Some persons are
born with finger-nails and toe-nails either very rudimentary or
entirely absent; in others they are of great length and
thickness. The Chinese nobility allow their finger-nails to grow
to a great length and spend much time in the care of these nails.
Some savage tribes have long and thick nails resembling the claws
of beasts, and use them in the same way as the lower animals.
There is a description of a person with finger-nails that
resembled the horns of a goat.
Neuhof, in his books on Tartary and China, says that many
Chinamen have two nails on the little toe, and other instances of
double nails have been reported.
The nails may be reversed or arise from anomalous positions.
Bartholinus speaks of nails from the inner side of the digits; in
another case, in which the fingers were wanting, he found the
nails implanted on the stumps. Tulpius says he knew of a case in
which nails came from the articulations of three digits; and many
other curious arrangements of nails are to be found.
Rouhuot sent a description and drawing of some monstrous nails to
the Academie des Sciences de Paris. The largest of these was the
left great toe-nail, which, from its extremity to its root,
measured 4 3/4 inches; the laminae of which it consisted were
placed one over the other, like the tiles on a roof, only
reversed.
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