VOL. XIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 20^ 



much out, made the child's face very monstrous. In the temporal bones there 

 was nothing seen but what inclosed the organ of hearing ; on laying the 

 hand upon it the beating of the arteries was felt ; and the vessels which watered 

 the pia and dura mater, were seen distinctly, as if the bone had been taken 

 off. The child lived in this state 4 or 5 days. 



A surgeon having opened a young girl, found her matrix so scirrhous, that 

 it seemed to be made but of one piece. — Such a thing was observed in a girl 

 1 years old, that died of an apoplexy ; there were also 4 glands in the mesen- 

 tery of this maid, each as large as a walnut. Also the mesentery of a child 

 7 or 8 years old, was made of 2 glands, each of the same size. — A surgeon found 

 in a girl of 11 or 12 years old, instead of a matrix, a very thin membrane, placed 

 where the matrix is. The vagina in the outward orifice was shut up hermeti- 

 cally, i. e. the cover was of the same piece with the matrix. 



The Anatomical History of the Leech. By M. Poiipart* N° 233, p. 722. 



The upper lip is stretched out into a point, and falls on the under, which is 

 round like a crescent, and shorter. Its throat on the inside is covered with a 

 great many white muscles, about 5 or 6 lines along, as thick as a small thread, 

 and lying parallel to each other, along its body. When the leech applies its 

 mouth to the flesh of any animal, all these muscles contract themselves, and 

 she sucks with so great violence and greediness, that the part enters in form of 

 a small nipple into its throat. So that all the effect of suction terminating in 

 a very little space, of necessity the flesh must break in that part. 



There is seen at the extremity of its tail, a little flat part, exactly round, 

 the border of which is elevated far above the tail, and all round it ; and this it 

 applies so uniformly to the bodies on which it fastens, that it touches them in 

 all their parts ; and then drawing up a little the middle of this flat part, without 

 taking off the edges, she makes of it, as it were, a little balm, and leaves a 

 cavity in the middle. This excellent glue fastens so strongly the tail of the 

 leech, that it is a hard matter to pull it away, without making some rent, 

 especially if drawn perpendicularly from the surface on whicii the animal is 

 fastened. It has always recourse to this little instrument for fastening its body, 

 that it may not be suspended in the air, while it draws its nourishment by 

 suction, or else that it be not carried away with the current of water, while it 

 carries its head to and fro in search of food. 



Its gut goes in a straight line from the mouth to the anus: it is as large as a 



* Francis Poiipart was originally a French sailor, and afterwards capitain de vaisseau ; but being 

 of a studious turn, he quitted the navy and devoted himself to philosophy and medicine. He was a 

 member of the Parisian Academy of Sciences, in whose memoirs are inserted several papers by hicn 

 on natural history and comparative anatomy. 



VOL. IV. Ee 



