VOL. XLII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 587 



using the best means he could for her relief. One day when he was syringing 

 it, the tongue dropped out, and they received it into a plate, the girl, to 

 their anDazeuient, saying to her mother, " don't be frighted, mamma ; it will 

 grow again." It was near a quarter of a year after, before it was quite cured. 



We proceeded to examine her mouth with the greatest exactness we could, 

 but found not the least appearance of any remaining part of a tongue, nor was 

 there any uvula. We observed a fleshy excrescence on the under left jaw, ex- 

 tending itself almost to the place where the uvula should be, about a finger 

 broad : this excrescence, she said, did not begin to grow till some years after 

 the cure : it is by no means moveable, but quite fixed to the parts adjacent. 

 The passage down the throat, at the place where the uvula should be, or a 

 little to the right of it, was a circular open hole, large enough to admit a small 

 nutmeg. 



Notwithstanding the want of so necessary an organ as the tongue was ge- 

 nerally supposed to be, to form a great part of our speech, and likewise to be 

 assisting in deglutition, to our great admiration, she performed the office of 

 deglutition, both in swallowing solids and fluids, as well as we could, and in the 

 same manner : and as to speech, she discoursed as fluently and well as other 

 persons do; though we observed a small sound, like what is usually called speak- 

 ing through the nose ; but she said she had then a great cold, and she be- 

 lieved that occasioned it. She pronounced letters and syllables very articu- 

 lately ; the vowels she pronounced perfectly, as also those consonants, syl- 

 lables, and words, that seemed necessarily to require the help of the tongue. 



She read to us in a book very distinctly and plain ; only we observed, that 

 sometimes she pronounced words ending in ath as et ; end as emb ; ad as eib ; 

 but it required a nice and strict attention to observe even this diff^erence of 

 sound. She sings very prettily, and pronounced her words in singing as is 

 common. What is still very wonderful, notwithstanding the loss of this useful 

 organ the tongue, which is generally allowed by anatomists, and natural phi- 

 losophers, to be the chief, if not the sole organ of taste, she distinguishes all 

 tastes very nicely, and can tell the least perceivable difference in either smell 

 or taste. 



We the underwritten do attest the above to be a true account. 



Benjamin Boddington. 

 William Notcutt, Minister. 

 William Hammond, Apothecary. 



Mr. Baker received along with the foregoing certificate, by letter from Mr. 

 Boddington, some farther particulars, which he supposed less material. He 

 says, if she were among 30 people in a room, he thinks it would be impossible 



4 f2 



