Myrtle Corbin Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Myrtle Corbin
Myrtle Corbin as a young girl, in 1882
Born	Josephine Myrtle Corbin (1868-05-12)May 12, 1868 Lincoln County, Tennessee
Died	May 6, 1928(1928-05-06) (aged 59) Cleburne, Texas
Nationality	American
Other names	the four-legged woman
Height	5 ft (1.5 m)
Spouse(s)	James Clinton Bicknell
Children	5

Josephine Myrtle Corbin (May 12, 1868 – May 6, 1928) was an American sideshow performer born as a dipygus. This referred to the fact that she had two separate pelvises side by side from the waist down, as a result of her body axis splitting as it developed. Each of her smaller inner legs was paired with one of her outer legs. She was said to be able to move her inner legs, but they were too weak for walking.

Early life and family
Career
Presence in medical literature
Personal life
Death
Gallery
See also

Early life and family

Corbin was born in Lincoln County, Tennessee. Corbin's parents were William H. Corbin, aged 25 at the time of his daughter's birth, and Nancy Corbin (née Sullins), aged 34. Both parents were described by physicians who examined the infant shortly after her birth as being very similar in appearance, "both having auburn hair, blue eyes, and very fair complexion"; in fact, they looked so similar that the physicians felt compelled to point out that they were not "blood kin". The Corbins had four children in total, including a child from Nancy's first marriage.

Myrtle's birth was not marked by anything "peculiar about the labour or delivery" according to her mother. Doctors who examined the child shortly after her birth noted that a breech presentation "would have proved fatal to the infant, and possibly to the mother." Corbin soon showed herself to be a strong child, weighing 10 lb (4.5 kg) three weeks after the birth, and it was reported in a journal published later that year that she "nurses healthily" and was "thriving well".

Career

Corbin entered the sideshow circuit with the moniker "Four-Legged Girl from Texas" when she was 13 years old; one of her first promotional pamphlets described her as being as "gentle of disposition as the summer sunshine and as happy as the day is long." Her popularity in this industry was such that other showmen turned to exhibiting four-legged gaffs (falsified performances). When Corbin herself was no longer performing, there were several phony four-legged women to whom audiences could turn.

Presence in medical literature

Teratologists in medical journals and encyclopedias in the 19th century classified Corbin's anomaly using several different, yet equally complex, terms, according to conventions of the time. Some referred to her as a "dipygus dibrachius tetrapus", others named her condition "'posterior dichotomy,' subvariety schizorachis". One doctor, Brooks H. Wells, described her as "female, belonging to the monocephalic, ileadelphic class of monsters by fusion."

Personal life

At age 19 she married James Clinton Bicknell, with whom she had four daughters and a son.

Death

She died in Cleburne, Texas, on May 6, 1928. Her casket was covered in concrete and various family members kept watch until it was fully cured. This was to prevent grave robbers from stealing her corpse. Several medical practitioners and private collectors offered financial compensation for her body.