VOL. LXXXIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 443 



in 1790 it put out a number of shoots, which grew that year, and 1791. In 1792, 

 I chose out the best shoot, trained it up as straight as I could, and beat down the 

 rest of the shoots to the ground, under the hedge, to weaken them, and encourage 

 the best shoot, which I intend to be the tree. It has since grown strong, is pretty 

 straight, has been pruned, and may I believe by degrees be cleared to a good height, 

 for the leading bud is Strong and upright. It is now (in August, 1 798) about 14^ 

 feet high, and about 64 inches in girth at the bottom. 



IV. Additions to a Paper, on the Subject of a Child with a Double Head. By 



Evd. Home, Esq. F. R. S. p. 28. 



In the year 1 790, I laid before the r. s. an account of a child with a double 

 head, illustrated by drawings, which is honoured with a place in the Phil. Trans., 

 vol. 80, (Abridgt. vol. 16, page 663). Since that time, Mr. Dent, the gentleman 

 who sent over from India the double skull, which was shown at the meeting when 

 the paper was read, has returned to England. Among his drawings there are 2 

 portraits of the double head, taken by Mr. Devis, an artist of considerable merit, 

 who was on a visit at Mr. Dent's house, in Bengal, when the child was brought 

 there alive, to be shown as a curiosity. These drawings give a more faithful re- 

 presentation of the appearance of the double head, than the engravings annexed 

 to the former paper, and at the same time exhibit a striking likeness of the child's 

 features. 



Mr. Dent's observations, in addition to those already in the possession of the 

 Society, are the following. The child was a male. Its father was a farmer at 

 Mundul Gaut, in the province of Bardwan, who told Mr. Dent, that it was more 

 than 4 years old at the time of its death *. The mother, who was 30 years of 

 age, had 3 children, all naturally formed ; and her 4th child was the subject of the 

 present paper. Mr. Dent endeavoured to discover whether any imaginary cause 

 had been assigned by the parents, for the unnatural formation of the child ; but 

 the mother declared, that no circumstance whatever, of an uncommon nature, had 

 occurred : she had no fright, met with no accident, and went through the period 

 of her pregnancy exactly in the same way as she had done with her other chil- 

 dren. The body of the child was uncommonly thin, appearing emaciated from 

 want of due nourishment. The neck of the superior head was about 4 inches long; 

 and the upper part of it terminated in a hard, round, gristly tumour, nearly 4 

 inches in diameter. The front teeth had cut the gums, in the upper and under 

 jaws of both heads. When the child cried, the features of the superior head were 

 not always affected ; and when it smiled, the features of the superior head did not 

 sympathize in that action. 



In preparing the skull, which unpleasant operation Mr. Dent was obliged, from 

 the prejudices of his servants, to superintend, he found that the dura mater be- 

 longing to each brain, was continued across, at the part where the 2 skulls joined, 

 * In the former account, the child is said to have been about 2 years old at that time. — Orig. 



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