PHILOSOPHERS have puzzled their brains to no purpose in en- | ramifications with greater facility, until further development deavouring to account for the unnatural formation of animals.

joined together in the loins. Helena, who was the first-born, became tall and straight; Judith, her sister, was of diminutive size, and slightly arched. At six years of age she was attacked with paralysis, and never recovered perfect health. Helena was sprightly and intelligent. With the exception of the small-pox and the measles, under which they laboured at the same time, their ailments were always distinct. They lived until the age of twenty-two, when Judith was attacked with a fever that shortly terminated her life. The horror expressed by Helena in beholding her dead companion, with whom she had been identified in sisterly love for so many years, cannot be described; but her agonies were of short duration, for in three minutes she also had ceased to live. On their post mortem examination, each was found to have possessed distinct viscera. The aorta and vena cava were united above the origin of the iliac arteries, so that no severing operation could have been performed without destroying them both.

Various monsters have been seen with four arms and three legs, or four legs and two or three arms. The history of the double-headed infant of Oxford is curious. This creature had two heads diametrically opposite, four arms, one body, and two lower extremities. These heads were doubly baptised; one by the name of Martha, and the other Mary. The features were different Mary's was smiling, Martha's dejected. The latter died two days after her birth, and Mary expired a quarter of an hour after.

At a meeting of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, March 10th, 1846, Mr. Acton read an account of a case of par tial double monstrosity, which we have illustrated in figures xvi. and xvii. The child, who was then six months old, was exhibited to the members by its parents. From Mr. Acton's memoir of the case we extract the following particulars :

John Baptist Dos Santos, born on the 5th of September, 1845, is the son of Antonio Dos Santos and Anna de Jesus, his wife; both natives of the Quinta de Carveiros, near Faro, in the kingdom of Algarves.

The parents are both healthy and strong; the father in his thirty-third, the mother in her twenty-second year. John Baptist is their third child. The first, a boy, born perfect, in 1843, died in his seventeenth month; the second, a girl, born in 1844, is yet alive, and enjoying perfect health. The mother can recollect no circumstance which may in any manner have disturbed the growth of her third infant. The whole period of her confinement and the birth itself, were attended with less suffering, uneasiness, or discomfort, than she had experienced on the two former occasions. The child was born at the close of the regular period of nine months.

The little John Baptist, now in his sixth month, is a remarkably well-grown, healthy. and lively infant. He has very good features, enlivened by a pair of bright, dark, large eyes, and constantly animated by the smile natural to his age. Accustomed to the presence of frequent visitors, he holds his levees of several hours without the least symptoms of impatience or fatigue.

The head and bust, as well as the arms and two of his legs, are quite well proportioned. The additional, or third leg, grows between the two regular limbs, and is almost entirely concealed by these when in a state of repose. The abnormal limb is secured to the body by a slight membrane, about half an inch thick. The leg is about the same length as the other two, but nearly twice as large; it seems also made of a softer substance, though the bones are everywhere perceptible to the touch. It has the usual parts and articulations of a human leg (?), and ends in a square large foot, terminated by ten toes in a row. From the number of these latter, as well as from the size and shape of the

whole limb, it is not difficult to perceive that this is but the amalgamation of two legs, possibly of all the nether parts of a human being from the hips downwards.

The great peculiarity in this case is the provision of duplicate male organs. He exhibits not the common phenomenon of two organs imperfectly combined in one, but two distinct separate organs, each perfectly developed in itself. Each communicates with the bladder by a separate urinary duct; and the discharge of the urine always takes place simultaneously and equally on both sides.

Our third illustration, figure xviii. represents a doubleheaded child, born at the full period of gestation. The case is thus described by Mr. West :

During the night of the 27th of March, 1845, I was requested by the husband of a woman, who had a few minutes before been confined, to examine the child, which, he had been informed by the midwife, presented a very unnatural appearance, having two distinct heads. On my arrival I found it to be a doubleheaded child, of the ordinary size and weight, of the female sex, living, and apparently well-formed in every other particular. The mother was in a state of much nervous excitement, and was exceedingly desirous I should remove the deformity. The second head, as large as the natural one, was attached to that part of the spine of the child occupied by the two inferior cervical and two superior dorsal vertebræ, which, on minute examination, I discovered to be deficient; it was well formed, and had eyes, nose, and mouth fully and naturally developed; but the ears were absent. The neck was partly covered with hair, and appeared more like the continuation of the scalp of the other head than the common integument. The child lived four hours. The second head presented no signs of animation. The act of respiration, during the period of its existence until a few minutes of its death, was naturally performed.

DREAMING.

THE relation between dreaming and somnambulism is strikingly exhibited by the remarkable manner in which the current of dreams may be directed in certain individuals, by impressing their senses during sleep. An officer, engaged in the expedition to Louisberg, in 1758, was so peculiarly susceptible of such impressions, that he afforded his companions much amusement by the facility with which they could cause him to dream. Once they conducted him through a quarrel which ended in a duel; the pistol was placed in his hand, he fired, and was awakened by the report. They found him asleep on the locker, when they made him believe he had fallen overboard. They told him a shark was pursuing him, and entreated him to dive for his life, and he threw himself with great violence on the cabin floor. After the landing of the army at Louisberg, his friends found him one day asleep in his tent, and evidently much annoyed by the cannonading. They then made him believe he was engaged, when he expressed great fear, and a disposition to run away. They remonstrated, but increased his fears by imitating groans, and when he asked who was hit, they named his particular friends. At last they told him the man next him had fallen, when he sprang out of bed, rushed out of the tent, and ended his dream by falling over the tent ropes. He had no recollection of his dreams.-Moore on the Power of the Soul over the Body. ARISTOTLE would appear to have almost approximated to the discovery of the circulation. He says, "The heart is the origin and source of the blood; and as in watering gardens the water is conveyed in numerous rivulets from one origin or fountain, so has nature conducted the blood in streams throughout the whole body, for the blood is the elementary matter of all other parts."

THE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE nerves; some are rounded, some flattened, some having grooves

HUMAN BODY.

BY THE EDITOR.

No. X.-THE NERVES.

THE nerves are the organs essential to sense. All the nerves have two extremities-one confounded with the substance of the brain, the other disposed in different structures and organs of the body. These two extremities have been in turn called the origin or the termination of the nerves. Majendie says that these expressions are incorrect, and give a false idea; "for it is evident that the nerves no more form the brain by their union, than the brain gives origin to the nerves." If only for the sake of description, the brain is, however, always spoken of, if not considered, as the origin of the cerebral nerves.

Many and wonderful are the theories that have been advanced regarding the action of the nerves. The ancients considered them as the conductors of the animal spirits; when physiology was governed by mechanical ideas, the nerves were considered as vibrating chords, without its being recollected that they have no qualities necessary for vibration. Others, physiologists-and they form the large majority in the present day-contend that the nerves conduct, if they do not secrete, a subtle fluid, which they call the nervous fluid, by which all sensations are transmitted to the brain, and by which mental action-will-is transmitted to the body.

That the nerves do transmit the impressions received by the senses is constantly demonstrated by observation and experiment. If a man receives a wound in a nerve, the part to which this nerve is distributed becomes insensible. If the optic nerve suffers, blindness ensues; if the auditory, deafness. The sensation in a part of the body may be suspended by compressing the nerve supplying it, by means of a ligature; and when the ligature is removed, the sensibility will return. The wound of a nerve produces fearful pain; and in every disease which even slightly alters their structure, or presses upon them, as do some tumours, the agony thus caused is dreadful.

on their sides; some very long, others very short; in fact, no two nerves are completely alike in form, colour, &c. In their course they divide into branches and twigs, and ultimately in the substance of organs, where the filaments become so delicate as only to be observed by the aid of the microscope. They frequently communicate with each other, and the union of two or more branches forms a plexus.

Following the arrangement we adopted when speaking of the NERVOUS SYSTEM,* we shall describe the nerves under three divisions; namely, the cerebral nerves, the spinal nerves, and the sympathetic nerve.

The CEREBRAL NERVES arise from the base of the brain; they are arranged symmetrically and in pairs, and pass out from the cranium through the several openings or foramina with which the various bones composing the skull are perforated. As we have before said, they take their names from the position of each nerve: thus we have the first pair, the second pair, &c.

The first pair of nerves are the olfactory nerves (1, fig. xv.) They are very soft in their texture, and, unlike the other nerves, are void of any membrane, or neurilema; they are connected to the brain, or arise, by three filaments; and at the point of union each nerve presents a triangular enlargement, from which issue innumerable minute filaments, which pass through the cribiform, or sieve-like plate of the ethmoid bone, to be distributed on the turbinated bones of the nose, and on the whole interior of the nostrils, to form the organ of smell.

The second pair are the optic nerves (2, fig. xv.), which lie immediately behind the last; they are thicker and rounder, and, with the exception of the fifth pair, are the largest of the cerebral nerves. They are connected with the optic thalami and the tubercula quadrigemina by two bands: the two nerves unite, and are so confounded with each other, that it is impossible to affirm in a positive manner whether they cross each other, or whether their substance is mingled and identified at their union; the latter opinion is most probable. After this We will wander a step from our direct path to give a short junction the two nerves again separate, and pass through the notice of the theory of a very clever, but not very correct rea-optic foramen into the orbit, surrounded by the recti muscles; soner, who has attempted to convey a tangible notion of the each nerve then arrives at the back and inner part of the globe velocity with which the nervous power is transmitted from the of the eye, enters the sclerotic and choroid membranes, termibrain through the nerves. The following passage occurs in a nates on or forms the retina, and becomes the organ of vision. work which has had, worthily or unworthily, a wide circulation; The third pair, or motores oculorum-movers of the eyenamely "The Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation." We (3, fig. xv.) are distributed to the muscles of the eye and eyelid. must premise that the author looks upon the brain as a galvanic battery, and the mental power, or nervous influence, as identical with electricity. He observes :

The fourth pair, or nervi pathetici (4, fig. xv.), are the most slender in the body; they pass from the brain to be distributed on the superior oblique muscle of the eye.

"If mental action is electric, the proverbial quickness of The fifth pair the trigeminus, or trifacial (5, fig. xv.)—is thought—that is, the quickness of the transmission of sensation the largest nerve of the brain. Each nerve separates into three and will-may be presumed to have been brought to an exact branches, hence its names. The first branch, named the opthalmeasurement. The speed of light has long been known to be mic branch, ramifies over the forehead, upper eyelid, and nostril about 192,000 miles per second, and the experiments of Wheat- of the same side, and penetrating the eye-ball, forms the minute stone have shown that the electric agent travels (if I may so ciliary nerves. The second branch, or superior maxillary nerve, speak) at the same rate, thus showing a likelihood that one law supplies the upper jaw, the palate, and the contiguous parts: it rules the movements of all the imponderable bodies.' Mental is this branch that is frequently the seat of that fearful disease, action may accordingly be presumed to have a rapidity equal to tic douloureux. The third branch, or inferior maxillary nerve, is 192,000 miles in the second, a rate far beyond what is necessary found meandering among the muscles and glands of the lower to make the design and execution of any of our ordinary mus-jaw. It sends a branch to the tongue, named the gustatory cular movements apparently identical in point of time, which they are."

The nerves are formed of extremely fine, white filaments, which probably might be reduced into still finer threads, if our means of division were more perfect. These filaments have been called nervous fibres; and each fibre is contained in an envelope, called the neurilema. There are marked differences among the

nerve, upon which the sense of taste appears to depend; it also supplies branches to the teeth, and to the jaw-bone.

The sixth pair (6, fig. xv.) is a motor nerve, and chiefly supplies the muscles of the eyeball.

The seventh pair, or facial nerves (7, fig. xv.), the portio

*Nos. 33, 35, 36,

been there for the previous twelve months. The part to which he referred was in the direct course of the common carotid artery, and it was perfectly impossible that a foreign body could be lodged in that situation without the symptoms becoming more urgent than those he complained of. He was an highly excitable man, evidently easily alarmed, and obstinate in his tenacity to his own opinions. It appeared from the history I had from his wife, that he once took his tea whilst some needle-work on which she was engaged remained on the table, that shortly afterwards he was seized with sore throat, and he contended he had swallowed a needle that had adhered to his bread and butter. This thought and this dread had embittered his own life, and it may be supposed had not greatly increased the comfort of his wife and family, up to the time we saw him. His general health was greatly impaired; this we improved by "Moral, Medical, and Dietetical Treatment;" and when his digestion was better, his reasoning powers more acute, his mind free from despondency, and his temper less obstinate, we quietly argued away his phantasy, and we believe he will now laugh at his former

idle fear.

that attends it is the specific result of the disease of which nervousness is a grave symptom.

Nervousness is as frequently a constitutional affliction as an acquired complaint. As we have more than once described the different temperaments of the constitution,* we must refrain repeating in this number those peculiarities and that organization which act as a first cause of nervousness, and which always aggravate its effects, when produced by other causes. of a bilious" temperament, and he of the "nervous" temperament, are ever prone "to a mind diseased."

66

The man

Exhaustion of the nervous energy by undue and long excitement, whether that excitement be innocent in itself or vicious, is a constant cause of nervousness: thus the temperate, studious man, and the intemperate, riotous man, frequently labour under the same affliction, although produced by such opposite causes.† (To be continued.)

INSANITY IN CHILDREN.

DR. WOODWARD makes the following observations in a highly valuable "Report of the State Lunatic Asylum at Worcester." "There is another class of unfortunate individuals, far more

In the early years of our professional life-1828—an intimate friend swallowed, or fancied he swallowed, a spicula of shell with an oyster; he complained of pain and difficulty of swallow-numerous than I had formerly supposed, and much more interesting, which fearfully and rapidly increased. The apothecary who ing than those idiots, I refer to INSANE CHILDREN. Since I attended him (Mr. Richard Pater) we imagine was in doubt, for have been connected with this bospital, I have been consulted in These little patients he "called in" the late Mr. John Scott, Surgeon to the London a number of cases of this description. Hospital, who operated on the patient, and shewed him a portion have intelligent faces, well-formed bodies, good developments of of animal substance he had removed, which he said contained the the head, and active minds. Their movements are free, easy, scale of the oyster-shell. Our friend was satisfied; the real pain of and graceful; many of them are sprightly, even handsome; the wound banished the imaginary pain, and he rapidly recovered. they are generally restless, irritable, and extremely mischievous, A few years after this "operation," we mentioned the case to and are rarely able to speak. In some cases, as soon as there is Mr. Scott; a smile told us the tale; and, if we were honestly any mental development, the peculiar characteristics begin to to state our impression-it would be in thus wise-A superappear, without any known cause. In other cases epileptic fits ficial incision, much pain, a little blood, no scale of shell, and have preceded these peculiarities. In one case the use of instruease of mind to the patient. ments in labour was supposed to be the cause; epileptic convulsions probably sometimes arise from difficult parturition. No person familiar with these cases would be likely to mistake them for idiots; they look differently, walk differently, and have different developments of body and mind. Some of these children have been benefitted by medical treatment. One, at the present time under my care for epilepsy, seems to be going on favourably. My attention has recently been particularly directed to three different cases, the subjects of which were epileptic chilthis subject, as I have been within a few days consulted in dren. I have strong hope that some of them may be cured, and then instructed. Like other insane persons, there is difficulty in fixing their attention; they move with great rapidity from one thing to another, and are impatient of restraint. In some such persons particular faculties seem much more active than others. One lad, in whose case I was consulted, was not able to articulate, and, of course, had never learned to read, but was observing of many things, particularly of mechanical operations, drawings,

Now, it must not be supposed from the preceding remarks that nervousness is absolutely an imaginary complaint; there is a fearful reality in its agony and intensity; and this agony and this intensity too frequently-how frequently!-arises from actual disease, as well as imaginary disorder.

Indigestion, either as a cause or as an effect, is invariably the companion of nervousness; consequently there is pain in the region of the stomach, acidity, flatulence, a precarious appetite, and increase of suffering after it is satisfied: the bowels are irregular, either constipated, with clay-colour evacuations, or relaxed; the action of the liver is impaired, the bile is secreted in insufficient quantity, or if secreted is retained in the liver, or in its reservoir, the gall bladder; there is pain resembling rheumatism around the shoulders and down the arms; the action of the heart is excited, although the general circulation of the blood is languid; consequently the patient constantly complains of cold hands and feet, and occasionally flushes of heat in the face. He is weak, he lacks energy; he is irresolute and irritable, and suffers from the accumulated ills of a body insufficiently nutrified; the sleep is disturbed by unpleasant dreams, and he commences the day with the load of yesterday's fatigue unremoved by a night's rest.

The great Abernethy said, "we cannot reasonably expect tranquillity of the nervous system whilst there is disorder of the nervous system."

Diseased heart can scarcely be considered a cause of the nervousness we are now describing, because the depression of spirits

* See “Yeoman on Indigestion," page 15.

&c.

He has left many traces of his skill on the buildings and fences of his former residence. He has now arrived at manhood, but I have no knowledge of his present condition: when a lad, he was extremely mischevious, but sprightly and interesting.

Within a few days I have seen a very interesting case of this description-a girl twelve years old, who has a well-formed head, an intelligent and handsome face, a bright black eye, and easy and graceful manners. She is respectful and obedient in her conduct, gentle and affectionate in her temper and disposition, and usually quiet and unobtrusive, but is easily excited, im

*See Nos. 1 and 54.

† See "Diseases of Error," page 31.