Current Date: 14 May, 2026
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Interesting Facts 17 Jul 2024

The true story of Josephine Myrtle Corbin, the lady born with four legs and two private parts

Josephine Myrtle Corbin, an American sideshow performer born in 1868, had a rare condition known as dipygus, which caused her to have four legs, each smaller inner leg paired with one of her outer legs. Corbin joined the sideshow circuit, captivating audiences as the "Four-Legged Girl from Texas."

For all intents and purposes, Josephine Myrtle Corbin was an ordinary girl. Her birth was not unusual, and her mother claimed to have had a typical labor and delivery, with the exception of the baby being briefly in breech position.

The doctors who examined the baby after birth described her as strong and healthy, with good growth rates. One year later, she was discovered to be nursing “healthily” and “thriving well.”

Overall, Myrtle Corbin was a healthy, active, and thriving baby girl. All despite having four legs.

Almost entirely ordinary

After Myrtle Corbin was born with four legs, two normal-sized ones on either side of a pair of small ones, the doctor who delivered her felt compelled to point out the factors that they believed contributed to her deformity. First, the doctors stated that the baby’s parents were approximately ten years apart in age. William H. Corbin was 25, and his wife Nancy was 34.

Broadside of Myrtle Corbin, published between 1871 and 1881. Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Second, the doctors noticed that the couple looked very similar to each other. Both of them were redheads with blue eyes and very fair skin. They actually looked so similar that the doctors felt compelled to explicitly state in their medical reports that they were not “blood kin”.

The young girl appeared to be just an anomaly despite the two factors the doctors mentioned; her parents had seven other children, all of whom were quite normal.

It would later be discovered that she had dipygus from birth and that the splitting of her body’s axis during development was probably the cause of her illness. She was thus born with two pelvises next to each other.

She had two sets of legs—one small and one normal sized—for each pelvis. The two normal legs, one with a clubbed foot, were positioned on either side of the two small legs, which were side by side.

Myrtle Corbin’s smaller inner legs were movable, but not strong enough for her to be able to walk on, according to medical journals kept by the doctors who treated her throughout her life. which, since they weren’t long enough to touch the ground, of course, didn’t really matter.

The Sideshow Career of Myrtle Corbin

P.T. Barnum. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Myrtle Corbin, then 13 years old, entered the sideshow circuit in 1881 and went by the stage name “The Four-Legged Girl From Texas.” Her father saw her potential for both fame and money after showing her to interested neighbors and charging them a dime apiece. He started running advertisements in newspapers urging people to visit her and had promotional pamphlets made.

She was portrayed in the promotional materials as a girl who was “as gentle of disposition as the summer sunshine and as happy as day is long,” and it seemed to be the case.

She flourished as a sideshow attraction, earning immense popularity. She eventually started traveling instead of drawing inquisitive bystanders. She was able to make up to $450 per week by traveling to small towns and cities and giving public performances.

In the end, renowned entertainer P.T. She was hired by Barnum for his show after he learned of her.

She stayed on staff at Barnum for four years, and when he could not get her, she even encouraged a few other showmen to create lifelike four-legged human characters for their own productions.

In the end, renowned entertainer P.T. She was hired by Barnum for his show after he learned of her.

She stayed on staff at Barnum for four years, and when he could not get her, she even encouraged a few other showmen to create lifelike four-legged human characters for their own productions.

Myrtle Corbin’s life after the circus

Myrtle Corbin with her husband and one of her daughters. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Myrtle Corbin left the sideshow industry at the age of 18. She had fallen in love after meeting Clinton Bicknell, a physician. The two tied the knot at 19.

In the spring of 1887, Myrtle Corbin found out she was expecting a child, about a year later. She had visited a doctor in Blountsville, Alabama, claiming to have fever, headaches, decreased appetite, and left side pain. Her two sets of internal and external reproductive anatomy made her anatomically unique, but doctors did not think that this prevented her from carrying her pregnancy to term.

Despite the fact that she became extremely sick during the first three months of her pregnancy and her doctor had to perform an abortion, she went on to have four more healthy children.

Myrtle Corbin’s life was comparatively normal after giving birth to her children and acting in the sideshow. She and her family continued to live a quiet life in their Texas home, even though her case kept coming up in national medical journals.

She eventually passed away in 1928 from a streptococcal skin infection. Although the condition is now easily treatable thanks to antibiotics, there was no such treatment in the 1920s.

Her coffin was buried and covered in concrete on May 6, 1928.

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