SW PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO J 768. 



head, which indeed was quite out of size, inclined on the right side and resting on a 

 pillow; which, when he wantefi to move, he supported with his hands, as it lay on a 

 very small neck. This man had enjoyed good health till he was 6 years old ; he 

 then had a diarrhoea, which lasted Q months, and, on its stopping, his lower extre- 

 mities were seized with the palsy, and lost their motion, but their feeling remained. 

 From that time his head increased yearly, together with his face, nose, ears, 

 eyes, mouth, &c. but the i^emainder of his body did not grow at all. The 

 circumference of his scalp measured 37 inches, and 8 lines, English measure. 

 The length of his face was 12 inches and 3 lines. He eat greedily, slept well, 

 but discharged his faeces and his urine involuntarily. The strength which he 

 had in his hands was very surprizing, being such, that it was difficult for any 

 person to get loose from him, when he held fast. He was besides quick 

 as to his understanding; he talked and had a good memory; seldom or never 

 forgetting what he had read. 



XXIX. Of a particular Species of Cameleon. By James Parsons, M. D., 



F.R.S. p. 19'2. 



Among the quadrupeds of the earth, the class of cameleons is one of the 

 most curious families; insomuch as to have engaged the attention of many 

 natural historians; not only on account of the particular structure of its parts, 

 but also of several curious phenomena which are peculiar to it, in its several 

 species, in the different parts of the world. This animal is ranged by authors 

 under the generical name lacerta, which comprehends a great variety of all sizes, 

 from the crocodile to the smallest lizard: but as the cameleon has its various species, 

 and each such properties as are not common to any others under the tribe of 

 lacertae, they indeed deserve to be regarded as a particular genus. However, 

 since authors have been very full in their accounts of these creatures; which 

 every one, curious in their inquiries into the history of animals, may have 

 recourse to, collected in an excellent work entitled, Dictionnaire raisonne des 

 Animaux, Dr. P. only gives a description of a species of cameleon which he 

 considered as a nondescript, having made a careful research concerning this 

 animal among authors, and seen several kinds of them, as well as various 

 figures in every history he was acquainted with; from all which the subject 

 before us is very different. ,fi} •,. 



It is chiefly in the structure of the head that this difference appears ; for the 

 head is very large in proportion to the rest of this animal, and all others of the 

 same class; and the more so, if we measure from the two anterior flat processes, 

 to the posterior extremity or process of the cranium, which measures 3 inches 

 and a quarter. This posterior process extends backwards, over the neck, to the 

 first vertical process of the spine; and the interior processes, one on each side,. 



