Cyclops

I just finished reading an early Ripley's Believe It or Not volume that included the tale of the Clement Child, who was born in Tourcoing, France in 1763, with a single eye in the middle of her forehead. Unlike most infants born with this anomaly, she survived more than a few days and Robert Ripley cites Buffon (1707-1788) in stating that she lived to the age of 15! Cyclopia or cyclocephaly is a congenital abnormality in which the orbits of the eye fail to divide into two cavities. It causes the brain to stay whole instead of having two distinct hemispheres, resulting in a single optic and olfactory lobe.