VOL. LXXIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. - 537 



The formation of hair and teeth is a species of generation, for in fact it makes 

 a part of it, and strikes the mind as being very different from any irregular sub- 

 stance which is formed by disease. This formation too takes place in a part of 

 the body which is subservient to generation, and where a complete foetus is some- 

 times formed. The whole of this looks very much as if the production of hair and 

 teeth in the ovarium was a sort of imperfect impregnation. But when we take 

 another view of it, there are reasons at least equally strong for believing that such 

 productions may arise from an action in the ovarium itself, without any stimulus 

 from the application of the male semen. 



In the case before us, the uterus was as small as at birth, indeed more so, and 

 the left ovarium, which was perfectly healthy, corresponded to the state of the 

 uterus. It had not been at all stimulated, nor did appear capable of being stimu- 

 lated by the application of the male semen. This seems to be a strong circum- 

 stance ; for in a case where there was an ovum formed in one of the Fallopian 

 tubes, the uterus was enlarged to more than twice its unimpregnated size ; and, 

 on opening into its cavity, the decidua was observed to be formed as completely 

 as in the impregnated uterus. This preparation is still preserved in the collection of 

 Windmill-street. Nothing can be a stronger proof, that when an impregnation 

 takes place out of the cavity of the uterus, the uterus still takes a share in the 

 action, and undergoes some of the changes of impregnation. In another pre- 

 paration, which is preserved in the same collection, where there was a fcetus 

 formed in the ovarium, the uterus was increased to more than twice its ordinary 

 size, was very thick and spongy, and had its blood-vessels enlarged as in an im- 

 pregnated uterus. This becomes another very strong proof of the action of the 

 uterus in the formation of an extra-uterine fcetus. In the case before us however^ 

 the uterus had undergone no change, and does not seem to have arrived at that 

 period when it could be capable of undergoing such a change. 



Besides, we are not to consider the formation of teeth in the ovarium to be a 

 quicker process than it is commonly in the head of a foetus ; but in the present 

 case the teeth having advanced fully as far as they are at some months after birth, 

 this process must have begun at least more than a twelvemonth before the death 

 of the child. If then we consider it as an impregnation, since the appearances of 

 the child do not warrant us to believe her to have been more than 12 or 13 years 

 old, this brings the date of the impregnation to an earlier period than can well be 

 believed. From all these circumstances we might be led to suppose, that the 

 formation of the hair and teeth was not in consequence of any connection with a 

 male, but arose from some action of the ovarium itself, in which the uterus did 

 not participate. The existence of the hymen, especially in so young a girl, be- 

 comes a collateral confirmation of the same opinion, though much is not to be 

 rested on it, when taken singly. 



VOL. XVI. 3 Z 



