A small high-pitched voice caused them to turn round. “Glory to the Superman! May he favor you with an operation, Messieurs!” 

It was a legless man, posed on a silently-wheeled pedestal equipped with a deflector reminiscent of a locomotive’s cow-catcher. His torso was swathed in a kind of green leather sheath bolted to the pedestal, and that armature, hermetically sealed, only opened on the right side, to give passage to a single arm, and at the neck, to let through the head.  But what secured the originality of the face most of all was the complete absence of a lower jaw, replaced by a kind a glabrous membrane that extended to the lower lip, partly opening an entirely toothless mouth. 

“I shall proclaim it loudly forever! I’m perfectly happy, firstly because I’m Dr. Caresco’s masterpiece, and secondly because I’ve greatly diminished the chances of physical suffering and mental disappointments!”

“Would it not have been more complete, in that case, to suppress your existence totally?” said Choumaque. 

“When the Superman wishes to take me!” affirmed the half-man, with pious respect. 

André Couvreur, 1904