the
possession of the Royal College of Surgeons in London.

The following well-known story of Edward Mordake, though taken from lay
sources, is of sufficient notoriety and interest to be mentioned here:--

"One of the weirdest as well as most melancholy stories of human
deformity is that of Edward Mordake, said to have been heir to one of
the noblest peerages in England. He never claimed the title, however,
and committed suicide in his twenty-third year. He lived in complete
seclusion, refusing the visits even of the members of his own family.
He was a young man of fine attainments, a profound scholar, and a
musician of rare ability. His figure was remarkable for its grace, and
his face--that is to say, his natural face--was that of an Antinous.
But upon the back of his head was another face, that of a beautiful
girl, 'lovely as a dream, hideous as a devil.' The female face was a
mere mask, 'occupying only a small portion of the posterior part of the
skull, yet exhibiting every sign of intelligence, of a malignant sort,
however.' It would be seen to smile and sneer while Mordake was
weeping. The eyes would follow the movements of the spectator, and the
lips would 'gibber without ceasing.' No voice was audible, but Mordake
avers that he was kept from his rest at night by the hateful whispers
of his 'devil twin,' as he called it, 'which never sleeps, but talks to
me forever of such things as they only speak of in hell. No imagination
can conceive the dreadful temptations it sets before me. For some
unforgiven wickedness of my forefathers I am knit to this fiend--for a
fiend it surely is. I beg and beseech you to crush it out of human
semblance, even if I die for it.' Such were the words of the hapless
Mordake to Manvers and Treadwell, his physicians. In spite of careful
watching he managed to procure poison, whereof he died, leaving a
letter requesting that the 'demon face' might be destroyed before his
burial, 'lest it continues its dreadful whisperings in my grave.' At
his own request he was interred in a waste place, without stone or
legend to mark his grave."

A most curious case was that of a Fellah woman who was delivered at
Alexandria of a bicephalic monster of apparently eight months'
pregnancy. This creature, which was born dead, had one head white and
the other black the change of color commencing at the neck of the black
head. The bizarre head was of negro conformation and fully developed,
and the colored