The Two-Headed Boy and Other Medical Marvels by Jan Bondeson presents, like his previous book A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities, a collection of fascinating and unusual humans from history, including Jo-Jo the Dog-faced Boy and the Wild Man from the Canary Islands. 

Though not a book about mummies, the book includes a story or two about some preserved humans. One such story concerns the Stone-child of Sens, France. In 1554, Mme. Colombe Chatri had a mysterious pregnancy which surprisingly did not result in childbirth. When she died 28 years later, her husband requested an autopsy. Inside, physicians found a shell which appeared to contain a petrified child. Bondeson describes the stone-child this way:

The shape of the stone-child was roughly that of its rounded, calcified shell. The knees were bent, and the legs drawn up toward the chest. The feet and lower legs were fused by calcific deposits. All could clearly see that the fetus was of the female sex. The head was slightly tilted to the right and supported by the left arm. The right arm extended down toward the navel; its hand had been broken off through carelessness when the stone-child was extracted. The bones of the head were transparent and the fontanelles were not closed. In several places the skin of the head was covered with hair. The stone-child had one sole tooth, situtated in the lower jaw (pp. 40-41).

The stone-child went through a series of owners and was treated so badly that the arms broke off, among other injuries. It was also exhibited in Denmark's royal museum from the late 1600s to the 1820s. Eventually, it disappeared. How could Mms. Chatri have conceived a stone-child that was never born? Bondeson evaluates the medical evidence and pronounces it"the calcified remains of an extrauterine pregnancy" (p. 45).

Another mummy-related story concerns one of the 365 children supposedly born to Countess Margaret of Henneberg in the Netherlands (all at the same delivery!) in the year 1276. The stillborn child was "as long as a thumb and kept in an oblong, translucent glass case" (p. 80). It was exhibited in Copenhagen until it disappeared about 1826. Bondeson examines the evidence that the Countess had a hydatiform mole--or that she possibly gave birth to (only) twins. The story is fascinating and is the stuff of legend; the Countess's story was written about in poems and history books. 

Other notable curiosities (though not mummified) are the pig-faced woman of Manchester Square, the two-headed Tocci brothers, the court dwarf of King Stanislas of Poland, the Swedish giant, the human colossus, and Louis Claude Delair, otherwise known as the human aquarium.

Both fascinating and disturbing, this sad, well-researched book catalogs another selection of unusual humans who were often treated with terrible inhumanity. Bondeson not only gives the details of these human legends (often appearing in popular literature) but provides medical and scientific suppositions as to the true nature of the condition. Many of the people mentioned in the book would up exhibited as curiosities. In effect, the book is rather like a tetralogy museum in print and is perfect for all students of the human (and sometimes inhumane) condition.

The book has 320 pages with 71 black-and-white illustrations, including a few photos (pictured are the hairy family of Burma, Jo-Jo, Krao the human monkey, Leonel the lion-man, the horn that grew from Elizabeth Lowe's head, the Tocci brothers, the skeletal remains and shoes of the Swedish giant, and the human aquarium in action--he swallowed and then regurgitated live frogs!)

Highly recommended, though not for the squeamish.

Read the review of Bondeson's related book, A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities.