486 



An Account of a Family having Hands and Feet with supernumerary 

 Fingers and Toes. By Anthony Carlisle, Esq. F.R.S. In a Letter 

 addressed to the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. K.B. P.R.S. 

 Read December 23, 1813. [Phil. Trans. 1814, p. 94.] 



These instances of supernatural formation are traced, by the author's 

 inquiries, through four successive generations, from Zerah Colburn, 

 the American calculating boy, to his great grandmother, whose 

 maiden name had been Kendall, but of whose brothers, sisters, or 

 parents, the present generation possess no record. 



This woman had five fingers and a thumb on each hand, and six 

 toes on each foot. 



She had eleven children, ten of whom are said to have had the 

 same peculiarity complete ; but one daughter, the grandmother of 

 the present boy, had one of her hands naturally formed. 



Of the next generation there were four persons. Abiah, the boy'a 

 father, and two others, had the peculiarity complete ; but one of his 

 uncles was like the grandmother, with one hand natural. 



The present generation are eight in number, of whom four are na- 

 turally formed as their mother is ; the rest, including Zerah the cal- 

 culator, have the peculiarity complete, with the exception of his 

 eldest brother, who has one of his feet naturally formed. 



It appears to Mr. Carlisle, that these instances are sufficiently rare 

 to be added to the numerous cases on record of peculiar structures 

 continued by hereditary descent, in the hope that a greater accumu- 

 lation of facts may enable future physiologists to trace, in some de- 

 gree, the laws which govern such productions ; more especially if at- 

 tention be paid to the relative influence of the male and female sex 

 in the propagation of peculiarities. 



Experiments and Observations on the influence of the Nerves of the 

 eighth Pair on the Secretions of the Stomach. By B. C. Brodie, 

 Esq. F.R.S. Communicated by the Society for the Promotion of 

 Animal Chemistry. Read February 10, 1814. [Phil. Trans. 1814, 

 p.. 102.] 



Former experiments having shown that when the functions of the 

 brain are destroyed the secretory organs invariably ceased to perform 

 their office, and consequently that the various secretions were pro- 

 bably dependent on nervous influence, it appeared desirable to ascer- 

 tain this point by dividing the nervous branches by which some one 

 gland is supplied, and observing the effect. But on account of the 

 difficulty of the operation itself, and of the injury done to adjacent 

 parts, it appears extremely difficult to determine the real influence of 

 the nerves in the natural state of all the functions. There are, how- 

 ever, some experiments on the preternatural secretion excited by the 

 action of arsenic, and its interruption by division of the nerves, which 

 the author thinks may deserve to be recorded as tending to elucidate 

 so important a subject. 



