VOL. XXII.J PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 631 



like what they had seen in other children ; nor could they perceive it reheved by 

 any thing administered to it, though by the advice of a skilful physician ; but it 

 lay groaning and pining till it died : that they had always observed, when the 

 child was undressed, an odd sort of working in its breast ; and could perceive a 

 crawling round the ribs and breast on both sides, as if a knot of small eels, or 

 large earth-worms had been penned up within the cavity. 



This relation seemed strange, but upon the dissection we found sufficient 

 reason to believe the account. On opening the abdomen, there appeared none 

 of the viscera belonging to the belly, except the liver, the kidneys, vesica 

 urinaria, and intestinum rectum. We at first imagined that the other intestines 

 might be covered by the liver, which, though commonly large in children, in 

 this exceeded the usual size ; but on turning it up towards the diaphragm, 

 we only found under its concave part, the stomach, not lying in its natural 

 position, for the pylorus was drawn by the duodenum across the vertebrae of the 

 back, towards the bottom of the ventricle, and part of the duodenum passed 

 through a foramen in the diaphragm, placed on the left side of that through 

 which the gula descends, which occasioned the pylorus to lie almost under the 

 bottom of the ventricle. We then resolved to trace the rectum from the anus 

 upward, not doubting but that it would lead us to the mesentery and intestines. 

 The rectum lay in an oblique line from the anus to this new foramen, and was 

 received into it with a portion of the duodenum. This foramen seemed to be 

 formed by nature from the first, for transmitting those guts into the thorax ; 

 for had it been made by any force, its sides would have appeared wounded, or 

 lacerated ; but on the contrary, round this orifice there was a smooth verge, as 

 is seen in the previous foramen of the vena cava, or that by which the gula 

 descends. 



When we took off the sternum, we saw the mesentery with the intestines in 

 the cavity of the thorax, lying upon the heart and lungs. There was no omen- 

 tum spread over the intestines, which was entirely wanting, as was also the 

 mediastinum. Most part of the duodenum lay in the thorax, and all the rest 

 of the guts, except the rectum, which ascended in an oblique line from the 

 anus, and its upper end was inserted into this orifice. After having some time 

 admired this new situation of the intestines and mesentery, we began to con- 

 sider how this child, according to the common notions of nutrition, could be 

 nourished ? That it was nourished, seems plain, because it daily received food, 

 and regularly voided the faeces : so we proposed to inquire what communication 

 there was between that gland, or glands, in the middle of the mesentery (com- 

 monly called pancreas Asellii) and the receptaculum chyli placed between the in- 

 ternal lumbar muscles, called psoas ; but on the most accurate search there was 



