Mr. Home’s Account , &c# 297 
prevent the reader from giving credit to any part of the narra- 
tion. This has been fo general, that whenever the hiftory of 
any thing uncommon appears, the rniud is imp relied with a 
doubt of its authenticity, and requires fome ftronger evidence 
of the fafis than the (ingle teftimony of an individual in other 
refpedls unimpeached in his veracity. 
As the hiftories of remarkable deviations from the common 
courfe of nature in the formation of the human body already 
regiftered in the Philofophical Tranfacfions are very numerous, 
1 am defirous of adding to them an account of one fo truly 
uncommon, that, I believe, no fimilar inftance is to be found 
upon record. It is a fpecies of lufus naturae fo unaccountable, 
that, although the faffs are fufficiently eftabliftied by the tefti- 
monies of the moft refpeftable witnefles, I ihould ftill be dif- 
fident in bringing them before the Royal Society, were I not 
enabled at the fame time to produce the double Ikull itfelf, in 
which the appearances illuftrate fo clearly the different parts of 
the hiftory that it muft be rendered perfedlly fatisfaffory to 
the minds of the moft incredulous. 
' l 
The following account of the child, when fix months old, 
I was favoured with from Sir Joseph Banks ; who, from the 
hand-writing, and other circumftances, believes that it was 
written by the late Colonel Pierce. I have, however, been lefs 
folicitous to afcertain the author, as the obfervations contained in 
this account agree fo intirely with the remarks that were after- 
wards made, and with the appearances of the ikull, that they 
require no name being annexed to them, in confirmation of 
their having been made with accuracy and fidelity. 
The child was born in May, 1 783, of poor parents; the 
mother was thirty years old, and named Nooki ; the father 
Vol. LXXX. R r 
was 
