Exploitation of gold in the south-east corner of the Black Sea is said to date from the time of Midas, and this gold was important in the establishment of what is probably the worlds earliest coinage in Lydia around 610 BC. The legend of the golden fleece dating from eighth century BCE may refer to the use of fleeces to trap gold dust from placer deposits in the ancient world. From the 6th or 5th century BC, the Chu (state) circulated the Ying Yuan, one kind of square gold coin. In Roman metallurgy, new methods for extracting gold on a large scale were developed by introducing hydraulic mining methods, especially in Hispania from 25 BC onwards and in Dacia from 106 AD onwards. One of their largest mines was at Las Medulas in León, where seven long aqueducts enabled them to sluice most of a large alluvial deposit. The mines at Roşia Montană in Transylvania were also very large, and until very recently, still mined by opencast methods. They also exploited smaller deposits in Britain, such as placer and hard-rock deposits at Dolaucothi. The various methods they used are well described by Pliny the Elder in his encyclopedia Naturalis Historia written towards the end of the first century AD.
Dipygus is a severe congenital deformity where the body axis forks left and right partway along the torso with the posterior end (pelvis and legs) duplicated. Myrtle Corbin was a dipygus; she married and had five children. In human cases, the inner two of the four hindquarters develop much smaller than normal. This is a type of "teras catadidymum" ("monster twinned below"). Another sort of deformity with extra legs can happen from a degenerated conjoined twin, as may have happened with Frank Lentini with his third leg. Signs
Dipygus manifests as duplicated lower limbs and could include additional organs or bodily structures. Causes
Dipygus is caused by genetic, environmental, or teratogenic factors. It occurs early in intrauterine life. == References ==