rces. Rodriguez
is quoted as reporting that in July, 1891, several newspapers in the
city of Mexico published, under the head of "A Man-mother," a wonderful
story, accompanied by wood-cuts, of a young man from whose body a great
surgeon had extracted a "perfectly developed fetus." One of these
wood-cuts represented a tumor at the back of a man opened and
containing a crying baby. In commenting upon this, after reviewing
several similar cases of endocymian monsters that came under his
observation in Mexico, Rodriguez tells what the case which had been so
grossly exaggerated by the lay journals really was: An Indian boy, aged
twenty-two, presented a tumor in the sacrococcygeal region measuring 53
cm. in circumference at the base, having a vertical diameter of 17 cm.
and a transverse diameter of 13 cm. It had no pedicle and was fixed,
showing unequal consistency. At birth this tumor was about the size of
a pigeon's egg. A diagnosis of dermoid cyst was made and two operations
were performed on the boy, death following the second. The skeleton
showed interesting conditions; the rectum and pelvic organs were
natural, and the contents of the cyst verified the diagnosis.

Quite similar to the cases of fetus in fetu are the instances of
dermoid cysts. For many years they have been a mystery to
physiologists, and their origin now is little more than hypothetic. At
one time the fact of finding such a formation in the ovary of an
unmarried woman was presumptive evidence that she was unchaste; but
this idea was dissipated as soon as examples were reported in children,
and to-day we have a well-defined difference between congenital and
extrauterine pregnancy. Dermoid cysts of the ovary may consist only of
a wall of connective tissue lined with epidermis and containing
distinctly epidermic scales which, however, may be rolled up in firm
masses of a more or less soapy consistency; this variety is called by
Orth epidermoid cyst; or, according to Warren, a form of cyst made up
of skin containing small and ill-defined papillae, but rich in hair
follicles and sebaceous glands. Even the erector pili muscle and the
sudoriparous gland are often found. The hair is partly free and rolled
up into thick balls or is still attached to the walls. A large mass of
sebaceous material is also found in these cysts. Thomson reports a case
of dermoid cyst of the bladder containing hair, which cyst he removed.
It was a pedunculated growth, and it was undo