MONSTERS IN ANIMALS. 251 



Now, why these foetuses should live and come to full growth, ex- 

 cepting as to the part which may be deformed or defective, and not 

 live after birth, is not easily explained. 



I should imagine that monsters were formed monsters at the very 

 first formation for this reason, that all supernumerary parts. are joined 

 to their similar parts; for example, a head to a head, &C. 1 



But monsters, in some cases, may be said to be accidental, as the 

 horn growing out of the forehead of the ox or cow 2 . 



Is not the forked end of the fang of a tooth a species of monstrosity ? 

 and does not the manner of its formation show the nature of mon- 

 sters, viz. two fangs being formed from a preternatural process taking- 

 place ? 



"We often find in the human body an appendix or process passing 

 out from the small gut ; and I believe always from the ileum. In the 

 year 1763, I found one of these in a body situated about one foot and 

 a half from the caecum. In the same winter I found another nearly 

 three feet from the caecum 3 . 



Double-headed Snakes. 



America would seem to abound more in double-headed snakes than 

 any other country. I have heard of several, by gentlemen who have 

 been there, and I have two from that country in my possession 4 ; but I 

 do not remember to have heard of any in other countries. Both those 

 I have heard of, and those I have seen, were small, not large or full- 

 grown ; therefore we may suppose they are not long-lived, but they are 

 old enough to prove that they lived for some time after birth, having 

 ate, &c, and that their death was owing to their having been caught ; 

 and that therefore they would have lived longer 3 . 



1 [Hunt. Preps. Series of Monsters, Nos. 190, 194, 264. The above ' Note ' was 

 probably penned after the reception by Hunter of the letter dated March 25, 

 1790, descriptive of the child having a second head, reversed, and attached by the 

 vertex to that part of its own proper head. See Philosophical Transactions, 

 vol. lxxx. 1790, p. 296.] 



2 [Hunt. Prep. Series of Monsters, No. 271. " The head of a cow with an addi- 

 tional horn growing from the centre of the forehead, &c," ' Catalogue of Monsters,' 

 4to. p. 75.] 



3 [lb. Nos. 295-298.] 4 [lb. Nos. 32, 33.] 



5 [Mr. Rembrandt Peale of Philadelphia, when hi London with the skeleton of 

 the Mastodon in 1802, told me that double-headed snakes were so frequently met 

 with in America, that they considered them as species, and not as monsters : but he 

 did not recollect if they were similarly marked. There were several specimens in 

 hi6 father's museum at Philadelphia or New York. — Wm. Clift.] 



