666 THILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO I79O. 



smiled, the features of the superior head sympathised in that action. When the 

 skin of the superior head was pinched, the child seemed to feel little or no pain, 

 at least not in the same proportion as was felt from a similar violence being com- 

 mitted on its own head or body. 



When the child was about 2 years old, and in perfect health, the mother went 

 out to fetch some water ; and on her return found it dead, from the bite of a 

 cobra de capelo. The parents at this time lived on the grounds of Mr. Dent, the 

 honourable East India Company's agent for salt at Tumloch, and the body was 

 buried near the banks of the Boopnorain river. It was afterwards dug up by Mr. 

 Dent and his European servant, the religious prejudices of the parents not allow- 

 ing them to dispense with its being interred. The double skull was brought to 

 Europe by Capt. Buchanan, late commander of the Ranger packet, in the ser- 

 vice of the honourable the East India Company, and deposited by Mr. Home in 

 Mr. John Hunter's curious collection. 



The 2 skulls which compose this monstrous head appear to be nearly of the 

 same size, and equally complete in their ossification, except a small space at the 

 upper edge of the ossa frontis of the superior skull, similar to a fontinel. The 

 mode in which the 2 are united is curious, as no portion of bone is either added 

 or diminished for that purpose ; but the frontal and parietal bones of each skull, 

 instead of being bent inwards, so as to form the top of the head, are continued 

 on ; and, from the oblique position of the 2 heads, the bones of the one pass a 

 little way into the natural sutures of the other, forming a zig-zag line, or cir- 

 cular suture uniting them together. The 2 skulls appear to be almost equally 

 perfect at their union ; but the superior skull, as it recedes from the other, is be- 

 coming more imperfect and deficient in many of its parts. The meatus auditorius 

 in the temporal bone is altogether wanting. The basis of the skull is imperfect in 

 several respects, particularly in such parts as are to connect the skull with a body. 

 The foramen magnum occipitale is a small irregular hole, very insufficient to 

 give passage to a medulla spinalis ; round its margin are no condyles with arti- 

 culating surfaces, as there were no vertebrae of the neck to be attached to it. 

 The foramen lacerum in basi cranii is only to be seen on one side, and even there 

 too small for the jugular vein to have passed through. The ossa palati are defi- 

 cient at their posterior part ; the lower jaw is too small for the upper, and the 

 condyle and coronoid process of one side are wholly wanting. In most of the 

 other respects, the 2 skulls are alike ; the number of teeth in both is the same, 

 viz. l6. 



From an examination of the internal structure of the double skull, the 2 brains 

 have certainly been inclosed in 1 bony case, there being no septum of bone be- 

 tween them. How far they were entirely distinct, and surrounded by their pro- 

 per membranes, cannot now be ascertained ; but from the sympathies which were 



