404 Coffitfutmcaflon of the Baron Munchaufen, Nov. 



That the art of thus forming artificial nofs^s, (however ludi- 

 croully reprffented, after his own manner, by Butler), was, iti 

 faft, fuccefsfully pradifed by Tagliacotti, we are allured by Fer- 

 rier, the learned detector of the plagiarilms of Sterne. Taking 

 therefore the fact for granted, I be^jan to corifidcr to what ufes 

 the experiment of Tai^liHCocti mi^ht be applied, farther, than 

 nierely the r^'drcfllng of nofes, curtailed by the great pox. One 

 dimculty indeed prefented itfelf, as to the extenlion of the ex- 

 periment -, which was the entire fympathy fuppofed to fubfift 

 betwixt the graft and the original (lock from which it was tak- 

 en, notwithdanding of this total diffeveraiion to the eye of 

 fenfe : — 



But^ ivhcn the date of knock was out. 



Off droft the fiipplemental fnoiit. 



Did this fympathy in fa£l fubfift ; then the application of the 

 princip\e might, eventually, prove but tempor.iry in its efFecls. 

 But, on farther reflexion, I was convinced the exiltence of the 

 fympathy was a mere arbitrary fuppofnion ; in facb, a mere vul- 

 gar prejudice, fimilar to that of the fympathy fuppofed fubfift- 

 ing betwixt the wound, and the fword that infiicled it ; which 

 in the chirurgical practice of thefe times, caufed the application 

 of medicine to be made folely to the inftrument ; probably, in- 

 deed, to the no little advantage of the w^ound ; which was thus 

 left to heal according to the firft intention, through the vis me- 

 dicatrix Jiatura. — Very pcfhbly Tagliacotti himfelf, as a man of 

 humanity, might have originally invented and been careful to in* 

 ftil this prejudice of the fympathy, that the rich patient might 

 ever after continue anxious to provide for the comfort of the 

 poor perfon who had imparted from his breech, the materials 

 for refitting the other's nofe •, and indeed, it would conflitute a 

 noit efficient bond of fecial union, were the nofe of the rich, 

 ever and univerfally, thus to feel in unifon with the breech of 

 the poor. 



Having thus fatisfied myfelf, that the fympathy alleged by 

 Butler, was a mere gratuitous fuppofition, which oeeded not give 

 me any uneafinefs in the profecution of my experiments-, I 

 next turned my attention to the general analogy of nature, to 

 dilcover how far it tended to overthrow or confirm the prtibabi- 

 lity of the concretion and homogenizaiion cf dijjiniilar or different 

 farts of the fame fpecies^ or of d'Jfennt [pedes of animals, thus arti' 

 f daily conjoined, according to the practice of 'Tagliacotti. In ani- 

 mals, I could find few fa<Sts, upon the analogy of which, I could 

 lay hold ; unlefs, indeed, the two-bodied chtldren, preferved i^i 

 >he mufeums of the curious, or the cows with two imads exhi- 

 bited at country f?irs, might be conftrued into analogous facls. 



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