m 



VOL. XLV.} PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 56Q 



lower part of the sternum, down to the insertion of a single * funis umbilicalis, 

 which, instead of one to each, serves in common to both. 



Each child had its peculiar muscles of the abdomen ; but the straight muscles 

 were so divided, as that the rectus on the right side of the one child had the 

 linea alba between it and the rectus on the left side of the other, and vice versa; 

 so that the line of each lying directly on each other, was colliquated and opened, 

 and the conjunction of the musculi recti, thus formed but one common abdo- 

 minal cavity up to the diaphragms of each child; above which each had its own 

 proper thorax, even evident from their external appearance; whereas, had their 

 junction been but ever so little in a lateral way, each would undoubtedly have 

 had its own separate abdomen, since they would not have been so closely pressed 

 forwards, as to occasion that intimate coalescing of parts; which is manifest in 

 the dissections of several of these kinds of monstrosities, some of which have 

 been joined by the hips, some by the backs, some partly by the sides, and one 

 or two cases mentioned by Paree and Tulpius joined by the bellies. 



None of these uncommon subjects ought to be touched with a knife, till it is 

 well injected, because the vascular system, where there are any preternatural ad- 

 hesions or distortions, can never be understood nor traced without it; and there- 

 fore Tulpius, whose account of his subjects is very inaccurate, and who certainly 

 did not inject it, confesses he could make no distribution of the vessels, nor 

 find out any thing of them distinctly. 



But in the present case, a complete injection of the children being made by 

 the vessels of the umbilical cord, they were enabled to give the following exact 

 account of the vascular system and other parts ; to which however they premise a 

 description of the intestinal canal of both. 



When they came to examine the intestines, the only proper means for laying 

 them fairly to view, before they were taken out of the body, was to inflate them : 

 which was accordingly done, and thereby every part of them was rendered con- 

 spicuous. Each child had its own peculiar oesophagus, stomach, and pylorus, 

 in a natural state; from each of which the duodenum descended about 3 inches, 

 and then united into one common duct, which they call the beginning of the 

 jejunum, and which was near 4 inches long: this was inserted into the upper 

 part of a large sacculus, formed out of the very coats of the intestines, and dif- 

 fering in nowise from them in colour, density, or any other quality, but the 

 form and extension. 



Its horizontal diameter was about 5 inches, and its vertical about 4, and it 

 was formed out of the jejunum, which, in some subjects, is as long as the ileum, 

 in most near that length, and no doubt was an attempt of nature to supply the 



• See a similar case in these Traps. N" 65.---Orig. 

 VOL. IX. 4D 



