Heschl published in Vienna in 1878 a description of a girl of
seventeen, who instead of having a duplication of the superior
body, as in "Millie-Christine, the two-headed nightingale," had
double parts below the second lumbar vertebra. Her head and upper
body resembled a comely, delicate girl of twelve.
Wells a describes Mrs. B., aged twenty, still alive and healthy.
The duplication in this case begins just above the waist, the
spinal column dividing at the third lumbar vertebra, below this
point everything being double. Micturition and defecation occur
at different times, but menstruation occurs simultaneously. She
was married at nineteen, and became pregnant a year later on the
left side, but abortion was induced at the fourth month on
account of persistent nausea and the expectation of impossible
delivery. Whaley, in speaking of this case, said Mrs. B. utilized
her outside legs for walking; he also remarks that when he
informed her that she was pregnant on the left side she replied,
"I think you are mistaken; if it had been on my right side I
would come nearer believing it;"--and after further questioning
he found, from the patient's observation, that her right genitals
were almost invariably used for coitus.
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