MONSTER. 
704 
ferent nerves of the brain, begin at the openings by which 
they ufually go out of the head, and are perfectly formed 
in all refpe&s. 
Thefe children generally die very foon after they come 
into the world : but they have fometimes lived many hours, 
cried, lucked, Sec. Mr. Lawrence, of St. Bartholomew’s 
Hofpital, has furnilhed an account of a child born with¬ 
out a brain, and which lived four days: “The brain and 
cranium were deficient, and the bafis of the latter was 
covered by the common integuments, except over the 
foramen magnum, where there exifted afoft tumor, about 
equal in iize to the end of the thumb. The fmooth mem¬ 
brane, covering this, was conneCled at its circumference 
to the lkin. The child, as is generally the cafe in fuch 
inftances, was perfectly formed in all its other parts, and 
had attained its full lize. It moved brifkly at firlt, but 
remained quiet afterwards, except when the tumour 
was prefled, which occafioned general convulfions. It 
breathed naturally, and was not obferved to be deficient 
in warmth, until its powers declined. I regret that, 
from a fear of alarming the mother, no attempt was made 
to fee whether it would take the breaft ; a little food was 
given to it by the hand. It voided urine tufice in the 
firlt day, and once a-day afterwards: it had three dark- 
coloured evacuations. The medulla lpinalis was con¬ 
tinued for about an inch above the foramen magnum, 
fwelling out into a fmall bulb, which formed the foft 
tumour on the bafis of the ikull. All the nerves, from 
the fifth to the ninth, were connected to this. The 
inteftines contained a moderate quantity of the ui'ual 
dark-coloured fubftance; and there was a little fluid, 
of the ordinary appearance, in the gall-bladder. Soem- 
merring and Morgagni have obferved, that moft of 
thefe acephalous children are females; and it has been 
found, in many inftances, that the renal capfules were 
very fmall. The prefent cafe exemplified both thefe 
oblervations.” Medico-Chirurgical TranfaCtions, vol. v. 
In a fecond cafe of malformation which Mr. Lawrence 
witnefled, the whole of the fpinous procefles were defi¬ 
cient, and the place of the medulla fpinalis was fupplied 
by a vafcular membrane, like that which covers the bafis 
cranii in acephalous children, united in the fame way to 
the furrounding lkin. The heart, lungs, and liver, were 
deficient; and the ribs, Ihort and imperfect, lay dole to 
each other, and did not form a thoracic cavity. The 
face w'as malformed. The fingers and toes w'ere fewer 
than ufual: in other refpeCts, the formation of the body 
and the fize of the limbs were natural. 
The inftances in which there has been no heart are not 
very rare. Mr. Brodie met with an example in a foetus 
nearly of the natural form and fize. There was no com¬ 
munication between the trunks of the arteries and veins. 
The vena cava of the feetus was continued to form the 
umbilical vein, and the internal iliac artery of one fide 
w r as reflected to form the umbilical artery. There were 
defeCts in feveral other parts of this foetus : the fingers 
and toes were not perfeCt, nor in the right number; the 
palate w'as divided, the liver deficient, and the cefophagus 
terminating in a cul-de-fac. Other cafes of lefs perfeCt 
foetules without hearts, are mentioned in the Memoires 
de l’Acad. des Sciences for 1720 and 1740. Phil. Tranf. 
for 1767. There were alio two in Dr. Hunter's collection. 
See Mr. Brodie’s paper in the Phil. Tranf. for 1809. 
Monfters, in which confiderable parts are wanting, feem 
peculiarly likely to aflift in the profecution of phyfiologi- 
cal refearches. If we never law animals except in a 
perfeft ftate, we could not form juft ideas of the com¬ 
parative importance of the different organs; and, if we 
attended only to the complicated ltruCture of the more 
perfeCt animals, we Ihould probably conclude that the 
connexion of parts found in them was eflential to the ex¬ 
ecution of vital functions. Of thefe parts, the brain and 
nerves, the alimentary canal and its appendages, the heart 
^nd lungs, feem to be of fuch importance in the machine, 
Jtjut we Ihould probably conclude the functions of life 
could not go on without them; but, in the Ample 
animals which compofe the lower orders, many of thefe 
parts are not found, although they are capable of per¬ 
forming the molt important animal functions. This 
great fnnplicity of ltruCture is found chiefly when the 
body is homogeneous, not confiding of parts fo different 
from each other as lkin, vifeera, mul'cles, bone, &c. We 
might, therefore, ftill fuppofe, that all the complicated 
mechanifm, found in the more perfeCt animals, is eflential 
to the conllruftion of fuch heterogeneous fubftances, as 
thofe of which they confift. The monfters juft deferibed 
prove that this is not the cafe; they fltow us that car¬ 
tilage, bone, ligament, cellular fubftance, membrane, and 
inteftine, can be formed where no brain or nerve or heart 
exifts, and where there is nothing further than the aCtions 
•of the vafcular fyltem; and they lead us to conclude that 
the formation and nutrition of our organs are the func¬ 
tions of the blood-veflels only. At all events, they ex¬ 
clude the brain, nerves, and heart, from all participation 
in this procefs. 
The nature of foetal exiftence is conftderably eluci¬ 
dated by thefe monfters. Superficial obfervation will 
convince us that the life of the feetus is very different 
from that of the animal which is born. The former is 
the molt fimple kind of vitality: it includes merely the 
development and growth of parts, which, although ufe- 
lefs to the animal in this ftate of its exiftence, are eflential 
afterwards. That the lungs are of this kind, is gener¬ 
ally admitted; we muft adopt the fame conclufion con¬ 
cerning the heart. A little reflection fhows us, that the 
brain and nerves are equally inefl'ential to the fcetal ex¬ 
iftence. The nerves tranfmit impreflions from without; 
the brain perceives thefe, reflects and wills ; the nerves 
again convey the influence of the brain to the mufcles. 
Although we cannot clearly prove the point, we think 
there is very little reafon for hefitation, in affirming that 
none of thefe procefles take place in utero : confequently, 
that the brain and nerves are completely inactive. The 
alimentary canal, and the organs connected with it, the 
urinary apparatus, which difpofes of the refidue of nutri¬ 
tion, are luited to the fubfequent flage of exiftence, and 
bear an obvious relation to the mode in which the body 
is nourifhed after birth ; they are dormant while the ani¬ 
mal remains in utero, during which time the materials of 
its nourifliment and growth are drawn from the mother, 
through the placenta and umbilical chord. It is hardly 
necefl'ary to lay any thing of the generative organs, as 
they are not called into aCtion until many years after 
birth, and are then not very clofely connected to the reft 
of the f’yftem ; at lead their abfence or inaCtion does not 
produce any confequences that endanger the exiftence of 
the animal. We fliould infer then, that the whole growth 
and formation of a foetal body depend on the aCtions of 
the vafcular apparatus, which appear to be fully equal to 
the tafk. 
That beings fo imperfeCtly formed are incapable of 
executing the functions necefl’ary for the continuance of 
exiftence after birth, is very clear. Refpiration is per¬ 
formed by mufcles deriving their power from the brain, 
and, confequently, cannot take place w'here there is no 
brain. If, in any inftance, life and refpiration have been, 
kept up for a fhort time, there has probably been an inir 
perfeCt brain ; as in the cafe related above, where the child 
lived four days. All our obfervations on living animals, 
too, concur in fhowing that the heart’s aCtion is eflential 
to life. .Without the alimentary canal, no fupply of 
nourifliment can be received. 
The acephalous monfters fhovv us the independence of 
the nerves on the brain, fo far as their formation goes; and 
they evince very clearly the independence of the forma¬ 
tion and growth of the organs in general on the brain. 
For thefe individuals are perfeCt in the fize and form of all 
the parts : any organ or limb could not be diltinguiflied 
from that of the mofl regularly conftruCted feetus with 
a brain. 
If 
