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Abraham Lincoln Had a Lopsided Face And StrabismusDevelopmental defect or horse kick? |
By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor
14th of August 2007, 09:00 GMT
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We all have a good side. The problem is when the other side is horrible. Now, a new research has confirmed this in the case of President Abraham Lincoln.
Laser scans of a bronze and a plaster copy of two life masks of Lincoln's face, belonging to the Chicago History Museum, show the 16th president's degree of facial asymmetry.
"Life masks were in vogue in the 1860s. Lincoln cooperated with sculptors to make them twice, in 1860 before his first presidential nomination, and in 1865, two months before his assassination. Lincoln probably did it for political
purposes more than posterity. It's the equivalent of TV face time now," said James Cornelius, curator at the Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.
The left part of Lincoln's face was much smaller than the right one, a developmental defect called hemifacial microsomia. This can be the effect of many conditions, from smallpox and heart illness to trauma or heredity.
"Lincoln's contemporaries noted his left eye at times drifted upward independently of his right eye, a condition now termed strabismus. Lincoln's smaller left eye socket may have displaced a muscle controlling vertical movement," said lead author Dr. Ronald Fishman, a retired ophthalmologist and history buff.
Severe strabismus can cause double vision and is treated today by surgery.
Asymmetry is found in any human, but the lower it is, the fitter the organism becomes.
"Lincoln noticed double vision only occasionally and it did not bother him a great deal. Most people's faces are asymmetrical, but Lincoln's case was extreme, with the bony ridge over his left eye rounder and thinner than the right side, and set backward." said Fishman.
"Lincoln's appearance was mocked by his political enemies, historians say. The author Nathaniel Hawthorne, a Lincoln fan, wrote of the president's "homely sagacity" and his "sallow, queer, sagacious visage." Hawthorne's description was deemed disrespectful and deleted by a magazine editor," said Daniel Weinberg, who owns the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago.
Gutzon Borglum, who carved on the Mount Rushmore (South Dakota) the monument representing the faces of several U.S. Presidents, referred to the left side of Lincoln's face as being primitive, immature and unfinished.
"When Lincoln was a boy, he was kicked in the head by a horse. Laser scans cannot settle whether the kick or a developmental defect - or neither - contributed to Lincoln's lopsided face," said Fishman.
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