Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine | Page 5

keenly appreciative of the power exercised by the myth-making faculty
in the past, but as applied to early physicians, we suggest that the
suspicion may easily be too active. When Pare, for example, pictures a
monster, we may distrust his art, his artist, or his engraver, and make
all due allowance for his primitive knowledge of teratology, coupled
with the exaggerations and inventions of the wonder-lover; but when he
describes in his own writing what he or his confreres have seen on the
battle-field or in the dissecting room, we think, within moderate limits,
we owe him credence. For the rest, we doubt not that the modern
reporter is, to be mild, quite as much of a myth-maker as his elder
brother, especially if we find modern instances that are essentially like
the older cases reported in reputable journals or books, and by men
presumably honest. In our collection we have endeavored, so far as
possible, to cite similar cases from the older and from the more recent
literature.
This connection suggests the question of credibility in general. It need
hardly be said that the lay-journalist and newspaper reporter have
usually been ignored by us, simply because experience and
investigation have many times proved that a scientific fact, by

presentation in most lay-journals, becomes in some mysterious manner,
ipso facto, a scientific caricature (or worse !), and if it is so with facts,
what must be the effect upon reports based upon no fact whatsoever? It
is manifestly impossible for us to guarantee the credibility of chronicles
given. If we have been reasonably certain of unreliability, we may not
even have mentioned the marvelous statement. Obviously, we could do
no more with apparently credible cases, reported by reputable medical
men, than to cite author and source and leave the matter there, where
our responsibility must end.
But where our proper responsibility seemed likely never to end was in
carrying out the enormous labor requisite for a reasonable certainty that
we had omitted no searching that might lead to undiscovered facts,
ancient or modern. Choice in selection is always, of course, an affair de
gustibus, and especially when, like the present, there is considerable
embarrassment of riches, coupled with the purpose of compressing our
results in one handy volume. In brief, it may be said that several years
of exhaustive research have been spent by us in the great medical
libraries of the United States and Europe in collecting the material
herewith presented. If, despite of this, omissions and errors are to be
found, we shall be grateful to have them pointed out. It must be
remembered that limits of space have forbidden satisfactory discussion
of the cases, and the prime object of the whole work has been to
carefully collect and group the anomalies and curiosities, and allow the
reader to form his own conclusions and make his own deductions.
As the entire labor in the preparation of the forelying volume, from the
inception of the idea to the completion of the index, has been
exclusively the personal work of the authors, it is with full confidence
of the authenticity of the reports quoted that the material is presented.
Complete references are given to those facts that are comparatively
unknown or unique, or that are worthy of particular interest or further
investigation. To prevent unnecessary loading of the book with
foot-notes, in those instances in which there are a number of cases of
the same nature, and a description has not been thought necessary, mere
citation being sufficient, references are but briefly given or omitted
altogether. For the same reason a bibliographic index has been added at
the end of the text. This contains the most important sources of
information used, and each journal or book therein has its own number,

which is used in its stead all through the book (thus, 476 signifies The
Lancet, London; 597, the New York Medical Journal; etc.). These
bibliographic numbers begin at 100.
Notwithstanding that every effort has been made to conveniently and
satisfactorily group the thousands of cases contained in the book (a
labor of no small proportions in itself), a complete general index is a
practical necessity for the full success of what is essentially a
reference-volume, and consequently one has been added, in which may
be found not only the subjects under consideration and numerous
cross-references, but also the names of the authors of the most
important reports. A table of contents follows this preface.
We assume the responsibility for innovations in orthography, certain
abbreviations, and the occasional substitution of figures for large
numerals, fractions, and decimals, made necessary by limited space,
and in some cases to more lucidly show tables and statistics. From the
variety of the reports, uniformity of nomenclature and numeration is
almost impossible.
As we contemplate constantly increasing