688 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1742. 



for a stranger by any means to guess her being the person without a tongue, 

 for she has no odd motion of her mouth or lips in speaking : she sings with an 

 easy air, and modulates her voice prettily. He asked her, if she did not miss 

 her tongue, or find any inconvenience from the want of it ? She answered, no ; 

 not in the least ; iior could she imagine what advantage he had in the use of 

 his. He inquired, how she did to guide her food m her mouth to eat ; she re- 

 plied, very easily, she could eat before, or on one side or the other as she 

 pleased, but could not explain the manner how. He was very observing to see 

 her eat, but could discern no difference from others in the moving of her jaws, 

 or other motions of her face, nor in her swallowing food, or in drinking: she 

 did both very neatly, and had exactly the same motion in her throat as we have 

 in its passing down. 



He was apprehensive the excrescence mentioned in the certificate, might, in 

 some measure, supply the use of a tongue ; but she assured him it never moved 

 in the least, and that she spoke as well before it began to grow, which was se- 

 veral years after the cure ; and Mr. Hammond convinced him, by trying with 

 their fingers and a spoon, that it was quite fixed and immoveable. He ob- 

 serves further, that she is no ways assisted by a good set of teeth ; for she has 

 but few, those bad, and scarcely so high as her gums. He asked her in what 

 part of her mouth her most sensible taste lay? She said it was all over alike; 

 and, smiling, added, she was afraid she was too nice in that ; for if her butter 

 was not curious, she eat dry bread. 



Mr. Boddington, in another letter to Mr. James Theobald, f,r.s. dated the 

 14th of April 1742, after giving an account of this young woman in the manner 

 as before, adds, he can recollect nothing more, except her telling him, that 

 though she was able to speak from the very first losing of her tongue, she was 

 not so happy as to her deglutition ; for she was unable to swallow any thing 

 solid for many months after, without its being minced very fine, and then 

 thrust into her throat by a finger. But by degrees, she knows not how, she 

 became able to manage without that help, and could eat any thing in the same 

 manner as other persons do. He adds that, in his own mind, he thinks the 

 fleshy excrescence is of great service to her, though he cannot make out in 

 what manner : that for his own part, he had formerly supposed it as impossible 

 to speak without a tongue, as to see without eyes ; and therefore expects many 

 who shall hear this account will continue unbelievers, and think he and his 

 friends are all mistaken, that they do not know what they see, and that their 

 ignorance is the only ground of their admiration. 



After reciting several more testimonies of the truth of the cases, it is added, 

 that there are several examples of like nature to be met with in medical writers,. 



