MYRTLE CORBIN

from my email:-
I see that you have contact points for Myrtle Corbin, the 4-legged woman from Texas.
I am related to her and would love to know more about her and our family tree.
I appreciate any information you would be willing to share.
I've attached a copy of an original photograph of Myrtle Corbin that my mother gave me. Thanks J D

partly repaired in photoshop elements

MYRTLE CORBIN: with the help of google and rootsweb

"Josephene Myrtle Corbin was born in Lincoln County, Tennessee in 1868. She was born a dipygus, meaning that she had two separate pelvises side by side from the waist down. Each of her smaller inner legs was paired with one of her outer legs. The inner legs were too weak for walking.
Corbin entered the sideshow circuit with the moniker 'Four-Legged Girl from Texas'. At the age of 19 she married a doctor Clinton Bicknell and eventually gave birth to four daughters and a son.
Myrtle Corbin is said to have died 1927. "


Myrtle Corbin - The Four-Legged Woman: "Josephene Myrtle Corbin, the Four-Legged Woman, was born in Lincoln County, Tennessee in 1868. Rather than having a parasitic twin, Myrtle's extra legs resulted from an even rarer form of conjoined twinning known as dipygus, which gave her two complete bodies from the waist down.


She had two small pelves side-by-side, and each of her smaller inner legs was paired with one of her outer legs. She could move the smaller legs but was unable to use them for walking. At the age of 19, she married a doctor named Clinton Bicknell and had four daughters and a son. It has been said that three of her children were born from one set of organs, two from the other. Myrtle died on May 6, 1928.

From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
by George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle:

Wells a describes Mrs. B., aged twenty, still alive and healthy. The duplication in this case begins just above the waist, the spinal column dividing at the third lumbar vertebra, below this point everything being double.

Micturition and defecation occur at different times, but menstruation occurs simultaneously. She was married at nineteen, and became pregnant a year later on the left side, but abortion was induced at the fourth month on account of persistent nausea and the expectation of impossible delivery.

Whaley, in speaking of this case, said Mrs. B. utilized her outside legs for walking; he also remarks that when he informed her that she was pregnant on the left side she replied,
'I think you are mistaken; if it had been on my right side I would come nearer believing it;'--and after further questioning he found, from the patient's observation, that her right genitals were almost invariably used for coitus.
(the name Mrs. B. refers to Myrtle's married name, Bicknell.) "

pictures include
husband Clinton Bicknell and daughter (Mannix Bicknell)
Atlanta Medical Journal, ca. 1888
Woodcut of Myrtle from a photograph taken in Nashville, Tenn., June 16, 1868. From the Journal of the American Medical Association Contributions to Teratology, Investigation of the Four-Legged Child, J. Myrtle Corban, October 20, 1888.

see website of Elizabeth J Anderson
Myrtle is classified here as a parasitic twin
contact EJA see much more on http://www.phreeque.com/


background
Coney - Freaks

Myrtle Corbin, 4-legged woman Texas. - Google Search

ANCESTRY OF THIS GRAVES FAMILY
"James Clinton Bicknell, b. 23 Dec. 1867,
m(1) Josephine Myrtle Corbin, 12 June 1886,
[m(2) Alice ------, d. 1945.]"


Married: 12 JUN 1886 in Blount County, AlabamaChildren
Nancy Estelle BICKNELL
Francis Clinton BICKNELL
Ruby J. BICKNELL
Lillian J. BICKNELL


Corbin, Josephine Myrtle
MAY 1868 Alabama
BEF 1930 Texas
marcmc database owner


Father: William H. Corbin Mother: Nancy Sullins Spouse: James Clinton Bicknell

ID: I0729
Name: William H. Corbin
Sex: M
Birth: JAN 1842 in Georgia
Marriage 1 Nancy Sullins b: JAN 1843 in Alabama
Married: 16 MAR 1865 in Blount County, AlabamaChildren
L. A. Corbin b: ABT 1863 in Alabama
Mary F. Corbin b: ABT 1866 in Alabama
Josephine Myrtle Corbin b: MAY 1868 in Alabama
Willie Ann Corbin b: MAR 1870 in Tennessee
James H. Corbin b: ABT 1872 in Alabama
Stokely Monroe Corbin b: MAR 1874 in Alabama
Merida Corbin b: NOV 1876 in Alabama
Austin Corbin b: FEB 1878 in Alabama