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Progress in Pediatrics
February 1932

EARLY MENTION OF A HARLEQUIN FETUS IN AMERICA

Author Affiliations

CHARLESTON, S. C.

Am J Dis Child. 1932;43(2):442. doi:10.1001/archpedi.1932.01950020174019
Abstract

In a diary kept by the Rev. Oliver Hart, A.M., pastor of the Baptist church in Charleston, S. C., in colonial times, the following entry is found:1

On Thursday, April ye 5th, 1750, I went to see a most deplorable object of a child, born the night before, of one Mary Evans, in Chas: town. It was surprising to all who beheld it, and I scarcely know how to describe it. The skin was dry and hard, and seemed to be cracked in many places, somewhat resembling the Scales of a Fish. The Mouth was large and round, and wide open. It had no external nose, but two Holes where the Nose would have been. The Eyes appeared to be lumps of coagulated Blood, turned out, about the Bigness of a Plumb, ghastly to behold. It had no external Ears, but holes where the Ears should be. The Hands

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