Fig. 183—Human embryo, four weeks old, opened on the ventral side. Ventral and dorsal walls are cut away, so as to show the contents of the pectoral and abdominal cavities. All the appendages are also removed (amnion, allantois, yelk-sac), and the middle part of the gut. n eye, 3 nose, 4 upper jaw, 5 lower jaw, 6 second, 6″ third gill-arch, ov heart (o right, o′ left auricle; v right, v′ left ventricle), b origin of the aorta, f liver (u umbilical vein), e gut (with vitelline artery, cut off at a′), j′ vitelline vein, m primitive kidneys, t rudimentary sexual glands, r terminal gut (cut off at the mesentery z), n umbilical artery, u umbilical vein, 9 fore-leg, 9′ hind-leg. (From Coste.)
Fig. 184—Human embryo, five weeks old, opened from the ventral side (as in Fig. 183). Breast and belly-wall and liver are removed. 3 outer nasal process, 4 upper jaw, 5 lower jaw, z tongue, v right, v′ left ventricle of heart, o′ left auricle, b origin of aorta, b′, b″, b‴ first, second, and third aorta-arches, c, c′, c″ vena cava, ae lungs (y pulmonary artery), e stomach, m primitive kidneys (j left vitelline vein, s cystic vein, a right vitelline artery, n umbilical artery, u umbilical vein), x vitelline duct, i rectum, 8 tail, 9 fore-leg, 9′ hind-leg. (From Coste.)
It sometimes happens that we find even external relics of this tail growing. According to the illustrated works of Surgeon-General Bernhard Ornstein, of Greece, these tailed men are not uncommon; it is not impossible that they gave rise to the ancient fables of the satyrs. A great number of such cases are given by Max Bartels in his essay on “Tailed Men” (1884, in the Archiv für Anthropologie, Band XV), and critically examined. These atavistic human tails are often mobile; sometimes they contain only muscles and fat, sometimes also rudiments of caudal vertebræ. They have a length of eight to ten inches and more. Granville Harrison has very carefully studied one of these cases of “pigtail,” which he removed by operation from a six months old child in 1901. The tail moved briskly when the child cried or was excited, and was drawn up when at rest.
Fig. 185—The head of Miss Julia Pastrana. (From a photograph by Hintze.)