These instances of supernatural formation are traced, by the author’s inquiries, through four successive generations, from Zerah Colhurn, the American calculating boy, to his great grandmother, whose maiden name had been Kendall, but of whose brothers, sisters, or parents, the present generation possess no record.
This woman had five fingers and a thumb on each hand, and six toes on each foot.
She had eleven children, ten of whom are said to have had the same peculiarity complete; but one daughter, the grandmother of the present boy, had one of her hands naturally formed.
Of the next generation there were four persons. Abiah, the boy’s father, and two others, had the peculiarity complete; but one of his uncles was like the grandmother, with one hand natural.
The present generation are eight in number, of whom four are naturally formed as their mother is; the rest, including Zerah the calculator, have the peculiarity complete, with the exception of his eldest brother, who has one of his feet naturally formed.
It appears to Mr. Carlisle, that these instances are sufficiently rare to be added to the numerous cases on record of peculiar structures continued by hereditary descent, in the hope that a greater accumu- lation of facts may enable future physiologists to trace, in some de- gree, the laws which govern such productions; more especiallyif at- tention he paid to the relative influence of the male and female sex in the propagation of peculiarities.
Former experiments having shown that when the functions of the brain are destroyed the secretory organs invariably ceased to perform their office, and consequently that the various secretions were probably dependent on nervous influence, it appeared desirable to ascertain this point by dividing the nervous branches by which some one gland is supplied, and observing the effect. But on account of the difliculty of the operation itself, and of the injury done to adjacent parts, it appears extremely diflicult to determine the real influence of the nerves in the natural state of all the functions. There are, however, some experiments on the preternatural secretion excited by the action of arsenic, and its interruption by division of the nerves, which the author thinks may deserve to be recorded as tending to elucidate so important a subject.
