TOL. XHV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 375 



integuments of the head and face of the child, the bones appeared perfectly 

 formed, with a few spots of tophous concretions on them. 



On the Cass of Margaret Cutting, who Spoke distinctly, though she had lost (he 

 Apex and Body of her Tongue. By James Parsons, M.D., F. R. S. N° 484, 

 p. 621. 



Several of the members of the Royal Society having been divided in their 

 opinions concerning what was reported of Margaret Cutting, when they were 

 first informed of her by Mr. Baker;* Dr. P. conceived it to be necessary, in 

 order to render her case better understood, to lay before the Society the fol- 

 lowing particulars, which were the result of an examination made a few days 

 before by Dr. Milward and himself; and which in general differs not from the 

 opinion which that learned gentleman and he mentioned to the Society, on the 

 occasion, which the science of anatomy necessarily suggested to them at that 

 time. But James Theobald, Esq. a member of the Royal Society, having en- 

 couraged her to come to London, and having brought her to the meeting of 

 the Society, this gave all the members here an opportunity of coming at the truth 

 of her case; wherefore Dr. P. here offers first, an account of her then condition; 

 and next, some considerations on the natural state and uses of the tongue ; which 

 will show how far she makes the lips and teeth supply the want of her tongue in 

 speaking; and also enable gentlemen to judge better of the case. 



Of the state of the woman's tongue in December, 1 747. The apex and body 

 of the tongue, being the only parts that naturally fill the cavity of the mouth, 

 are intirely wanting in this woman, as closely to the region of the os hyoides, 

 which is the root of the tongue, as can well be conceived; and which was then 

 situated too low in the throat to be perceived, even when she opens her mouth at 

 the widest. 



But if any one laid the tops of the finger and thumb to the sides of her 

 throat, and let her at the same time pronounce the letter k, he would feel the 

 remaining root of the tongue rise towards the roof of her mouth, in order to 

 perform it; however, she could not keep it there any longer than the moment of 

 thrusting it up, for want of the ligament (which was destroyed with the tongue) 

 that is destined, together with the muscles, to keep the whole tongue forwards in 

 its due situation. 



Now there are certain inequalities appearing on, and closely adhering to the 

 floor of the cavity of the mouth, one. of which being the most considerable, 

 and having a resemblance in its substance to that of the surface of the tongue, 

 has been, if he was rightly informed, inadvertently mistaken for a tongue, by a 



• See Phil. Trans. No. 465, p. 586, Vol. viii. of these Abridgments. 



