Putnam speaks of a
female nosencephalous monster that lived twenty-nine hours.
Angell and Elsner in March, 1895, reported a case of anencephaly,
or rather pseudencephaly, associated with double divergent
strabismus and limbs in a state of constant spastic contraction.
The infant lived eight days. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire cites an
example of anencephaly which lived a quarter of an hour. Fauvel
mentioned one that lived two hours, and Sue describes a similar
instance in which life persisted for seven hours and distinct
motions were noticed. Malacarne saw life in one for twelve hours,
and Mery has given a description of a child born without brain
that lived almost a full day and took nourishment. In the
Hotel-Dieu in Paris in 1812 Serres saw a monster of this type
which lived three days, and was fed on milk and sugared water, as
no nurse could be found who was willing to suckle it.
Fraser mentions a brother and sister, aged twenty and thirty,
respectively, who from birth had exhibited signs of defective
development of the cerebellum. They lacked power of coordination
and walked with a drunken, staggering gait; they could not touch
the nose with the finger when their eyes were shut, etc. The
parents of these unfortunate persons were perfectly healthy, as
were the rest of their family.
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