OUR BENEFACTORS
THE BALLYHOO
CONGRESS OF THE ODD
MONSTROUS FINGERS
It seems that disorders affecting the digits are almost always hereditary and inherited – and likely dominant. The family of the famous modern Lobster Boy, Grady Stiles, had their particular disorder (ectrodactyly or monsterous fingers) in their family since the 1800′s. In fact, most of his children carry the same trait as do a number of his grandchildren.
The trait of ectrodactyly was documented as far back as 1685 with a somewhat mythical tale. In the remote Galloway village of Wigtown in Scotland a pair of women were executed for religious dissent. The pair pleaded their innocence and the executioner proved to be quite cruel as he drowned the pair in the River Bladnoch. Margaret Wilson, one of the women, called upon the crabs to curse the executioner as she was being drowned. Shortly thereafter the executioner – a man named by the name of Bell – fathered a child with ‘crab hands’. The trait carried down the family line for some 300 years.
It is likely that the first person to likely take up the epithet of ‘Lobster Boy’ was a gentleman by the name of Fred Wilson. Wilson (pictured above) was born in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1866. He had ectrodactyl of the hands and legs. Furthermore, he apparently suffered from a slight dental deformity. It is very unfortunate that so little information exists for the original Lobster Boy. However, as the image below, taken from Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, illustrates there were at least a ‘handful’ of people from his era to share his affliction.
© 2007 – 2008, J Tithonus Pednaud. All rights reserved.
RECOMMENDED READING
American Sideshow: An Encyclopedia
Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit
Sideshow U.S.A.: Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination
Freaks, Geeks, and Strange Girls
Pickled Punks & Girlie Shows: A Life Spent on the Midways of America
The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins
The Circus Age: Culture and Society under the American Big Top
Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body
James Taylor's Shocked and Amazed: On & Off the Midway
THE AUTHOR
J Tithonus Pednaud has dedicated this site to highlighting the remarkable lives of those born exceedingly different. These so-called freaks and human oddities stand as uplifting testaments to human spirit and serve as inspiring examples of human tenacity.
7 Responses to “MONSTROUS FINGERS”
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Very interesting stuff. “Lobster-like” appendages like that always bring to mind some of the birth defects brought about in children born to women who took certain anti-nausea medications years ago. Fascinating stuff.
You are thinking of Thalidomide which resulted in various defects, including phocomelia (flipper-like hands and feet) in about 10,000 African and European babes.
Thalidomide was evil stuff ! According to a GOOD HOUSEKEEPING sob story, a woman took 2(two) pills one night. Result: baby was born without arms ! Two pills = 2 little baby arms ! Just like in cattle, if the ewe eats false hellebore on a certain day of the pregnancy – say hey presto ! The lamb is a CYCLOPS ! The investment made by the ewe AND the farmer is wasted, unless he can bottle the thing and sell it to a sideshow or medical museum for ready cash !
Normally Phocomelia is VERY rare, but when hundreds of blighted children were born …people wanted to know where to point their fingers (or find the smoking gun).
If your cattle are giving birth to lambs, you’ve got bigger problems than their eyesight.
I wonder if they had Focal Dermal Hypoplasia or “Goltz syndrome”? Lobster claw deformities are reported with it.
Great website. Love it!!!!
Hope – I literally could not stop laughing at your comment. Way to be! xD
Thalidomide is not an evil drug in itself, it is one many drugs out there that are Teratogenic, meaning “to make a monster”. It was inadequately researched, and prescribed to pregnant women as an anti- nausea treatment, which it did well by all accounts. The problem was the fact that morning sickness is at it’s worst at the time the limb buds are forming in the fetus. I believe it was an Australian doctor who blew the whistle on thalidomide, can’t remember what his name was, nor can I remember the name of the woman in the U.S. who I think worked for the FDA, and actually asked the question “is it safe for pregnant women to take it?” I think it was down to her that the US was spared this tragedy. I think thalidomide is still used today as a treatment for leprosy. As long as you very careful not to concieve while using them, drugs like thalidomide, roaccutane and spironolactone are fine!