Monday, October 16, 2006

Having three nipples counts as a "curiosity of medicine!"

Thanks to Project Gutenberg, thousands of books are now searchable online.

I'm certain that hunts for mentions of third nipples wasn't the intended purpose of the project, but sometimes greatness just happens.

I found this short mention of the subject of superfluous nipples here:

From "Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by George M. Gould and Walter Lytle Pyle"

Polymazia (or polymastia) sometimes seems to be hereditary. Robert saw a daughter whose mother was polymastic, and Woodman saw a mother and eldest daughter who each had three nipples. Lousier mentions a woman wanting a mamma who transmitted this vice of conformation to her daughter. Handyside says he knew two brothers in both of whom breasts were wanting.

Supernumerary nipples alone are also seen, as many as five having been found on the same breast. Neugebauer reports eight supernumerary nipples in one case. Hollerus has seen a woman who had two nipples on the same breast which gave milk with the same
regularity and the same abundance as the single nipple. The Ephemerides contains a description of a triple nipple. Barth describes "mamma erratica" on the face in front of the right ear which enlarged during menstruation.

That's what you get for being curious. Now you can be thankful that you don't have a nipple on your face too. And if you do, well, "Mamma Erratica" is a pretty cool nickname.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

It's OK to have a third nipple!

Not that it's news to anyone who's ever read this blog before, or anyone who has and loves their third nipple, but I just found a web site with an article called "The Top 10 Craziest Science Stuff you didn't know." (Except we knew most of it 'cuz we're so freakin' smart.)

Rocketing up the charts at number eight, it's:
It's OK to have a third nipple

A supernumerary nipple (also known as a third nipple) is an additional nipple occurring in mammals including humans. Often mistaken for moles, supernumerary nipples are diagnosed at a rate of 2% in females, less in males. The nipples appear along the two vertical "milk lines" which start in the armpit on each side, run down through the typical nipples and end at the groin. They are classified into eight levels of completeness from a simple patch of hair to a milk-bearing breast in miniature.

The copy is pretty dull -- probably scraped from a previous post of mine, or from wherever I stole it from. Hey, it's all in the name of science.