tiotis : some, as Mallebranche, attributed them to the 'influence of the 

 mother's imagination on the foetus in the womb ; others, as Maupertuis, 

 thought that her passions communicated to her humours irregular mo- 

 tions, which, acting with violence on the delicate body of the embryo, 

 disturbed its structure. Disease, while the child is in utero, is a much 

 more probable cause of such affections. 



If the two foetuses, contained in one ovum, lie back to back, and if the 

 surfaces at which they are in contact, become affected with inflammation, 

 it is easy to conceive that adhesion may take place beween them. By 

 placing, in a confined vessel, the fecundated ova of a tench or any other 

 fish*, the numourous young ones, which are formed, not having space 

 sufficient for their growth, adhere to each other, and fishes truly mon- 

 strous in their formation are produced. 



When, from disease, or from an original malformation, the body of 

 the foetus is deficient in some of its parts, the others are better nourish- 

 ed and grow to a large size. Hence, in acephalous monsters, as there is 

 no brain, the blood which should be sent to that viscus, going to the face, 

 it acquires a remarkable enlargement, 



One of the most curious of all the cases of monstrosities, depending on 

 an original defect in the organization of the germs, is that which was 

 sent a few years ago, by the Minister of the Interior, to the School of 

 Medicine at Paris. I shall give an abstract of it, from a more de- 

 tailed account, drawn up with much accuracy and sagacity by Mr. Du- 

 puytren. 



A young man, thirteen years of age, had complained, from his earliest 

 infancy, of pain in the left side and lower part of the abdomen. This 

 side had been prominent and contained a tumour, from the earliest peri- 

 od of life. At the age of thirteen, he was seized with fever, the tumour 

 increased in bulk, and became very painful. Some days after, lie voided, 

 by stool, purulent and fetid matters ; at the end of three months, he be- 

 came wasted by marasmus, he passed, by stool, a bail of hairs, and in the 

 course of a few weeks, died of consumption. 



On opening his body, there was found, in a cavity in contact with the 

 transverse arch of the colon, and communicating with it, some balls of 

 hairs and an organized mass. The cyst, situated in the transverse meso- 

 colon, near the colon, and externally to the digestive canal, communicated 

 with the intestine. But this communication was recent and accidental, 

 and one could plainly see the remains of the septum between these cavi- 

 ties. The organized mass presented, in its forms, a great number of fea- 

 tures of resemblance with the human foetus, an'd, on dissection, no doubt 

 could be entertained of its nature. There was discovered in it, the trace 

 of some of the organs of sense, a brain, a spinal marrow, very large nerves, 

 muscles converted into a sort of fibrous matter, a skeleton consisting of a 

 vertebral column, ahead and pelvis, and limbs in an imperfect state; 

 lastly, a very short umbilical cord attached to the transverse mesocolon, 

 at the outer part of the intestine, an artery and vein, ramifying at each of 

 their extremities, where they were in contact with the foetus and with 

 the individual which contained it. This much is sufficient to establish 

 the distinct existence, as an individual, of this organized mass, though, 

 in other respects, destitute of organs of digestion, of respiration, of the se- 

 cretion of urine, and of generation. The absence, however, of a great num- 

 ber of the organs necessary to the maintenance of life, should make it be 

 considered as one of those monstrous f'cettises, not destined to live be- 



