Twinning is rare in humans, and conjoined twins are rarer. One type of conjoined twins is 'parasitic twins', also referred to as 'heteropagus twins'. This kind of birth anomaly presents asymmetrically joined twins, one of which will usually be intensely deformed and depend parasitically on the other, the near-normal one. We present here the report 'An account of a monster of the human species' written from Fort St. George, Madras and published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London in 1789. This report consists of two letters: one from Baron Reichel to Sir Joseph Banks and the other from James Anderson to Baron Reichel. The Reichel and Anderson letters impress as the earliest formal record of heteropagus twins in India. The morphogenesis of heteropagus twinning is still unclear. The origin of heteropagus twins is explained as monozygotic by some obstetricians and as dizygotic by others. Until the mid-20th century, medical parlance referred to these humans as monsters and their deformities as monstrosities, which was unfortunate.
Before the demonstration of the usefulness of nitrous oxide, ether (sulphuric ether), and chloroform as potent anaesthetics, surgical procedures were carried out in conscious patients, who were administered either liquor or narcotics, further to being physically restrained. Because this practice was far from desirable, the claim of Mesmer in Vienna, made in 1779, for providing pain relief based on his theory of 'animal magnetism' (mesmerism) appealed to some medical practitioners in Europe. Mesmerism was the forerunner of hypnosis and was practised in continental Europe and England for pain management, including less frequently, in surgical procedures prior to the recognition of the above chemicals as potent anaesthetics. British doctors practising medicine in India tried mesmerism previously trialled in Europe. Joseph Johnstone was a British doctor practising in Madras in the 19 th century, who took a cue from surgical experiences reported by James Esdaile in Calcutta, excised a large, soft tumour from the back of a woman successfully, using 'mesmerism'. His report is of historical interest.
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