instances. In a^I the^examples whi?h occurred to his notice,-qxcepfc one,
the little finger and toe were redundant. In one case a thumb and great toe w^re
supernumerary.
* Philos. Transact. 1814.
This account is taken from 'fee Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, voL
iv. p. 252*
± Code’s Memoirs of the Hqus^ nf Avtstsia.',