The Two-Headed Boy, and Other Medical Marvels (review)

Jan Bondeson. The Two-Headed Boy, and Other Medical Marvels. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2000. xxii + 295 pp. Ill. $29.95.

Jan Bondeson is a London physician whose interest in proven and legendary human physical peculiarities began while in medical school and stimulated him to develop a substantial collection of antiquarian illustrations of such phenomena. His 1997 book A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities, which utilized this collection, was reviewed in the Bulletin in 1999 (73: 157-59). Bondeson states: "The present book deals almost entirely with various aspects of the history of teratology" (p. xx)--yet since teratology is the study of congenital malformations, this claim is not entirely accurate. This volume is a continuation of his first work. The consideration of extreme hirsutism is largely redundant, while much additional lore about gigantism is to be found in the newer book. Although more space is devoted to examples of various types of conjoined twins, there are cases of extreme cutaneous horns (a neoplasm), an unresolved question of whether an individual suffered from pituitary dwarfism or progeria, extreme obesity, incredible gluttony, et cetera that cannot be considered teratologic.

Some legends are from as early as the twelfth century, while most are scattered from the fifteenth to twentieth centuries. The individual tales are interesting, and the greatest strength of the text is in the effort to contextualize them in their time period. There are some inconsistencies. For example, Bondeson says in regard to someone who in about 1800 allegedly ate a live cat, "He later vomited the fur and the skin" (p. 277); but he then says of this individual and two other gluttons, "Although they could eat enormous amounts of food, they never vomited it and did not gain weight" (p. 281). Are some tales, like those of the woman who laid eggs, examples of fraud? What about the thirteenth-century Dutch countess who bore 365 children on the same day? Alternative explanations, both traditional and modern, are presented. One version of the legend is that she actually bore as many children as days remained in the year--namely, two. Another is that she expelled a hydatidiform mole, and that each of its fronds was interpreted as a fetus. No tale alleged that any of this swarm survived.

From medieval to modern times there has been great popular interest in viewing people who exhibit some extreme deviation from normality. The main attitudinal changes that Bondeson documents with his examples are, first, political: there no longer are royalty who collect such individuals at their courts. Second, they are economic: abnormal individuals made a meager or occasionally a good living by displaying themselves; today, the "side show" venue has largely disappeared. Third, the competitive urge to collect peculiar human and animal remains in private museums has been replaced by institutions for the scientific study of such specimens, which incidentally may also be museums.

The author is to be complimented for having found really obscure primary sources and having assembled a medley of interesting anecdotes and relevant illustrations. The book concludes with a large international body of sources arranged by chapter, with some commentary. A reader with a scientific interest in the topics discussed--such as a teratologist, geneticist, or dermatologist--would probably want the scientific discussions considerably expanded. With a prior understanding that this is a collection of tales, both documented and legendary, about a wide variety of human anatomical and behavioral abnormalities in their cultural milieu, and not a text on teratology, the educated reader can have an enjoyable time.

Thomas G. Benedek
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

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