but there is nothing in the accompanying prediction to help
us to trace the origin of the popular belief in the good luck following
the baby born with a caul. If No. 53 was a case of congenital horns on
the head, it must be regarded as a unique example, unless, indeed, a
form of fetal ichthyosis be indicated.

"The remaining observations (No. 56-62) refer to cases of congenital
teeth (No. 56) to deformity of the ears (Nos. 60 and 61), and a horn
(No. 62)."

From these early times almost to the present day similar significance
has been attached to minor structural anomalies. In the following pages
the individual anomalies will be discussed separately and the most
interesting examples of each will be cited. It is manifestly evident
that the object of this chapter is to mention the most striking
instances of abnormism and to give accompanying descriptions of
associate points of interest, rather than to offer a scientific
exposition of teratology, for which the reader is referred elsewhere.

Congenital defect of the epidermis and true skin is a rarity in
pathology. Pastorello speaks of a child which lived for two and a half
hours whose hands and feet were entirely destitute of epidermis; the
true skin of those parts looked like that of a dead and already
putrefying child. Hanks cites the history of a case of antepartum
desquamation of the skin in a living fetus. Hochstetter describes a
full-term, living male fetus with cutaneous defect on both sides of the
abdomen a little above the umbilicus. The placenta and membranes were
normal, a fact indicating that the defect was not due to amniotic
adhesions; the child had a club-foot on the left side. The mother had a
fall three weeks before labor.

Abnormal Elasticity of the Skin.--In some instances the skin is affixed
so loosely to the underlying tissues and is possessed of so great
elasticity that it can be stretched almost to the same extent as India
rubber. There have been individuals who could take the skin of the
forehead and pull it down over the nose, or raise the skin of the neck
over the mouth. They also occasionally have an associate muscular
development in the subcutaneous tissues similar to the panniculus
adiposus of quadrupeds, giving them preternatural motile power over the
skin. The man recently exhibited under the title of the "Elastic-Skin
Man" was an example of this anomaly. The first of this class of
exhibitionists was seen in Buda-Pesth some years sinc