Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [287]
and at Chicago, September 16, 1893, made the height record of 15 feet 4 1/2 inches.
The class of people commonly known as contortionists by the laxity of their muscles and ligaments are able to dislocate or preternaturally bend their joints. In entertainments of an arena type and even in what are now called "variety performances" are to be seen individuals of this class. These persons can completely straddle two chairs, and do what they call "the split;" they can place their foot about their neck while maintaining the upright position; they can bend almost double at the waist in such a manner that the back of the head will touch the calves, while the legs are perpendicular with the ground; they can bring the popliteal region over their shoulders and in this position walk on their hands; they can put themselves in a narrow barrel; eat with a fork attached to a heel while standing on their hands, and perform divers other remarkable and almost incredible feats. Their performances are genuine, and they are real physiologic curiosities. Plate 6 represents two well-known contortionists in their favorite feats.
Wentworth, the oldest living contortionist, is about seventy years of age, but seems to have lost none of his earlier sinuosity. His chief feat is to stow himself away in a box 23 X 29 X 16 inches. When inside, six dozen wooden bottles of the same size and shape as those which ordinarily contain English soda water are carefully stowed away, packed in with him, and the lid slammed down. He bestows upon this act the curious and suggestive name of "Packanatomicalization."
Another class of individuals are those who can either partially or completely dislocate the major articulations of the body. Many persons exhibit this capacity in their fingers. Persons vulgarly called "double jointed" are quite common.
Charles Warren, an American contortionist, has been examined by several medical men of prominence and descriptions of him have appeared from time to time in prominent medical journals. When he was but a child he was constantly tumbling down, due to the heads of the femurs slipping from the acetabula, but reduction was always easy. When eight years old he joined a company of acrobats and strolling performers, and was called by the euphonious title of "the Yankee dish-rag." His muscular system was well-developed, and, like Sandow, he could make muscles act in concert or separately.
He could throw into energetic single action the biceps, the supinator longus, the radial extensors, the platysma myoides, and many other muscles. When he "strings," as he called it, the sartorius, that ribbon muscle shows itself as a tight cord, extending from the front of the iliac spine to the inner side of the knee. Another trick was to leave flaccid that part of the serratus magnus which is attached to the inferior angle of the scapula whilst he roused energetic contraction in the rhomboids. He could displace his muscles so that the lower angles of the scapulae projected and presented the appearance historically attributed to luxation of the scapula.
Warren was well informed on surgical landmarks and had evidently been a close student of Sir Astley Cooper's classical illustrations of dislocations. He was able so to contract his abdominal muscles that the aorta could be distinctly felt with the fingers. In this feat nearly all the abdominal contents were crowded beneath the diaphragm. On the other hand, he could produce a phantom abdominal tumor by driving the coils of the intestine within a peculiar grasp of the rectus and oblique muscles. The "growth" was rounded, dull on percussion, and looked as if an exploratory incision or puncture would be advisable for diagnosis.
By extraordinary muscular power and extreme laxity of his ligaments, he simulated all the dislocations about the hip joint. Sometimes he produced actual dislocation, hut usually he said he could so distort his muscles as to imitate in the closest degree the dislocations. He could imitate the various forms of talipes, in such a way as to deceive an expert. He
The class of people commonly known as contortionists by the laxity of their muscles and ligaments are able to dislocate or preternaturally bend their joints. In entertainments of an arena type and even in what are now called "variety performances" are to be seen individuals of this class. These persons can completely straddle two chairs, and do what they call "the split;" they can place their foot about their neck while maintaining the upright position; they can bend almost double at the waist in such a manner that the back of the head will touch the calves, while the legs are perpendicular with the ground; they can bring the popliteal region over their shoulders and in this position walk on their hands; they can put themselves in a narrow barrel; eat with a fork attached to a heel while standing on their hands, and perform divers other remarkable and almost incredible feats. Their performances are genuine, and they are real physiologic curiosities. Plate 6 represents two well-known contortionists in their favorite feats.
Wentworth, the oldest living contortionist, is about seventy years of age, but seems to have lost none of his earlier sinuosity. His chief feat is to stow himself away in a box 23 X 29 X 16 inches. When inside, six dozen wooden bottles of the same size and shape as those which ordinarily contain English soda water are carefully stowed away, packed in with him, and the lid slammed down. He bestows upon this act the curious and suggestive name of "Packanatomicalization."
Another class of individuals are those who can either partially or completely dislocate the major articulations of the body. Many persons exhibit this capacity in their fingers. Persons vulgarly called "double jointed" are quite common.
Charles Warren, an American contortionist, has been examined by several medical men of prominence and descriptions of him have appeared from time to time in prominent medical journals. When he was but a child he was constantly tumbling down, due to the heads of the femurs slipping from the acetabula, but reduction was always easy. When eight years old he joined a company of acrobats and strolling performers, and was called by the euphonious title of "the Yankee dish-rag." His muscular system was well-developed, and, like Sandow, he could make muscles act in concert or separately.
He could throw into energetic single action the biceps, the supinator longus, the radial extensors, the platysma myoides, and many other muscles. When he "strings," as he called it, the sartorius, that ribbon muscle shows itself as a tight cord, extending from the front of the iliac spine to the inner side of the knee. Another trick was to leave flaccid that part of the serratus magnus which is attached to the inferior angle of the scapula whilst he roused energetic contraction in the rhomboids. He could displace his muscles so that the lower angles of the scapulae projected and presented the appearance historically attributed to luxation of the scapula.
Warren was well informed on surgical landmarks and had evidently been a close student of Sir Astley Cooper's classical illustrations of dislocations. He was able so to contract his abdominal muscles that the aorta could be distinctly felt with the fingers. In this feat nearly all the abdominal contents were crowded beneath the diaphragm. On the other hand, he could produce a phantom abdominal tumor by driving the coils of the intestine within a peculiar grasp of the rectus and oblique muscles. The "growth" was rounded, dull on percussion, and looked as if an exploratory incision or puncture would be advisable for diagnosis.
By extraordinary muscular power and extreme laxity of his ligaments, he simulated all the dislocations about the hip joint. Sometimes he produced actual dislocation, hut usually he said he could so distort his muscles as to imitate in the closest degree the dislocations. He could imitate the various forms of talipes, in such a way as to deceive an expert. He