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The Two-Headed Boy, and Other Medical MarvelsBy Jan Bondeson. 295 pp., illustrated. Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University Press, 2000. $29.95.0-8014-3767-9
If Wilder Penfield's classic diagram of the cerebral cortex is to be believed, we each carry within us a homunculus, a little monster whose distorted, disassembled body parts are wired into our brains and configured in proportion to our sensorimotor innervations. This manikin defines our body and guards our sense of form -- sometimes too jealously, it turns out, as we react reflexly and often monstrously to those who differ from us. The shock of such encounters fuels Jan Bondeson's book The Two-Headed Boy, and Other Medical Marvels, and might compel you to read it.
This book is a follow-up to the author's A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities (Cornell University Press, 1997), which it follows precisely in format and tone. In both works, Bondeson turns a modern eye to historical "freaks of nature" and views, from a physician's perspective, legends that in their own time had to be seen to be believed: children with tails, men with horns, ape-faced and swine-faced women, and all varieties of conjoined twins. The Two-Headed Boy adds 12 more case studies. Readers are introduced to medical anomalies such as preternaturally hairy...