1»H1L0S0PHICAL THANSACTIONS. 498 



mote spitting, are of very good and necessary use for physicians, surgeons, and 

 apothecaries, &c. that are necessitated to visit infected persons,* 



Account of a strange Birth ivhich in May last happened at Hilhrewers in Somer- 

 setshire. ByMr.ui.P. Philos. Collect. N°2, p. 21. 



Nature here designed and made preparation for twins. For the joining of 

 these two infant bodies beginning at the navel, each has all its parts below to 

 the very toes proper to itself, and not only distinct all along, but separate. 

 Upwards beneath the breasts these bodies part again, and then all is as below, 

 distinct and separate. When laid supine, they seem to have but one body 

 where joined ; but when turned there is a deep furrow between them, with 

 each a distinct back bone, &c. Each has nipples in their proper place re- 

 specting the several bodies, but one of each is seen before, the other behind 

 with respect to the whole ; they do not wake and sleep together : they suck and 

 cry heartily, exonerate apart freely, and are likely to live, if the multitudes that 

 come to see them, sometimes 500 in a day, do not occasion the shortening of 

 their lives. They are christened by the names of Aquila and Priscilla, though 

 "both females ; they were born by an easy labour to the mother, who had had five 

 children before. The midwife said, the after-burden, though but one, was 

 triple in size to what is usual ; that the navel string was very large. It is re- 

 membered, that about 40 years since such a birth occurred in Wales, and that 

 the children lived so long as to be able to talk to each other, and that in tears, 

 when the one thought what the other should do when either should happen to 

 die ; but that both died together. 



An Hypothesis of the Structure of a Muscle, and the Reason of its Contraction ; 

 read in the Surgeons Theatre, Anno 1 674-5. By Dr. C. Philos. Collect. 

 N° 2, p. 22. 



Having shown and proved at large, that the motion of a muscle is performed 

 only by the carnous fibres, and that each distinct carnous fibre had a power of 

 contracting itself; I offered an hypothesis of the structure of one carnous fibre, 



* There is little doubt that infection is received in this manner in numerous instances. It is how- 

 ever not the only way in which it is received, and therefore the ejection of the spittle will not alone 

 be always a sufficient security against infection. On a too near approach to the sick, the contagious 

 particles may, in the act of inhalation, enter the nostrils, as well as the mouth, and be detained in 

 the mucus secreted from the Schneiderian membrane j hence the propriety of cleansing the nose as well 

 as the mouth. Moreover contagion is absorbed by tlie pores of the skin 3 hence the necessity of 

 washing the hands and face after visiting the sick. 



