M O N S T B R, 
rally-formed inteftine, with mefcntery. Two kinds of 
vefi'els were diftinguiflied in this production; but it was 
not pra&icable to afcertain clearly the nature of their 
connexion with the cyft. 
An union of the two eyes into one, which is placed 
under the middle of the forehead, in the fituation of the 
nofe, which is deficient, is not an uncommon kind of 
monftrofity: it feems to realize the ancient fables of the 
Cyclops. This fingle eye is large, and has generally the 
appearance of being compofed of two confounded toge¬ 
ther. Thus, each lid is compofed of two, united in the 
middle by their extremities, and having their refpe&ive 
Meibomian glands, &c. A fcetus of this kind fell into 
the hands of M. Littre, of the Royal Academy of Sciences 
at Paris; and his account of it is tranllated and abridged 
in the Gentleman’s Magazine for December 1768. This 
fcetus (fee the preceding Plate, fig. 2.) was born at the 
end of the feventh month, and had been dead fome time 
before its birth. It was entirely deftitute of the organ 
of fmelling. The place where the nofe lhould have been 
was flat, and level with the face, covered with a {kin with¬ 
out any perforation. All under this {kin was abfolutely 
folid, without the leaft marks to be found of the ufual 
caverns for lodging the fquamous bones and the mem¬ 
branes. But that which the face offered the moll Angu¬ 
lar, was the pofition of the eye towards the bottom of the 
middle of the forehead. It had, however, two eye-brows 
in their ufual places, with two eye-lids, but no eye- 
lafties. The globe of the eye was round, in the ordinary 
manner, and compofed of the membrane called the con- 
jimdivu, the fclerotic, and a cornea, which was of an oval 
figure. Through this cornea might be diftinguiflied two 
fmall round bodies, one on the right, the other on the 
left, fide. M. Littre, on opening the globe, obferved that 
there was no choroid ; and the two little bodies were, as 
it were, two eyes under one common covering, or con- 
ftituting one common globe : for each of thefe little bo¬ 
dies had its optic nerve, its retina, its ciliar ligaments, 
its iris, its vitreous humour, and its cryftalline; it was 
the aqueous humour only that was common to both thefe 
little bodies. Their feveral parts were all very fmall, ex¬ 
cepting the two cryftallines, which were fomewhat near 
the natural fize. The parts proper to each of thefe two 
little bodies formed a globe, diftinCl from that formed by 
the proper parts of its fellow. They touched each other 
a fmall matter in the middle, but there was no commu- 
nication between them, but by their vefi'els, which arofe 
immediately from the fclerotic; the choroid from whence 
they commonly arife, being, as has been faid, wanting. 
What therefore herein feems moft Angular, is, that nature 
fliould have inclofed two eyes under one covering, at the 
bottom of the forehead. M. Littre opened the cranium 
in the prefence of two other very celebrated anatomifts; 
and here he found the brain quite difi'olved, and without 
any formation of parts. One fmall cord only of a nerve 
was difcernable, and that was found to be the optic nerve ; 
it went out of the cranium through an aperture, precifely 
in the middle, between thofe through which the optic 
nerves naturally pafs, which were both here wanting. 
But it is remarkable that this optic nerve, though in ap¬ 
pearance fingle, was really double; being both inclofed 
in the fame capfule, as has been feen of the other parts of 
the eye. This fcetus afforded fome other Angularities, 
though not altogether fo remarkable. The right hand had 
fix fingers; the two firft arofe from the thumb, as it were 
fplit equally in two down to the root. The tongue was 
not loofe, the firing being continued quite to its tip. 
The epiglottis was no lei's fo; and moreover it was re- 
verfed over the root of the tongue; which one vice of 
conformation muft have been fufficient immediately to 
have deftroyed the fcetus, although it had been brought 
alive into the world, as it could not poflibly have fwal- 
lowed any thing. Befides the parts already mentioned, 
every thing feemed to be in the proper order. Fig. 3,4, 5, 
fliow the two cryftallines inclofed in the fame globe. 
70S 
This kind of formation is not uncommon in animals. 
Haller difleCted a cyclopic lamb; the upper eye-lid was 
compofed of two, the lower deficient. There was a fingle 
optic nerve, and one let of mulcles. All the parts of the 
eye were fimple, but unufually large. (De Monftris, 
cap. 12.) For other examples, fee Soemmering, p. 31, in 
the pig; Memoires de 1 ’Acad. des Sciences, 1703 and 1744,- 
in the dog; Phil.Tranf. No. 456, in the fheep; Buft'on, 
Defer, du Cabinet du Roi, t. xiv. p. 392—394, in the dog 
and pig; Hill. Naturelle, t. vi. p. 58, in the cat. 
The numerous examples of relemblances to animals 
muft be referred to the imagination of the obfervers, as 
more exaCt modern obfervation does not at all confirm 
them. We find foetufes del'cribed with the face, of a 
monkey, afs, dog, hare, goat, calf, fheep, cock, Ikate, 
lizard, locuft; with the head of a cat, horfe, or calf; with 
the penis of a dog, or horfe, &c. &c. &c. To the fame 
clafs belong the calves, fheep, and pigs, with human 
heads, &c. &c. Thus we are told, that there was hatched 
at Belet, in the government of Tula, in Ruflia, in 1814, 
a hen with a human face. It was lent to M. Fifcher, the 
principal of the univerfity of Mofcow, as a prelent, and 
brought immenfe crowds to fee it. M. Fifcher publifhed 
a curious memoir on the fubjeCt, in Ruffian and German, 
from which we extraCt the following : This Angular ap¬ 
pearance, fays M. Fifcher, is owing to the abfence of the 
beak : inflead of the beak is a kind of nofe formed of the 
creft; the flefh which covers the maxillary or jaw bones has 
the appearance of lips, and the whole refembles the head 
of a very old woman. In other refpe&s there is nothing 
particular in this hen; but the form of its head has given 
it different appetites and habits. It cannot drink; it is 
fed with bread fteeped in water or milk ; it loves hafhed 
meat, and is very fond of cheefe, and prefers eating in 
the hand, the foftnefs of the fkin fuiting its conformation 
better than hard bodies. This conformation is one of 
the fports of nature : but the imagination of the curious 
frequently improves upon the ideas infpired by its An¬ 
gularity. It died fhortly after the publication of M. 
Fifcher’s memoir ; he gives a very full defeription of it, 
accompanied with a plate reprefenting the head in front 
and in profile. It was fluffed, and now forms part of the 
Imperial Mufeum, a mufeum which has rifen from its 
afhes at the voice of Alexander I. the whole of the im¬ 
menfe pile of the former mufeum, occupying one half of 
the univerfity of Mofcow, having been burnt in two days, 
when the Ruffians fet fire to the city at the entrance of 
the French army in 1812. 
An entire want of the brain, and of the coverings 
which ordinarily belong to it, is a very common occur¬ 
rence ; and it conftitutes what have been commonly 
called acephalous (headlefs) foetufes. All the upper 
convex portion of the frontal bone, the whole of the 
parietal bones, the fquamous parts of the temporal bones, 
and the greater part of the occipital bone, behind the 
foramen magnum, are deficient in thefe cafes. Inflead 
of the brain, there is an ill-fliaped mafs of bone, the bafi.s 
cranii, covered by a thin membrane : the latter forms 
fometimes a confiderable foft mafs, covering the bafis of 
the lkull: behind this there is an opening, leading into 
the vertebral canal. The foft vafcular membrane is 
united at the edge of the cranium with the common in¬ 
teguments, and hair grows on the latter in this fituation, 
although there is none in the correfponding part, nor 
within lome diftanceof it, in individuals naturally formed. 
The neck is remarkably fhort, fo that the head feems to 
lie on the fhoulders, and fometimes there is a continuity 
from the chin to the cheft. (See Soemmerring, tab. 3.) 
In oneinftance, Haller found only five cervical vertebras. 
The eyes, viewed in connexion with the retreating fur- 
face of the head, give to the whole a linking refemblance 
to the head of a cat; fo that thefe foetufes have been 
called in Germany hatzen-kopfe, cats’-heads. The body 
is well formed in every other refpeCt, and generally 
reaches the full fixe. The medulla ipinalis, and the dif¬ 
ferent 
