Myrtle Corbin was also born with two sets of internal and external reproductive anatomies.
Wikimedia CommonsMyrtle Corbin and her legs .
For all intents and design , Josephine Myrtle Corbin was a normal girl . Her parentage was not label by anything out of the ordinary , and her female parent claim to have had a typical Labour and delivery , aside from the baby being momentarily in the rear of tube situation .
The doctors who examined the infant after birth describe her to be strong and healthy , adding that she was mature at a good charge per unit . A year afterwards she was discover to be nursing “ healthily ” and “ thriving well . ”
Wikimedia CommonsMyrtle Corbin and her legs.
Overall , Myrtle Corbin was a perfectly good for you , active , and fly high baby girl . All in maliciousness of having four legs .
Perfectly Ordinary (Almost)
After being gestate with four legs , two normal sized one on either side of a span of diminutive one , the doctor who delivered Myrtle Corbin felt it necessary to point out the factors they felt could have resulted in her deformity . First , the baby ’s parents , the doctors order , were about 10 years apart in historic period . William H. Corbin was 25 , and his married woman Nancy was 34 .
Second , the doctors noted that the couple conduct a strike resemblance to each other . Both of them were redheads , with blue eyes and very fairish complexions . They really looked so similar that the Doctor of the Church felt it necessary to explicitly steer out that the two were not “ stock kin group ” in their medical report .
Despite the two element the doctors listed , it seemed that the young girl was simply an oddity – her parents had had seven other children , all of whom were perfectly ordinary .
*Wikimedia CommonsP.T. Barnum *
Later , it would be determined that she was gestate with dipygus and her status was likely the result of her body ’s axis splitting as it develop . As a resolution , she was born with two pelvises side by side .
With each pelvis , she had two set of legs , one normal sized , and one small . The two small leg were side by side , flanked on either side by two normal legs , though one with a clubbed metrical unit .
According to medical journals written by the MD that studied Myrtle Corbin throughout her life , she was capable to move her little inner leg , though they were n’t substantial enough for her to be capable to take the air on . Which , of path , did n’t really count , as they were not long enough to touch the ground .
Wikimedia CommonsMyrtle Corbin with her husband and one of her daughters.
Myrtle Corbin’s Sideshow Career
Wikimedia CommonsP.T. Barnum \
In 1881 at age 13 , Myrtle Corbin unite the sideshow circuit under the byname “ The Four - Legged Girl From Texas . ” After evidence her to peculiar neighbors and lodge them a dime bag each , her don recognise her voltage for packaging and for John Cash . He had promotional folder made up and begin place advert in newspaper for multitude to come see her .
The promotional pamphlets described her as a girl with “ as blue-blooded of disposition as the summer sunshine and as happy as the day is farseeing . ” And , indeed , that appeared to be honest .
Throughout her time as a sideshow attractiveness , she became wildly popular . Eventually , rather than bringing the curious onlooker to her she begin journey . By travel to minuscule town and cities and performing for the populace , she ended up realize up to $ 450 a workweek .
Eventually , famed showmanP.T. Barnumheard about her and hired her forhis show .
For four years , she continued to shape for Barnum and even inspired several other promoter to produce fake four - legged mankind for their own show when they could n’t get her .
Life For Myrtle Corbin After The Circus
Wikimedia CommonsMyrtle Corbin with her husband and one of her daughters .
At 18 twelvemonth old , Myrtle Corbin retired from the sideshow business enterprise . She ’d fulfill a doctor key out Clinton Bicknell and fall in love . At 19 , the two were married .
About a twelvemonth later in the leaping of 1887 , Myrtle Corbin get word she was fraught . She ’d move to a doctor in Blountsville , Ala. , complaining of pain in her left over side , fever , headache , and a minify appetite . Despite her singular anatomy ( she had two sets of national and extraneous generative anatomies ) , doctors did not conceive there was a understanding she could n’t carry to term .
Though she became gravely ominous during the first three months of her pregnancy , resulting in her doctor performing an miscarriage , she ended up giving nascency to four more goodish kid in her lifespan .
After performing in the sideshow and giving nascence to her child , Myrtle Corbin ’s life was rather normal . Though her case go on to pop up in medical journal around the country , she maintained a unruffled universe in her Texas home with her married man and fry .
Eventually in 1928 , she buy the farm as the final result of a streptococcal skin infection . Though antibiotics make the condition easily treatable today , in the 1920s there was no such treatment useable .
On May 6 , 1928 , her casket was sink and covered in concrete .
Various class members stood vigil over the drying concrete until it was set , an extra precaution to prevent grave robbers from steal her remains . After all , several doc and showmen had offered money for her body , and her fellowship knew that there were people willing to go to great lengths to get one last piece of Myrtle Corbin , “ The Four - Legged Girl From Texas . ”
After learning about Myrtle Corbin , P.T. Barnum ’s famed “ four - legged girl , ” substantiation outsome of the other oddities that P.T. Barnum troop around the country in his show . Then , check outthese P.T. Barnum facts .
