498 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1741. 



brought thither in December- Mr. Le C. was then in the country : she was 

 told, that her distemper was incurable ; and yet she was kept there till his re- 

 turn, to show her to him by way of curiosity. 



In effect, he found her case deserved his utmost attention ; and he had her 

 carried to his house, iu order to examine it more at ease, and to have drawings 

 taken of her distemper. 



What was curious in this distemper, was not an anus formed contrary to na- 

 ture in the groin, that accident being pretty common ; but it was the 1 guts 

 turned inside out, their villous coat, and their functions, demonstrated to the 

 very eye ; as also the aenigina occasioned by these 1 guts, which were both of 

 one piece, and which notwithstanding had 2 openings, the lower of which 

 voided the excrements, but the upper discharged nothing. He knew of no 

 other person, but Mr. Cheselden, who had observed an inverted gut in a living 

 body: but his observation added to his, Ist, Experiments on the action of pur- 

 gatives : 2dly, The singular figure of this hernia, the discovery of which has an 

 influence on the radical cure of this disease, and on those of the same kind 

 which may possibly happen, as will be seen by the sequel. 



He thought he might give the epithet of singular to this sort of hernia ; be- 

 cause, on inspection, we instantly conceived, that the gut which voided the 

 excrements, was continuous to the stomach, and the other to the anus ; but 

 how was it possible, that these 2 inverted guts should be of one piece ? Let us 

 imagine a gut cut through by a strangulation : there remain 2 orifices, one that 

 runs to the stomach, the other to the anus : if the canal of each of these ori- 

 fices turns inside out, and prolapses, as it happens, to the anus ; we then have 

 2 guts prolapsed and turned, but they are distinct one from the other, far from 

 being of one piece. It must be allowed, that the aenigma is puzzling : and in- 

 deed many surgeons saw this singularity, but not one of them accounted for it. 

 The reader, if he be an anatomist, has but to attempt the solution, in order to 

 be sensible of the difficulty. 



The villous coat, and the functions of these intestines, being exposed to the 

 eye, aflforded a circumstance still more curious and useful. These 2 portions of 

 guts seemed to be 2 large living worms. They moved here and there, twisting, 

 shortening and lengthening themselves like reptiles. The lower gut was much 

 more active and sounder. Once that he handled it, it twisted round his fingers 

 like an eel. The upper gut, that answered the anus, had less motion, and was 

 beset with pustules. 



The expulsion of the fgeces engaged particular regard : we remarked in its 

 mechanism 2 sorts of motion. The first is the vermicular motion, allowed by 

 most authors. In this, the gut first swells, and becomes smooth ; then grows 



