[HPforGrownups] Re: CHAPTER DISCUSSION PS/SS 6, The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters

[Rick H. Kennerly]

No: HPFGUIDX 188003

wildirishrose01us wrote:
>
> Marianne:
>
> Why did the Dursleys wait so long to go to London the have Dudley's tail removed?  Considering it was magic that caused the tail to appear I would have thought the Dursleys would have wanted to get it taken care of ASAP.  And what kind of Dr. would they have taken Dudley to?  What kind of explanation could they give?  Certainly they wouldn't have known about St. Mungos.
>   

Human tails are rare but not unknown. 

"Human embryos <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embryo> have a tail that 
measures about one-sixth of the size of the embryo itself.^[1] 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail#cite_note-0> As the embryo develops 
into a fetus <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetus>, the tail is absorbed 
by the growing body. The developmental tail is thus a human vestigial 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_vestigial> structure.^[2] 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail#cite_note-1> ^[3] 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail#cite_note-2> Infrequently, a child is 
born with a "soft tail", which contains no vertebrae, but only blood 
vessels, muscles, and nerves, although there have been a very few 
documented cases of tails containing cartilage or up to five vertebrae. 
Modern procedures allow doctors to eliminate the tail at delivery. Some 
of these tails may in fact be sacrococcygeal teratomas 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacrococcygeal_teratoma>. The longest 
human tail on record belonged to a twelve-year-old boy living in what 
was then French Indochina 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Indochina>, which measured 229 mm 
(9 inches). A man named Chandre Oram 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandre_Oram>, who lives in West Bengal, a 
state in India, is famous because of his 13-inch (330 mm) tail. It is 
not believed to be a true tail, however, but rather a case of spina 
bifida <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spina_bifida>.

Humans have a tail bone <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail_bone> (the 
coccyx <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccyx>) attached to the pelvis, in 
the same place which other mammals have tails. The tail bone is formed 
of fused vertebrae <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertebra>, usually 
four, at the bottom of the vertebral column 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertebral_column>. It doesn't protrude 
externally, but retains an anatomical purpose: providing an attachment 
for muscles like the gluteus maximus 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluteus_maximus>."


-- 

Rick Kennerly
Virginia Beach, VA
www.mouseherder.com 
<http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=1213141578&ref=name>



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