The story of Halford's 'flute boy', and what it tells us about the European trade in human remains
Posted 1
AprApril 2021 at 7:00pm
This skeleton came to Melbourne with the University of Melbourne's first professor of medicine ... and an incredible backstory.
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At the height of the French Revolution in the late 1700s, a boy sat on the steps of the Notre-Dame cathedral playing a lilting tune on his wooden recorder.
Parisians hurried by, occasionally casting a glance towards the child, perhaps throwing a few coins his way.
But what may have caused them to stop mid-stride was the sight of his legs — or, rather, leg. The boy's two thighs were fused at his knee and his leg ended in a single foot.