Lumpy

[rebyank]

Pards,
I picked this up in an antique shop in Wellington ohio, and figured I'd share it with everybody. It is maybee 2 1/2 in tall.

Try and spot the lump on the guys forehead, won't take much doing.

Enjoy,

[KentuckyReb]

Gawd! What is that thing? Is there a story behind this picture or did you just find the picture by itself? If the guy's a vet he must have had a heck of a story to frighten the grandkids with.

[rebyank]

There was no story with this pic. It was just sitting there in the case. A friend of mine suggested it might be a wen, A fiberous growth on the face. But it could be a vet with a nasty story, there's really no way to tell.

Another story lost to history.

[Hank Trent]

Settle down, everybody. That has the classic location and appearance of just what the friend said, a sebaceous cyst, also called epidermal cyst or wen. They were (are) common, generally harmless and painless unless infected, and are caused by a variety of very boring things. Try a google on those names. Here's a photo of one on the scalp http://www.edu.rcsed.ac.uk/images/450.jpg

From The Science and Art of Surgery, John Eric Erichsen, 1860:

"The growth of these tumors is often very slow, but not unfrequently after remaining stationary for years, they take on a rather rapid increase. The tumor itself, though painless, may give rise to uneasy sensations by compressing nerves in its vicinity; it usually continues to grow slowly until the patient being annoyed by its presence, gets it removed by operation... The treatment of a tumor of this kind simply consists in its removal, after which it is never reproduced. This may most readily be done by transfixing and cutting it across with the scalpel or bistoury, and then seizing the side of its cut edge with a pair of forceps, pulling the cyst out of its loose cellular bed... In doing this, care should be taken that the whole of the cyst is extirpated; the wound that is left should then be dressed lightly, and speedily heals."

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[ElizabethClark]

Ew, yerk.

Before the Wen information, my guess was he's a Utah Mormon, and that's where his horn is growing out.

I think he looks like a nice old fellow--pretty whiskers, anyhow!

[dave81276]

They also occur in the animal world. I had a husky with one on her side and a cat with one on his head. I had to have the cat's cut off his forehead, as he kept scratching and picking at it. Besides, I got relatives more frightening than that guy :wink_smil !

Dave Eggleston

[ElizabethClark]

So, would it be fairly common to have this removed, then, in the 1860s? Or would a person leave it be unless it caused discomfort? Sounds like a fairly simple surgical procedure for most.

(Good thing the image isn't being sold on eBay. I'm sure it would have a listing along the lines of "Veteran Head-Wound photo--can see the lump from the imbedded shot!")

[DougCooper]

I thought it was a photo of Tom Yearby before surgery :) Seriously, I had one of these, fortunately behind my ear, vice cyclopsian. Never hurt but still drove me nuts. All it took was a little shot and a scapel and that bad boy was gone in 15 minutes with some stitches and only a little loss of plumage. Was a strange sensation listening to the scapel scraping around on my skull though...

[Eric Burke]

Next question --- would a "disability" like that keep a man out of the Army?

[ElizabethClark]

Don't see how it could--it wouldn't impair any soldierly function that I'm aware of, and it's low enough on the forehead that even wearing appropriate uniform caps wouldn't likely be an issue.

If anything, I'd expect the age would be a larger factor.

[tenfed1861]

Ian,
I've seen some weird and sick stuff in my 17 years,but that is by far the weirdest thing I've seen.What the heck happened to him?That would make a good bed time story :tounge_sm
Cullen Smith