My family shared a vacation house with several other families this year. One afternoon, one of my wife’s friends (a philosophy professor in his 40’s) was relaxing on the porch when I looked down and noticed his unusual right foot:
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I found myself blurting out, “So tell me about your foot.”
He explained that his condition is known as “syndactylism, ” (which is Greek for together + finger). It means “having two or more fingers or toes joined together.” He looked me straight in the eye and announced, “I am a syndactylist.”
I pulled out my camera to grab a photo, while my embarrassed wife sternly pleaded, “Erich! No!” But how would I possibly pass up a scoop like this? The syndactylist explained that his big toe and second toe were wrapped in one skin ever since birth. He explained that he has no functional deficit from this condition other than his inability to wear flip-flops. Here’s a bit more on the condition. [2]
To make the story a bit better, he explained that he was actually born with six toes (the sixth toe was between the current second and third toes). The doctors “took care of that right away.” He indicated that he is coping quite well in the non-syndactylist world in which he has found himself. He also explained that each of us is a syndactylist, at least for awhile, while we are in the womb. For most of us, though, the skin webbing surrounding our fingers and toes dissolves away.
As several of us were mulling around, actually starting to marvel the syndactylist’s special foot, a little girl, one of the daughters of another family walked through the porch, barefoot, and we noticed the she, too, was a syndactylist.
Based on my survey of the two syndactylists that I’ve now met, I would warn you that they all seem normal and they like ice cream, and that they could turn up anywhere, when you least expect it.
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