Saint-Etienne : J. Pichon, 1877.
Description : tp, [3]-30 p., [1 l.] pl. ; ill.: 4 phots. ; 21.2 cm.
Photographs : 1 albumen mounted to card, a composite of four views of the subject.
Photographer : Alphonse J. Liebert (1827-1913).
Subject : Terata — Dipygus malformation.
Notes :
Blanche Dumas, whose birth defect is the subject of this paper, was a six year old in 1866 when she attended a fair in Liege and attracted the appanage of medical science for the first time. She received certificates of examination from Dr. Theodor Schwann (1810-1882) of the University of Liege, and Dr. Jean-Joseph Crocq (1824-1898) of the University of Brussels, who each referenced different congenital malformations within the Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire classification of monsters. Schwann believed that Blanche Dumas represented the double pelves of a parasitic twin, monstres doubles autositaires, whereas Crocq saw a dipygus malformity, monstres doubles parasitaires à la famille des polyméliens et au genre pygomèle, the interjacence of an abnormal pelvis within the bone structure of a normal pelvis. Their arguments were covered in a paper by Dr. Eugène Charlier titled, Observation d'un enfant vivant double inférieurement à partir du bassin...etc. (1873, "Mém. Soc. roy. d. sc., Liége." S. 2, v. 3; pp. 97-112). Dr. Maurice seems merely to be reciting much of Charlier's material, but unlike Charlier, he does not take sides.
