Freaks Entitled to Fame

1919

European Families That Had More Than Ordinary Claims to World's Attention

There is living at Bilbao, Spain, a family of seven who between them possess no fewer than 164 fingers. One of them has 23 fingers, another 21, while of the remaining five each can boast a couple of hands with 12 fingers apiece.

At Koshilivo, Russia, a very similar phenomenon exists in the fifty or more descendants of a peasant with extra fingers on his hands, who married at the beginning of the last century, all of whom are dowered with from one to five fingers in excess of the normal number.

The last surviving member of what was perhaps the record family with regard to weight was, in the person of Charles Atkins, a few years back interred at Harrow, England. He weighed 476 pounds, his brothers, who predeceased him, being no less than 504 and 560 pounds.

The family record for longevity has not been beaten since Robert Parr, the great-grandson of the celebrated Thomas Parr, died in 1737 at the age of one hundred and twenty-four. His father lived to celebrate his one hundred and ninth birthday, his grandfather reached one hundred and thirteen, while his great-grandfather was 152 at the time of his death.

There is mentioned in the Harleian Miscellany a Scotch weaver and his wife who were the proud parents of 62 children, 50 of whom reached their majority.

Large as this family was, its fame pales before that of a Russian, one Ivan Wassilig, who was the proud father of 87. By his first wife he had 69 children in the following order: Four times quadruplets at a birth, seven times triplets and 16 times twins. By his second spouse he had twice triplets and six times twins.

Undoubtedly the record for misfortune belongs to a Belgian family named Adnet. The father, Jean Adnet, was drowned; his wife committed suicide, while of his two sisters one was killed by the kick of a horse and the other by a blow received from a falling scaffold.

Jean Adnet had six children, four sons and two daughters. Of these the latter perished through the overturning of a pleasure boat. One of the sons was stabbed in a drunken brawl, another was crushed to death by a heavy wagon, while the remaining two, who emigrated to America, were slain in 1891 while fighting for Balmaceda against congressists. — Stray Stories.


Don't Sneeze; You May Die

Scientists say that we are never nearer death than when we sneeze, the act causing a momentary convulsion of the brain.