Account of the Dissection of a Human Foetus. 43 

 the position of the celestial bodies. In this manner ter- 

 minates the second book : extremely remarkable from the 

 importance of the subject, the eltgance of the methods, and 

 the simplicity of the details; valuable advantages which are 

 principallv felt in the inquiry into the inequalities depending 

 upon the relations of the mean motions. Geometricians 

 know that it is to the author of this work we are indebted 

 for almost the whole of this theory. 



ENP OF BOOK SECOND. 



[To be continued.] 



VII. Account of the Dissection of a Human Foetus^ in which, 

 the Circulaiion of the BlOod was carried on without a 

 Heart. By Mr. B. C. Brodie. Communicated by Eve- 

 RARD Home, Esq., F.R.S.* 



An opportunity lately occurred to me of e\amming a hu- 

 mari foetus, in which the heart was wanting, and the circu- 

 lation of the blood was carried on by the action of the vessels 

 only. There have been some other instances of this remark- 

 able deviation from the natural structure ; but in that to 

 which I allude the growth of the child had been natural, 

 and it difiered much less from the natural formation than in 

 any of those which are on record, and I have therefore been 

 induced to draw up the following account of it. 



A woman was delivered of twins in the beginning of the 

 seventh month of pregnancy. There was a placenta, with 

 two umbilical chords, which had their origin about three 

 inches distant from each other. The placenta was not pre- 

 served ; but Mr. Adams, who attended the mother in her 

 lying-in, observed nothing unusual in its appearance. Both 

 foetuses were born dead. They were nearly of the same size. 

 One of ihem in no respect differed from the ordinary forma- 

 tion ; tlie other had an unusual appearance, and Mr. Adams 

 thought it deserving of examination. Through Dr. Hooper 

 it was jnit into my hands for this purpose. 



The foBtus measured thirteen inches from the summit of 



* Froii. P.i-..ci?o[ihical Transactions for ISOP, I'art 1. 



the 



