In the reign of Henry III. of England, there was a woman delivered of a child, having two heads and four arms, and the bodies were joined at the back; the heads were so placed, that they looked contrary ways; each had two distinct arms and hands; they would both laugh, both speak, and both cry, and be hungry together; sometimes the one would speak, and the other would keep silent, and sometimes both speak together. It lived several years, but one outlived the other three years, carrying the dead one, (for there was no separating them), till it fainted with the burden, and more with the stench of the dead carcase.
In Flanders, between Antwerp and Mechlin, in a village called Uthaton, a child was born which had two heads and four arms, seeming like two girls joined together, having two of her arms lifted up between and above their heads: the thighs being placed as it were across one another, according to the following figure. How long they lived is not known; but, probably, life would not be sustained for any length of time; for, even supposing the vital organs were unaffected, by the curious junction of the two bodies, the singular position of the limbs would, to some extent, interfere with the free actions of life, as well as produce misery to the creature all its days. These vagaries of nature happily seldom occur, and when they do, the friendly stroke of death gives relief.
The following figure shows that though some of the members of the body may be wanting, yet they are commonly supplied by others—by members which serve the same purpose as those which are deficient.
Without doubt some of the stories of monsters are fabulous, but we hesitate not to state that we believe many of them to be true. Nearly every accoucheur has, at some time or other, had cases when they have had to assist in bringing into the world specimens of the freaks of nature, either deficient of their natural properties, or a superabundance of them. It frequently happens that these prodigies exist but for a short time—death speedily putting an end to what must otherwise be a miserable existence, and little is said about them. The surgical museums in our country contain sufficient proof of the birth of monsters: and there is no denying the fact, that there are cases in which people are born into the world, and from certain peculiarities in their structure have been exhibited to the public as monsters.
CHAPTER VI.
OF THE WOMB IN GENERAL.
Herein I propose to treat of the womb, and the various maladies to which it is subject. By the Grecians it is called metra, the mother; adelphos, says Priscian, because it makes us all brothers.
It is placed in the hypogastrium, or lower part of the body, in the cavity called pelvis, having the strait gut on one side, to keep it from the other side of the backbone, and the bladder on the other side to defend it from blows.
It is divided into the neck and the body. The neck consists of a hard fleshy substance, much like cartilage, at the end whereof is a membrane transversely placed, called hymen, or engion. Near to the neck there is a prominent pinnacle, which is called by Montinus the door of the womb, because it preserves the matrix from cold and dust; by the Grecians it is called clytoris; by the Latins, præputium muliebre.