Myrtle Corbin lived an unusual life because of her special condition.
Josephine Myrtle Corbin, or as she was known to many, the “four-legged woman”, was one of the most popular figures of American circus performers in the 19th century. Born in 1868 in Lincoln County, Tennessee, she was born with an extremely rare physical feature: she had two separate pelvises and four legs.
The Story of Myrtle Corbin
Despite her inner legs being too weak to walk, Myrtle Corbin was a strong and healthy child whose unusual career began soon after her birth. She dressed both of her lower bodies in the same way, paying attention to the smallest detail.
At just 13 years old, she joined a circus troupe as the “four-legged girl from Texas” and enjoyed huge popularity in the entertainment industry. At that time, others tried to imitate him with various fakes, but no one managed to follow in her footsteps.
In the medical literature, this anomaly is called a double distortion, monstra duplicia in Latin, and the woman had the dipygus version of the condition. In this case, the lower body is duplicated, so the affected person is born with two pelvises and four legs.
The phenomenon is the result of conjoining with an identical twin in the womb. In any case, Myrtle Corbin’s life and disorder became the subject of much scholarly research in the late 1800s.
At the age of 19, she married James Clinton Bicknell, with whom she had five children. During her first pregnancy, the fetus was conceived in her uterus belonging to her stunted legs, which caused serious health problems for her, and she developed a high fever. It was discovered at this time that both of her reproductive organs were working.
Thanks to the intervention of Dr. Lewis Whaley, she successfully recovered and later gave birth to five children – three from one uterus and two from the other, according to some sources.
She died in 1928 in Cleburne, Texas. Her coffin was covered in concrete and several people watched it bond, so that grave robbers wouldn’t break it open. Several doctors and private collectors offered money in exchange for the remains, but the family rejected the offers.
The story of Myrtle Corbin not only presents the life of a circus performer, but also a portrait of a strong and persistent woman who, despite her extraordinary circumstances, raised a happy family and lived a successful life.