He also says that sterility and
excessive chastity are causes of female beards, and cites the
case of Schott of a young widow who secluded herself in a
cloister, and soon had a beard.
Barbara Urster, who lived in the 16th century, had a beard to her
girdle. The most celebrated "bearded woman" was Rosine-Marguerite
Muller, who died in a hospital in Dresden in 1732, with a thick
beard and heavy mustache. Julia Pastrana had her face covered
with thick hair and had a full beard and mustache. She exhibited
defective dentition in both jaws, and the teeth present were
arranged in an irregular fashion. She had pronounced prognathism,
which gave her a simian appearance. Ecker examined in 1876 a
woman who died at Fribourg, whose face contained a full beard and
a luxuriant mustache.
Harris reports several cases of bearded women, inmates of the
Coton Hill Lunatic Asylum. One of the patients was eighty-three
years of age and had been insane forty-four years following a
puerperal period. She would not permit the hair on her face to be
cut, and the curly white hairs had attained a length of from
eight to ten inches on the chin, while on the upper lip the hairs
were scarcely an inch. This patient was quite womanly in all her
sentiments.
Pages:
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449