386 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO J 740. 



foetuses had died at different times. One began already to corrupt, and the 

 epidermis severed itself at the least touch. The monster without a head was 

 also already quite flabby, and the third seemed to have died but a few hours 

 before. He examined the monster: there was no appearance of any head; and 

 instead of the navel, there was a small lump of spongy flesh, of the size of a 

 large strawberry. About the secundines he found but 1 placentas, and 2 coats; 

 so that this monster must absolutely have been in one of those coats with 

 another foetus. The midwife was not skilful enough to give him an account 

 of the delivery; he put questions to the mother, who assured him she felt one 

 child dying 3 weeks before, and that the last died the evening before. He 

 oflitred a good sum of money to have all she was delivered of, but they would 

 not let him have it. He still ofl^ered money to have only permission to dissect 

 the monster, but the superstition of the parents deprived him of that satis- 

 faction. 



He had in his collection a monstrous foetus, which deserved particular atten- 

 tion. It was of 8 months, without head or arms; the figure outwardly seemed 

 to be nothing else but the abdomen with the legs; these were well-shaped and 

 proportioned, with the toes, and the beginning of the nails; the right foot 

 however was, as it were, crooked, and bending inwards. Having opend it, he 

 found indeed but one cavity, which in the upper part contains a small bladder. 

 There was not in all the cavity any thing besides a bit of intestine, the 2 kid- 

 neys, the bladder, and the right testicle, which lay upon the ring. The flesh 

 was hard, and, as it were, carcinomatous. The navel-string went in a little 

 higher than naturally, and a little towards the right side, entering into the in- 

 testine. There was a slender intestine, of about 14 lines in length, proceed- 

 ing from the same place, where the navel entered into the cavity ; next came 

 the caecum with its vermicular appendix, the colon and the rectum, the whole 

 together of the length of about 2 feet. These intestines went from above to 

 below in zig zag, and were attached to the spina dorsi. There was no trace of 

 the heart, the lungs, the stomach, the liver, the spleen, the pancreas, the 

 mesentery, all were wanting. The small bladder was fleshy, and contained 

 some serosity ; it was attached to the first of the vertebrae of the neck. This 

 beginning of the spina was bent forwards like a bow, and formed the monster's 

 roundness from above. The bended extremity kept the little bladder, as it 

 were, under, and shut up in the cavity closed up by the ribs. This cavity was 

 to form the thorax, but the sternum was wanting, as well as the diaphragm. 



The opinions of most of the natural philosophers concerning the origin and 

 formation of monsters may, he observes, be reduced to two hypotheses: 1. That 

 monsters are original, that is, that even in conception the monster is conceived. 



