TOL. LXXX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. 66$ 



vation would probably have ended here, had not Lord Aylesford determined to 

 erect a monument on the spot, not merely to commemorate the event, but with 

 an inscription, to caution the unwary against the danger of sheltering under a 

 tree during a thunder storm. In digging the foundation for this monument, the 

 earth was disturbed at the perforation before mentioned, and the soil appeared to 

 be blackened to the depth of about 10 inches. At this depth, a root of the 

 tree presented itself, which was quite black; but this blackness was only super- 

 ficial, and did not extend far along it. About 2 inches deeper, some melted 

 quartose matter began to appear, and continued in a sloping direction to the 

 depth of 18 inches. Mr. Watt suggested the idea, that the hollows had been 

 occasioned by the expansion of moisture while the fusion existed. 



XF'l. Account of a Child with a Double Head. By Everard Homef Esq.y F. R. S. 



p. 296. 



It is much to be regretted, that the histories of monstrous appearances in the 

 structure of the human body which are to be found in the works of the older 

 writers, and even of many of the moderns, are so little to be depended on. 

 Few authors have contented themselves with giving a simple detail of facts that 

 were extraordinary; but, from an over anxiety to make them still more wonder- 

 ful, or from having given an implicit belief to the accounts received from the 

 credulous and ignorant, they have commonly added circumstances too extrava- 

 gant to deserve the attention of a reasonable mind, which prevent the reader 

 from giving credit to any part of the narration. This has been so general, that 

 whenever the history of any thing uncommon appears, the mind is impressed 

 with a doubt of its authenticity, and requires some stronger evidence of the facts 

 than the single testimony of an individual in other respects unimpeached in his 

 veracity. 



As the histories of remarkable deviations from the common course of nature 

 in the formation of the human body, already registered in the Philos. Trans, are 

 very numerous, Mr. H. is desirous of adding to them an account of one so truly 

 uncommon, that no similar instance, is to be found on record. It is a species of 

 lusus naturae so unaccountable, that, though the facts are sufficiently established 

 by the testimonies of the most respectable witnesses, he should still be diffiden- 

 in bringing thera before the r. s., were he not enabled at the same time to pro- 

 duce the double skull itself, in whidi the appearances illustrate so clearly the 

 different parts of the history that it must be rendered perfectly satisfactory to 

 the minds of the most incredulous. 



The child was born in May, 1783, of poor parents; the mother was 30 years 

 old, and named Nooki; the father was called Hannai, a farmer at Mandalgent 

 near Bardawan, in Bengal, and aged 35. At the time of the child's birth, the 



