[ 317 ] 
which are fomewhat fimilar to that now related. When 
carefully examined, however, excepting a very few in- 
fiances, they are generally found either efTentially to 
differ, or elfe their ftrucSlure has not been, with any to- 
lerable precifion, explained. The prefent hiftory af- 
fords alfo an exception to a frequent remark among au- 
thors, ‘‘ That brainlefs children are always very brifk 
“ before they are bornr^:;;” for the mother has fre- 
quently told me, That file felt no motion at all within 
“ her after the firft birth; and that fhe had not the leafl 
“ fufpicion of there being a fecond child till it was deli- 
vered.” This circumftance may however, perhaps, be 
attributed to the medulla fpinalis being totally deficient, 
as well as the cerebrum and cerebellum. 
Phyfiologifls and philofophers have fpent a great deal 
of time in attempting to invefligate the caufes of thefe 
extraordinary phaenomena. With this view many opi- 
nions have been flarted ; but moftj if not all of them, ets 
far as I am able to judge,, being built upon the tottering 
balls of conjedlure only, afford, upon an attentive in- 
fpedlion, but little fatisfacStion to a difpaffionate enquirer 
after truth. The particular hypothefis, w^hich has 
been almofl univerfally adopted, is, that monflrofity and 
marks in children depend upon the imagination and 
1720, p. 13,. Ibid. Mem. 1720, p. 8. Ibid. 1740, p 386. and p. 592. Mif- 
cellania Curiofa Ephemeridum Germankarum Ann. XIX. p. 258. Afta Eru- 
ditorum Lipfiae, Ann. 1724, p. 501-. 
(g) Pbilofophical Tranfa£tions, 1674, N” XCIX. p. 6157. Ibid. 1767, 
p. 18^. 
longing 
