He also learned that the deformity was quite rare
in the Cape Coast region, and received no information tending to
prove the conjecture that the tribes in West Africa used
artificial means to produce the anomaly, although such custom is
prevalent among many aborigines.
Probably the most remarkable case of a horn was that of Paul
Rodrigues, a Mexican porter, who, from the upper and lateral part
of his head, had a horn 14 inches in circumference and divided
into three shafts, which he concealed by constantly wearing a
peculiarly shaped red cap. There is in Paris a wax model of a
horn, eight or nine inches in length, removed from an old woman
by the celebrated Souberbielle. Figure 75 is from a wax model
supposed to have been taken from life, showing an enormous
grayish-black horn proceeding from the forehead. Warren mentions
a case under the care of Dubois, in a woman from whose forehead
grew a horn six inches in diameter and six inches in height. It
was hard at the summit and had a fetid odor. In 1696 there was an
old woman in France who constantly shed long horns from her
forehead, one of which was presented to the King. Bartholinus
mentions a horn 12 inches long. Voigte cites the case of an old
woman who had a horn branching into three portions, coming from
her forehead.
Pages:
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440