Philosophical transactions, Vol. L. Part I. For the year 1757. · Various
“+SIR+,
I Send you inclosed the print of a wonderful union of two twin sisters, who are at this time to be seen at the Hague. I saw them, and observed all, that I could think tended to explain the appearance. They are Hungarians, as the lines under the print will shew you. There is there an exact enough description of their condition; only I may add, that in fig. 1. the urinal passage is between the two foremost thighs, as they are in the print. The same is true of the anus in the 2d figure, in such manner, that the situation of these parts is the same to outward appearance as naturally, with this difference, that they are between two different bodies here, whereas in the course of nature they are between the two parts of the same body. It seems probable, that their parts are distinct; but that the most remote labia of each are outwardly visible, and the two contiguous ones are within. There seems to be no cheat in the thing; and the skin, where they are joined, is perfectly smooth, without any scar. They are now about six years old. They speak French and High German. They are very full of action, and talk one more than the other. When one stoops to take up any thing, she carries the other quite from the ground; and that one of them often does, being stronger as well as more lively than the other. They have not their feeling common any where but in the place of their conjunction. This is all I can say about it. If you think it worth while, you will do me an honour in giving the print, and the substance of this account, to the Society; to which, tho’ an unworthy member, I would be proud to be capable of any service.”
Another account of them by an eye-witness in London is in a manuscript volume among those of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart. in the British Museum, intituled, _A short History of human Prodigies and monstrous Births, of Dwarfs, Sleepers, Giants, strong Men, Hermaphrodites, numerous Births, and extreme old Age, &c._ The name of the writer was James Paris du Plessis. In p. 39. under the Title _Two Sisters conjoined_, he gives a drawing of them, and the following description: “These two monstrous girls were born at Szony in Hungary in the year 1701. They were born conjoined together at the small of the back. I asked the father and mother, if they could not be separated one from the other? but they answered, No; because the urinary and fœcal vessels and passages were so united, as to have but one issue for the urine, and another for the excrements, betwixt both. They were brisk, merry, and well-bred: they could read, write, and sing very prettily: they could speak three different languages, as Hungarian or High Dutch, Low Dutch, and French, and were learning English. They were very handsome, very well shaped in all parts, and beautiful faces. Helen was born three hours before her sister Judith. When one stooped, she lifted the other from the ground, and carried the other upon her back; neither could they walk side by side. They loved one another very tenderly. Their clothes were fine and neat. They had two bodies, four sleeves; and one petticoat served to the bodies, and their shifts the same. When one went forward, the other was forced to go backward.”
A later and more particular account is contained in p. 41, _& seqq._ of a book very seldom met with in this country, being printed at Vienna in 1729. intituled, _Gerardi Cornelii Drieschii Historia magnæ Legationis Cæsareæ, quam Caroli VI. auspiciis suscepit Damianus Hugo Virmondtius_, &c. The following extract, tho’ long, will not probably be thought unentertaining. “Sunt in comitatu Commaroniensi in terris illustrissimi Zichii (pagus Hungaris Szony dicitur) à parentibus colonis, quibus sua vita constat, dum hæc scribo, anno 1701. vii calendas Novembreis procreatæ in lucem duæ filiæ gemellæ, posticâ parte, quâ spina dorsi definit, concretæ, sic ut altera alteram sequi, quo se cunque vertat, cogatur: cætera haud deformes aspectu, nisi concretio illa corporum prodigium efficeret. Binæ singulis manus, totidem pedes, et capita, necnon corpora: suus membris omnibus usus; rationis multò etiam, quod mirere, certior; ut, si sedentes solum videris, neque sciveris, hic monstri notare nihil valeas. Majori natu, quæ lucem citius aspexit tribus horis, Helenæ, minori Judithæ nomen est. Hæc ante annos circiter tres stupore apoplectico tacta linguæ modicum ex eo ac bonæ mentis officium impeditum habuit, simplicitatem quandam ingenii modo ut redoleat. Illa animo semper integro atque spiritu prædita eodem, pudicâ facie, non inconcinnis motibus, intuentium in se oculos ad misericordiam commovet, utpote quæ rationis planè compos, sororis tenerrimè amans, nec status ignara sui, duplicem miseriam tolerat, suam et istius. Ductæ sunt olim infantes per varias regiones ac provincias, Germaniam, Angliam, Galliam, Italiam, Poloniam, Bataviam, Austriam, Moraviam, Hungariam, à medico Hungarico nomine Csuszio, qui easdem certâ pecuniâ ad tempus sibi a parentibus concreditas et elocatas, bonâ eorundem veniâ, paterno à solo âbduxit; unde trium gentium linguis, Germanicâ, Gallicâ, Hungaricâ, hodiedum etiam loquuntur; alias desuetudine usuque interrupto, ætate præsertim nondum satis confirmatâ, omnino dedidicere.
Dux Augustus Saxo Cizius inter purpuratos LXXII patres à constantia religionis, timore erga Deum et caritate in proximum notissimus, archiepiscopus Strigoniensis, veritus, ne frequentes hæ perignationes puellarum adhuc infantium innocentiæ officerent, ac mores denique illarum, ut fieri non raro assolet, planè depavarent, pacto persolutoque pretio à medico redemit, et revocatas domum ad suos virginibus à divâ Ursulâ nuncupatis intra Posonium deinceps educandas commisit, necessariis ad hoc sumptibus benignè subministratis. Ingressæ non diu puerilem ætatem suerant, nonusque illis annus agi cœptus currebat, quando harum in disciplinam virginum tradebantur. Hic legere primum ac scribere, ea, quæ ad fidem necessaria sunt, mente atque animo comprehendere; operas manuum exercere varias, acu præcipuè phrygionicâ pingere, denticulatas affabre fimbrias conficere, et cætera quæ sunt ejusdem generis, edoctæ fuerunt. Vidi ego ex illarum operibus aliqua, quæ magistras hâc in arte fecisse non pudeat. Receptæ autem sunt sacrum hoc in collegium anno secul ix. die XII. kalendas Aprilis, ibi XI mansionis, vitæ XIX jam planè complerunt. Istuc divarum contubernium, quod adhuc constanter incolunt, nunquam postea deseruere. Addita illis e prudentioribus virago, quæ indefinentur adsit, quo velint, ducat, actonibus invigilet, de quibus respondere, ad aliosque referre, si necessum fuerit, aliquando possit. Ex hâc scire quæ cupiebam, remotis arbitris, nullo negotio percepi.
Crediderat namque, quod res quoque erat, non curiositatis gratiâ, sed officii, ac boni publici causâ ista à me rogari: quare alios omnes secedere jussi, solus cum eadem remanens, ut quæ, junioribus præsertim aliquot præsentibus, accuratius explicare verecundia illam antea prohibuerat, majori mecum libertate communicaret. Partes, quas vel nominare pudor honestasque vetuit, per quas potus ciborumque fæces et reliqua corporis excrementa (sit verbo venia) ejicimus, non illis his, quibus nobis, constitutæ locis. Illis quidem, ubi nos eas habemus, occlusa sunt omnia; at infernè, quâ parte concretio illa corporum incipit, easdem obtinent utrique communes. Neque tamen cum necessitas alterutram premit ad exonerandum, exempli gratiâ, ventrem, altera se quoque sentit tam inutili pondere gravatam, at satisfaciendum necessario naturæ sit: sed jam huic, jam isti istud imbecillitatis humanæ incommodum perferendum est, sitque etiam, ut cum alvum purgat altera, alteri meatus sit urinarius aperiendus. Muliebria, quæ statis fœminas vicibus incommodant, non uno ambabus tempore veniunt. Octidui quandoque intervallo ac longiori disjuncta sunt. Dum dormit hæc, sæpe vigilat illa, et in alterius labore altera nonnunquam quiescit. Visa una potare est, aut cibo corpus reficere, cum aliud alii agebatur. Sedent, stant, ambulant, jacent semper unà, nec sine incommodo. Non permittit conglutinatio ista corporum, hæ uti actiones separentur. Si colloquuntur, obtortis faciem collis obvertunt. Suavia dant sibi, cum amant, et pugnis impetunt, cum furunt.
Donec suæ utrique vires adhuc constabant, si sorte exortæ inter illas aliquando discordiæ essent, hæc, quæ se læsam magis credebat aut fortem, sublatam in humeros aliam alio asportabat. Veruntamen ingenio miti magis ac placido sunt quam incenso aut iracundo, et in communibus malis communem fidem, commune robur adhibent, immissam sibi à Deo miseriam fortitèr sustinentes. Ante triennium in gravi secundò genitæ morbo, de quo nonnulla superiùs facta est mentio est, prior nata sacris omnibus munita ad mortem quoque feliciter obeundam disposita ab sacerdote fuit, quia medicorum pars potior credit aliâ extinctâ aliam haud posse longùm amplius superesse. Id quod probare ex hoc etiam laborant, quod quoties male uni sit, quamvis altera non eadem continuo ægrotatione teneatur, angustias tamen animi certas, hebetationem sensuum, et commotionem quandam viscerum in seipsa experiatur. Equidem dubitandum minimè reor, quin monstrosa hæc bina corpora duplici mente ac spiritu regantur. Nam sive cor faciamus, sive cerebrum statuamus animi sedem, ex utrolibet idem nullo negotio evincitur. Adde tot actiones multiplices, cogitationes rerum diversas, sensa animi varia, quæ, ut aliud nihil sit, isthuc pariter nos docent. Unum præcipue hic admirandum venit, quod commemorare superius memoria excidit; post prodigiosum videlicet hunc difficilemque partum natos esse matri alios liberos, ex eodem patre procreatos, sanos et valentes, corpore, specie ac forma integros, qui monstri nihil admixtum habeant.” XL. _Observations on the Origin and Use of the Lymphatic Vessels of Animals: being an Extract from the_ Gulstonian _Lectures, read in the Theatre of the College of Physicians of_ London, _in_ June 1755. _By_ Mark Akenside, _M.D. Fellow of the College of Physicians, and of the Royal Society_.
For, in the first place, should we admit his hypothesis, it is certain, that the conical or converging form of the aorta, and the change of direction in its branches, must, in the distant blood-vessels, occasion a great resistance to the moving blood, and a great diminution of its velocity. Suppose that this resistance be, in any capillary red artery, to the resistance in the trunk of the aorta, as any larger assignable number is to unit: the resistance, then, in a capillary serous artery will, to that in the aorta, be as the square of that number is to unit; in the capillary lymphatic, as the cube; and so in progression: that is, the velocity of the fluids, in the remoter series of vessels, will be, physically, nothing. But we know, on the contrary, that some very remote series of vessels have their contents moved with a very considerable velocity; particularly the vessels of the insensible perspiration: and in anatomical injections, the liquor thrown into an artery scarce returns more easily or speedily by the corresponding vein, than by the most subtile excretory ducts. Moreover, there are an infinite number of observations of morbid cases, in which the red blood itself has been evacuated thro’ some of the most remote series of vessels, merely from an occasional temporary obstruction in one part, or a præternatural laxity in another; and without any lasting detriment to the structure and subordination of the vessels; which yet, upon this hypothesis, must have been utterly destroyed before such an irregularity could have happened.
The other theory concerning the origin of the lymphatics has been maintained by some very eminent physiologists later than Boerhaave; and supposes, that these vessels receive their lymph from the blood-vessels, or from the excretories of the larger glands, by the intermediation of only one small vessel, which these authors term a lymphatic artery, invisible in its natural state, nor yet rendered subject to the senses by experiments. But to this it may be answered, that the lymphatics are traced into many parts of the body, and lost there; and therefore most probably have their origin there, where no large gland nor blood-vessel is to be found in their neighbourhood: that it contradicts the whole analogy of nature, to suppose the motion of an animal fluid more discernible in the veins than in the arteries: and, finally, that it seems rather an instance of want of thought, and of being imposed upon by words, to call the lymphatic vessels veins, because they are furnished with valves; and then, because they are called veins, to take for granted, that of course they must be the continuation of arteries.
In attempting to investigate matters too subtile for the cognizance of our senses, the only method, in which we can reasonably proceed, is by inferring from what we know in subjects of the same nature: and our conclusion thus inferred, concerning the subject sought, will be firmer and more unquestionable, in proportion as it resembles the subject known. But if the subjects be really of the same kind; if no difference can be shewn between them, in any respect material to the inquiry, in which we are engaged; in this case our inference from analogy becomes the very next thing to a physical certainty: and this I apprehend to be true in relation to the problem before us, concerning the origin of the lymphatic vessels. Tho’ in general we cannot, by experiments, arrive at the extremities of those tubes, nor satisfy ourselves, by inspection, in what manner they receive their fluid; yet in a very considerable number of them we can do both.
There is a certain part of the human body very abundantly provided with lymphatics; in which part we can actually force injections thro’ those vessels into a cavity, where their extremities open: and from this cavity, on the other hand, we can at pleasure introduce a coloured liquor into their extremities, and trace it from smaller into wider canals; from capillary tubes, without valves, into large lymphatic trunks copiously furnished with them. We know likewise, that into this cavity are continually exhaling an infinite number of watery and mucous vessels, both arterial tubes and excretory ducts: that these keep it moist with a perpetual vapour, which the extremities of those lymphatics are, in the mean time, perpetually imbibing. Does it not seem strange, while these particulars are known and acknowledged by all the world, that the great authors of anatomy and physiology should never have reasoned from them; but should run into complex and obscure suppositions, in order to explain a process, which they may at any time examine with their own eyes?
But perhaps this inadvertency may be accounted for, if we recollect, that at the time when these vessels, and the structure of this part, were discovered, the lymph, and every thing belonging to it, was utterly unknown; and that the vessels in question were first seen and considered as performing another and more remarkable office: which circumstance, it should seem, has prevented succeeding authors from being duly attentive to them in the capacity of lymphatics. However this be, it is certain, that the lymphatics of the mesentery, commonly called the lacteals, differ from those of the other parts in no one particular, save that occasionally they carry chyle instead of lymph; or rather carry lymph mixed, at stated times (that is, for two or three hours after the creature has taken food) with an emulsion of vegetable and animal substances, and coloured white by that mixture. At other times, (that is, during sixteen of eighteen hours out of the twenty-four) they contain nothing but lymph; and are, in every respect, mere lymphatic vessels, not to be distinguished from those in any other part of the body. Their structure is the same; the membrane of which they are formed, their valves, the lymph which they contain, the glands thro’ which they pass, their direction from smaller tubes to larger, and from these to the blood, differ in nothing from what we observe of the other lymphatics. Their lymph, in the mean time, is without doubt or controversy supplied from the cavity of the intestines; being the watery moisture continually exhaled there for the purposes of digestion, and for the preservation of the alimentary canal, and as continually taken up by the roots or extremities of these vessels, in order to be carried back to the blood, after it has performed its office in the bowels.
Let it also be remembered, that these vessels, in other places of the body, are generally, when we trace them, lost in muscular, tendinous, or membranous parts: and then, I should presume, it may fairly, and with a good degree of evidence, be concluded, that the lymphatics of the body, in general, have their origin among the little cavities of the cellular substance of the muscles, among the mucous folliculi of the tendons, or the membranous receptacles and ducts of the larger glands: that their extremities or roots do, from these cavities, imbibe the moisture exhaled there from the ultimate arterial tubes, just as the lacteals (the lymphatics of the mesentery) do on the concave surface of the intestines: and that the minute imbibing vessels, by gradually opening one into another, form at length a lymphatic trunk, furnished with valves to prevent the return of its fluid, and tending uniformly, from the extremities and from the viscera, to reconvey to the blood that lymph, or that fine steam, with which they are kept in perpetual moisture; a circumstance indispensibly necessary to life and motion: while, at the same time, the continual re-absorption of that moisture by the lymphatics is no less necessary, in order to preserve the blood properly fluid, and to prevent the putrefaction, which would inevitably follow, if this animal vapour were suffered to stagnate in the cavities where it is discharged.
XLI. _A Letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of_ Macclesfield, _President, the_ Council, _and_ Fellows, _of the_ Royal Society, _concerning the Variation of the Magnetic Needle; with a Sett of Tables annexed, which exhibit the Result of upwards of Fifty Thousand Observations, in Six periodic Reviews, from the year 1700 to the year 1756, both inclusive; and are adapted to every Five Degrees of Latitude and Longitude in the more frequented Oceans. By_ William Mountaine _and_ James Dodson, _Fellows of the Royal Society_. [Read Nov. 10, 1757.] Dated London, Nov. 9th. 1757.
Ideas discussed in this chapter
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.