Girl with horns
Date
15 May 1686
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p1
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 335mm
width (page): 220mm
width (page): 220mm
Subject
Description
Front and rear view of an Irish girl who had horns growing on her body. This case was reported by St George Ashe to William Musgrave in a letter dated 10 October 1685 in Dublin. This was forwarded to the Royal Society and read at its meeting on 2 December 1685. The account was printed in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. 15, no. 176 (1685), but according to Ashe, the 'owner of the monster' would not permit a figure to be taken. This drawing was procured later by William Molyneux, and presented to the Royal Society on 26 May 1686. A print based on this drawing was printed in Nouvelle de la republique des lettres (July 1686).
Transcription
Sir, in my last I promised you what I here send you, the figures of the Horny Girl, which we had here amongst us. I perceive you have already had an account of her from a better hand then mine, and therefore I shall add no more. The account is inserted in the Philosophical Transactions of November 1685, Numb. 176. These figures being added to that Description will render the account of her sufficiently satisfactory.
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 2 December 1685, ‘Another letter of Mr. Ashe to Mr. Musgrave, dated at Dublin, October 10, 1685, was read, concerning a girl in Ireland, who had several horns growing on her body, between thirteen and fourteen years of age, born at Waterford. The horns first appeared about the third year of her age: they were most about her joints and flexures, and fastened to the skin like warts. Those at the end of her toes were as long as the toes: those at the elbows four inches long, and twisted like a ram’s horn’ (Birch 4:449).
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 26 May 1686, ‘A letter of Mr. William Molyneux to Mr. Halley, dated at Dublin May 15, 1686, with the figures of the girl overgrown with horny substances, was produced and read’ (Birch 4:485).
St George Ashe, ‘Concerning a girl in Ireland, who has several horns growing on her body’, Phil. Trans., vol. 15, no. 176 (November 1685), pp. 1202-04. Printed without an illustration because ‘the owner of this Monster would not be perswaded to let us take the figure thereof, which we design’d to present you’ (p. 1202).
The two figures of this 'horny girl' were printed from Jacobus Sylvius's letter to Pierre Bayle, published in Bayle's Nouvelle de la republique des lettres (July 1686), 790-96.
An English version was read at the Dublin Philosophical Society on 22 March 1686 (Papers of the Dublin Philosophical Society 1683-1709, ed. by K. Theodore Hoppen, 2 vols (Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission 2008), I, 454-58 (no. 206) (p. 454n)).
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 26 May 1686, ‘A letter of Mr. William Molyneux to Mr. Halley, dated at Dublin May 15, 1686, with the figures of the girl overgrown with horny substances, was produced and read’ (Birch 4:485).
St George Ashe, ‘Concerning a girl in Ireland, who has several horns growing on her body’, Phil. Trans., vol. 15, no. 176 (November 1685), pp. 1202-04. Printed without an illustration because ‘the owner of this Monster would not be perswaded to let us take the figure thereof, which we design’d to present you’ (p. 1202).
The two figures of this 'horny girl' were printed from Jacobus Sylvius's letter to Pierre Bayle, published in Bayle's Nouvelle de la republique des lettres (July 1686), 790-96.
An English version was read at the Dublin Philosophical Society on 22 March 1686 (Papers of the Dublin Philosophical Society 1683-1709, ed. by K. Theodore Hoppen, 2 vols (Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission 2008), I, 454-58 (no. 206) (p. 454n)).
Related fellows
William Molyneux (1656 - 1698, British) , Science writer
St George Ashe (1658 - 1718, British) , Mathematician
Edmond Halley (1656 - 1742, British) , Astronomer
St George Ashe (1658 - 1718, British) , Mathematician
Edmond Halley (1656 - 1742, British) , Astronomer
Associated place