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Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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Tuesday, July 09, 2013

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES:A GIRL BORN WITH A TAIL,1934

This is a classic bit of Forteana from 1934,a case of a girl born with a tail in London,with comment by myself in square brackets. I found the story in Stockport library about 10 days ago,from the Cheshire Echo of January 31st 1934.

A FREAK OF NATURE
GIRL BORN WITH A TAIL
Theory of "Throw-back" to Ape Ancestors

A baby was born in London a fortnight ago with a tail two inches long [there is surely something like this in one of Corliss` books] Such an amazing freak is bringing many doctors to the Metropolitan Hospital, Kingsland Road,London [is it still there?] N, and most of them convince(?) themselves completely unable to account for the strange deformity.

One pathologist has expressed the opinion that the explanation is that the child is a "throw back" across the countless centuries to our ape ancestors.

Another theory held by doctors who have examined the phenomenon is that it was produced by an association of ideas for the mother`s mind during pregnancy .[This is remarkable if taken seriously.I thought such ideas had died out by the end of the Victorian era! This came out as the cause of the Elephant Man`s deformities in one film version]

The Secretary of the Metropolitan Hospital said to a reporter to-day:- "The child ( a girl) was brought to us when a few days old.

 A CURLY TAIL

"The parents told us that the tail was evident from birth. It is about two inches long, tapering to a point and is curly. Its position is the same as that of a monkey`s tail.It has sensitivity and is apparently formed by normal flesh. Apart from this deformity the child is a perfectly healthy baby - and quite good tempered [well of course, probably thinking of the millions she`d make as a traveling freak!] "Doctors who have seen the child - and we have had numbers visiting us - tell me that they do not know of any recorded instance of such a deformity. It is something new to medical science." The parents,healthy working-class people, who have one child apart from this strange little girl, were aghast when they made this remarkable discovery. It will be a relief to them to know that surgeons are of opinion that the tail will be removable without affecting the child`s health in any way.(1)

1. Cheshire Echo  31-1-1934 

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