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the sedentary posture." Homo enim ad sedendi commoditatem, says he, solus nates habet, ut commodè sedere possit ad meditandum et philosophandum. Sedens enim anima (ex Aristot. 7. Phys.) prudentior

est."

Diemerbroeck, an eminent writer on the plague, and author of a System of Anatomy, in quarto, says, he saw a child newly born (in 1638), which had a tail a foot and half in length, resembling a monkey's, The mother told him, that she had been frightened by a monkey at an early period of gestation.

Aldrovandus gives a figure of a monstrous fœtus with a tail; Caspar Schottus (in 1662) introduced a tailed man into his Choice Collection of Prodigies; what a happy time had literary men, when philosophical books were made up of such diverting extravagancies!

In that volume of the Miscellanea Curiosa, published in 1689, Dr. Michael Frederic Lochner relates a case of a Puer cau

datus, which came under his own inspection. The story, which must lose by repetition, out of the doctor's own quaint Latin, is briefly this. Dr. Lochner was consulted for the son of a respectable family, about eight years of age. When the particulars of his disease were enquired into, the parents, instead of answering, shook their heads and wept. The doctor was confounded, till recollecting, he says, the Titulus jurisconsultorius de ventre inspiciendo, he began to unbutton his patient's waistcoat; but the patient stopped him, by giving him to understand that the complaint lay elsewhere: on exploring then the peccantis pueritia bifolium calendarium (as he facetiously phrases it after Barlæus), he found a tail reflected between the buttocks, of the length of a man's middle finger, and thickness of the thumb. The parents were desirous of amputation, but the doctor persuaded them that no inconvenience would attend this ornament, and thus, says he, they retired peaceably with their Ascaniolus caudatus. He

adds, that Dr. David Zollicofer observed a similar case at Basil, and the celebrated Blancard another in Holland.

In another volume of the Miscellanea Curiosa, to which I cannot immediately refer, a learned physician describes a puer caudatus, whom he examined carefully, in consequence of hearing him derided by his play-fellows, on the subject of this unlucky appendage.

I must regret my inability to consult the Collection de l'Academie Royale de Sciences,* for a paper on Men with Tails, published under the promising name of Otto Helbigius. I find a quotation from an author of this name, in Dr. Lochner's note, asserting the existence of Homines Caudati in the island of Formosa.

Here the matter appears to have rested, till the year 1771, when Dr. Guindant published his Variations de la Nature dans l' Espece Humaine, in which he took occasion to

*This is a separate work from the Memoirs,

assert the existence of men with tails, and even to corroborate the opinion with new examples. One of these occurred at Orleans, in 1718, where the subject, ashamed of his tail, submitted to an operation for its removal, which cost him his life. There can be no doubt of this fact, because it was taken from the Mercure for the month of September in that year. Doctor Guindant mentions two other instances, at Aix in Provence, one of a girl named Martine, the other of a Procureur named Berard, but he does not specify the length of their tails. And in his extreme zeal for the caudatory system, he asserts, that a man's courage is not diminished by such an appendage; as a proof of which, he mentions the Sieur de Cruvellier of La Ciotat, who, though he had a tail, distinguished himself greatly in some actions against the Turks. It is rather surprising, that the ingenious doctor did not consider the extraordinary necessity of courage, in a man who has a tail, as

that peculiarity must expose him to many affronts.

Dr. Guindant adds, but I fear from report, that the southern part of the island of Formosa, the Molucca and Philippine islands, contain whole races of men with tails, and that in the burning desarts of Borneo, the greatest part of the inhabitants are tailed.

An experimental philosopher of the highest reputation, furnishes another authority.

"Travellers make mention of a nation with tails, in the islands of Nicobar, Java, Manilla, Formosa, and others. Koping relates, that when the ship on which he was aboard anchored near Nicobar, a number of blackish yellow people, having cat's tails, came on board. They wanted iron in exchange for their parrots, but as nobody would trade with them, they wrung their birds' heads off, and eat them raw. Bontius saw from the mountains, in the island Borneo,*

*In viewing a savage clothed with the skin of a quadruped, a traveller, intent on wonders,

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