M O 'N S T E K . 
70S 
tion was f e£preffed by tire mouth of the fuperlor head . and, 
the faliva flowed more copioufly tha.n at any other time ; 
for it always flowed a little from it. When the child 
fmiled, the features of the fuperior head fynipathifed in 
that aCtion. When the flcin of the fuperior head was 
pinched, the child leerned to feel little or no pain, at lealt 
not in the fame proportion as was felt from a limilar 
violence being committed on its own head or body. The 
child was killed by the bite of a cobra de capelo. The 
parents at this time lived on the grounds of Mr. Dent, 
the Eafl-India Company’s agent for fait at Tumloch ; and 
the body was buried near the banks of the Boopnorian 
river. It was afterwards dug up by Mr. Dent and his 
European fervant, the religious prejudices of the parents 
not allowing them to difpenfe with its being interred. 
The double Ikull was brought to Europe by Capt. 
Buchanan, commander of the Ranger packet, in the fer- 
vice of the Eaft India Company, and depofited by Mr. 
Home in Mr. John Hunter’s curious collection. The 
two Ikulls which compofe this monftrous head appear to 
be nearly of the fame fize, and equally complete in their 
ofiilication, except a fmall fpace at the upper edge of the 
ofla frontis of the fuperior Ikull. The mode in which the 
two are united is curious, as no portion of bone is either 
added or diminifhed for that purpofe ; hut the frontal and 
parietal bones of each Ikull, inftead of being bentinwards, 
fo as to form the top of the head, are continued on ; and, 
from the oblique pofition of the two heads, the bones of 
the one pafs a little way into the natural futures of the 
other, forming a zig-zag line, or circular future, uniting 
them together. The two fkulls appear to be almoit 
equally perfeCt at their union ; but the fuperior Ikull, as 
it recedes from the other, is becoming more imperfeCt 
and deficient in many of its parts. The meatus audito- 
rius in the temporal bone is altogether wanting. The 
bafis of the Ikull is imperfeCt in feveral refpefts, particu¬ 
larly in fuch parts as are to conned! the Ikull with a body. 
The foramen magnum occipitale is a fmall irregular hole, 
very infuffiqient to give paflage to a medulla fpinalis; 
round its margin are no condyles with articulating fur- 
faces, as there were no vertebras of the neck to be attached 
to it. The foramen lacerum in bafi cranii is only to be 
feen on one fide, and even there too fmall for the jugular 
vein to have pafied through. The ofla palati are defi¬ 
cient at their poflerior part; the lower jaw is too fmall 
for the upper, and the condyle and coronoid procefs of 
one fide are wholly wanting. In moll of the other re- 
fpedls, the two ikulls are alike ; the number of teeth in 
both is the fame, viz. fixteen. 
In the year 1798, Mr. Dent, the gentleman who fent 
the Ikull from India, returned to England. His obfer- 
vations, in addition to the above, are the following. The 
child was a male. Its father told Mr. Dent, that it was 
more than four years old at the time of its death. (The 
firfi: account faid two years.) The mother had three 
children, all naturally formed; and this was her fourth. 
Mr. Dent endeavoured to difcover whether any imaginary 
caufe had been afligned by the parents, for the unnatural 
formation of the child ; but the mother declared, that no 
circumftance whatever, of an uncommon nature, had 
occurred: Ihe had no fright, met with no accident, and 
went through the period of her pregnancy exaCtly in the 
fame way as file had done with her other children. The 
body of the child was uncommonly thin, appearing ema¬ 
ciated from want of due nourilhment. The neck of the 
fuperior head was about four inches long ; and the upper 
part of it terminated in a hard, round, griftly tumor, 
nearly four inches in diameter. The front teeth had cut 
the gums, in the upper and under jaws of both heads. 
When the child cried, the features of the fuperior head 
were not always affeCted; and, when it fmiled, the fea¬ 
tures of the fuperior head did not lympathize in that 
aCtion. 
In preparing the Ikull, which unpleafant operation Mr. 
Dept wa§ obliged,.from the prejudices of his fervants, to 
fuperintend, he found that the dtfra’mater belongingto- 
each brain, was continued acrofis, at the part where the 
two fkulls joined, fo that each brain was invefted, in the 
ufual way, by its own proper coverings; but the dura 
mater which covered the cerebrum of the upper brain 
adhered firmly to the dura mater of the lower brain: the 
two brains were therefore fe pa rate and diftinCt, having a 
complete partition between them, formed by an union of 
the dura: liiatres. When the contents of the double Ikull 
were taken out, and this union of the durse matres more 
particularly examined, a number of large arteries and 
veins were feen palling through it, making a free com¬ 
munication between the blood-vefiels of the two brains. 
This is a faCt of confiderable importance, as it explains 
the mode in which the upper brain received its nourifli- 
ment. Before thefe obfervatjons were communicated by 
Mr. Dent, it was natural to fuppofe that the two brains 
had been united into one mafs ; as it was difficult to 
imagine in what way the upper brain could be fupplied 
with blood. 
In the Plate, at fig. 6. the child is reprefented as it ap¬ 
peared at the age of twenty months, and is copied from a 
picture in the pofiefiion of Mr. Stark. The painting was 
taken from the child by Mr. Smith, an ingenious artift, at 
that time refiding at Bengal. It conveys a general idea 
of the appearance of this extraordinary child, and the 
relative proportions between the double head and the 
body. In fig. 7. the double head is reprefented of a 
larger fize. One of the eyes of the upper face appears 
fmaller or more contracted than the other ; this is in con- 
fequence of the injury it received when the child was 
thrown upon the fire. The fuperficial veins on the fore¬ 
head of the upper head are very diflinCtly feen. Fig. 8. is 
a reprefentation of the double Ikull, which is in Mr. 
Hunter's collection, upon the lame feale. It fliows the 
curious manner in which the two fkulls are united to¬ 
gether, and the number of teeth formed before the 
child’s death ; which circumftance afeertains, with 
tolerable accuracy, its age. Phil. Tranf. vol. lxxx. and 
lxxxix. 
Winflow mentions an Italian, whom he law in 1698, 
who had another head, much lefs than his own, connected, 
to the cheft, below the cartilage of the third rib. This 
had been baptifed feparately from the other. It adhered 
by the lower half of the right fide of the face and head ; 
fo that the right ear and furrounding parts were not 
feen. All the reft of the head and face, with the hair, 
and molt of the neck, the eyes, nofe, mouth, teeth, and 
chin, were very diflinCdly vifible. This Italian felt what¬ 
ever affeCted the additional head. The fame anatomiH 
faw a girl, twelve years old, well formed, and of the ac- 
cuftomed fize, with the abdomen and lower extremities 
of another body hanging from the left fide of the epi- 
gaftric region. This fecond body was fmall; it had a 
row of vertebras connected to the flernum of the larger ; 
and fasces were dil'charged from it. The formation of 
the parts compofing it Teemed natural in every refpeCt. 
The child felt perfectly whatever touched this additional 
body. Winflow found, on difleCtion, that the ileum bifur^ 
cated, and each branch went into a correfponding large 
inteftine. The latter, in the little filler, terminated in a 
common receptacle with the ureters. The bones of the 
filter were well formed, but there were no mufcles ; the 
interval between the lkin and bones being filled merely 
with fat, blood-vefiels, and nerves. In this inftance^ 
there was a doubt whether the child fliould be confidered. 
as one or two; and Winflow was lent for, not only to 
afford his medical afliftance, but alfo to confider whether 
extreme unCtion Ihould be adminiftered to the little 
filter, as well as to the, entire body. Mem. de VAcad. 1733. 
P- 33<5. 
A more remarkable inftance, in which at lealt the ad¬ 
ditional being was more perfeCt, was feen and is deferibed 
by Bartholin, who viewed it, as he fays, with great alto- 
nilhment (cum ftupore), and Zacchias; and was exhi- 
a bited 
