532 
CASE OF MONSTROSITY IN A CALF. 
of the lusus natures. It is almost impossible for a person to 
realise such a freak of nature without having witnessed it. 
That the reader may, however, have a faint idea of the 
creature’s appearance, let him imagine a calf having the chest 
and abdomen opened inferiorly from the neck to the anus, 
the vertebrae remaining a fixed point, and each lateral half of 
the body — including the limbs and walls of the chest and 
abdomen — being doubled downward until the inferior surface 
of the vertebrae formed the animal’s back, and a hairy lined 
cavity occupied the place of the belly, the fore limbs proceed- 
ing from under the ribs and the hind ones being wrapped 
with the skin and abdominal muscles half way down the 
thighs. Then let him imagine the heart and viscera to be 
attached to what would now be the back and exposed without 
any covering whatever except that which was afforded them 
by the placenta. Further, let the reader conceive the ver- 
tebral column to be so completely circled backwards upon itself 
as to bring the head quite into the centre of the legs — where 
the belly should be — with the face looking straight out between 
the hind ones, with the tail hanging right over it, and he has 
as good a picture as can be depicted. The rectum, according 
to the reversed position of parts, terminated behind the tail, and 
the penis behind the anus. The head, as already mentioned, 
had a large sac (congenital craniocephalus), which, when dis- 
tended, would almost fill the great cavity in which it hung, 
between the limbs. This cavity was lined by integument, 
w r hich w r as covered with brown hair, with here and there white 
spots. There was no sternum, but the cartilages of the ribs 
tapered forward, and united to form a small cartilaginous 
band, which passed round and in front of the fore legs. One 
of these legs, as already noticed, was enclosed in a bag, which 
turned out to be an expansion of skin, with the hairy side in- 
wards. This skin had no attachments to the other tissues, 
and must have been nourished entirely by imbibition from 
the placenta. The enclosed leg was also fully covered with 
hair, but was malformed, the knee-joint folding inwards, and 
the articulations of the digits at the upper pastern having 
considerable rotatory motion. There was no pelvic cavity, 
there being no ossa innominata ; but simply a broad pubic 
bone growing out from the vertebrae, to which the hind limbs 
articulated. The whole vertebral column, too, was com- 
pletely anchylosed. 
Beyond the removal of the viscera no dissection of the 
foetus w r as made, as it was intended to send the specimen in as 
perfect a state as possible to the Edinburgh Veterinary College, 
in order that it might be prepared for the Museum. The 
