Although the fact, that blood may remain fluid in the vessels for a considerable time after death, and coagulate when removed from them, has been noticed before,' it does not appear to have given rise to any physiological deductions of moment: yet it is replete with interest to the physiological inquirer. The circumstance, as respects the veins, was noticed in this city during the yellow fever of 1820, and has been recorded by Professor Jackson, of the University of Pennsylvania. He observes, "The veins of the omentum, mesentery, and, in fact, the whole system of the vena portæ, were always distended with fluid blood. It was at first supposed, that the blood, heing thus fluid, was in the dissolved state so often mentioned by writers. But Dr. Hewson, wishing to make some experiments, collected portions of it in cups. In the course of 10 or 15 minutes it was firmly coagulated, and this was found in subsequent observations invariably to occur." It is interesting to remark, that in all these cases, we believe, as well as in the one which we observed, mercury had been largely administered, and it may be a topic for farther investigation, whether this peculiarity be in any manner connected with the free use of that or other agents. ART. II.-A LECTURE ON MONSTROSITIES, Lecturer on Midwifery, and the Diseases of Women and Children.2 GENTLEMEN :-In compliance with my promise and your wish, I proceed to give you in the present lecture a brief, yet, I trust, not an uninteresting sketch of the information that we have derived on the subject of monstrosities, within the last few years, from the labours of the French and German writers, especially of Meckel, Soemmering, Breschet, Serres, and, above all, Geoffroy St. Hilaire. The researches of these distinguished writers have filled up a great blank in medical science. Before their time almost every example of monstrous formation was attributed, not merely by the public, but also by the profession, to a whimsical deviation of nature from her accustomed laws. Such continued to be the prevailing doctrine until the beginning of the 18th century, when better founded and more philosophic views began to be established, and were gradually carried to their present comparative state of perfection, by the talents and labours of the authors whom I have mentioned. I refer particularly to the work of St. Hilaire, entitled "Histoire Générale et Particulière des Anomalies de l'Organisation chez l'Homme et les Animaux." The phenomena of monstrosities have at all times excited the attention of philosophers. In former days every case of monstrous formation was attributed to the influence of demons, or to the anger of the Deity; and, hence, by the Greek and Roman laws, monsters were condemned to die. Such opinions could, of course, have been entertained only in an age of gross superstition and credulity. I See J. Davy's Researches, Physiological and Anatomical, vol. 2. p. 190, Lond. 1839, now in course of republication in the Library. 2 Philadelphia Journal of the Medical and Physical Science, vol. 1. p. 22. 1821. * London Lancet, March 7, 1840, p. 857. Every example of monstrosity, if the term be correctly applied, is congenital. In fact, all those metamorphoses and great physiological phenomena which result in the formation, and in the first evolution-of the different organs, belong to the first periods of infra-uterine life. In the last periods of pregnancy, the fœtus is subject to very slight changes, and suffers but very few deviations from the specific type. It is necessary to bear this in mind, in order to understand completely many of the observations I shall hereafter make. As I am anxious to compress into a brief space the large mass of facts which have been communicated to us on this subject, I shall pass over one branch of it, on which many hundreds of pages have been written, viz. the classifi cation of monsters. For many ages thousands upon thousands of cases of monstrosity were collected, but in order to understand their origin, it was absolutely necessary to know the true laws of the original developement of the various organs of the human subject. It was also necessary that comparative anatomy should be studied in the modern and philosophic manner which has led to such very interesting and curious results as those that we Low possess. The establishment of the theory of the frequent arrest and retardation of organic developement has led to sound views and the great progress that has now been made in the subject of monsters, the phenomena having been formerly almost universally attributed to some accidental deviation from the ordinary track of nature. An examination, however, of the original developement shows us that the greater number of monsters are beings whose growth has been arrested, and in whom the organs of the embryo have been retained until birth, and are associated with the fœtal organs. This arrest of developement is very instructive as to those cases of mon strosity in which there is a deficiency of organs. Secondly, other phenomena arise from excess of developement, in which the organs are larger or more numerous than usual. Thirdly, there are anomalies, which arise neither from deficiency nor excess, but in which the primitive process seems simply perverted, thus changing the direction and situation of different organs. The laws governing the production of these anomalies must be derived from the general laws or principles of organisation; and the first and most important law is that of the unity of organic composition. The organs of animals are composed of precisely the same materials, are always essentially the same, and are combined according to definite rules. By this law of unity of type in the formation of animals, as shown by Meckel, by Serres, and especially by Geoffroy St. Hilaire, we are enabled to explain the resemblance that is so frequently traced between the anomalous formation in one race of animals, and the natural form in others. Nothing is more common than to find that the anomalous structure of monstrous formations, in man for example, represents accurately and definitely the natural structure in other animals. According to this law, every animal in whom there has been an arrest of developement, ought to realise, in some of its organs, the condition that is met with among the inferior classes; and such is the case. Again, when there is an excess of developement, then we find the same resemblance between the animals which are the subjects of it, and some beings that are higher in the scale. This is occasionally found, but it is not so common as are examples of the human family resembling lower races, in consequence of deficiency. In the two lectures which I shall give on this subject, I shall refer to many examples illustrative of this law, but a few of them may now be noticed. Many of the monstrous formations in man, consequent upon an arrest of developement, bear a marked resemblance to different mammalia. For example, the persistance of the tail, the characteristic of mammalia. In the early stages of the human embryo there is a natural prolongation of the os coccygis, which is neither more nor less than a tail, and which is usually removed in the process of developement. Here is a specimen, [exhibiting it] in which this is admirably shown. In the process of embryonic life the tail ought to be removed; but if any circumstance takes place in the early period of uterogestation, so as to arrest or retard the developement of the embryo, the tail may remain. Here is a six months' fœtus [presenting it] exhibiting a permanent tail. Again; we not uncommonly find, as a specimen of monstrosity in the human subject, a cloaca, from which both the urine and the fæces are expelled; and such is the natural structure in many of the inferior animals. Monstrosity from a fissure in the lips, in consequence of an arrest of developement, is by no means uncommon in man. Here is a specimen. The lips are originally formed from the angles to the centre, and join at the median line; but if an arrest of developement take place, if the lips do not pass to the median line, there will be a chasm. There may be one or two fissures, or the chasm may be of larger or smaller compass, constituting what is improperly termed hare-lip. It arises from an arrest of developement, and it represents the natural structure of many of the inferior animals. Again; the uterus may be double (of which there is a specimen before you) in the human subject, but this also is the natural structure of many animals. There may be an imperfect state of the convolutions of the brain, representing, again, the structure of inferior animals. We often meet in the human subject with a bifurcation of the glans penis, or the clitoris ; two vaginæ are not very uncommon. These are monstrosities arising from an arrest of developement, and they represent the natural structure of many animals. Imperforation of the vulva is not unfrequent; the sexual organs are sometimes deficient, and occasionally there is an imperfect developement of the eyes. In another genus of monsters the limbs are deficient, the hands and feet appearing to exist alone, and to be inserted immediately into the trunk of the body, resembling seals and cetacea. An example of this existed in a Miss Biffin, who was exhibited some years ago in London and other parts of the kingdom. In her case there was an arrest of developement, but in many of the cetacea this is the natural formation, thus furnishing another illustration of the general law. Here [showing it] is an example of monstrosity exactly resembling Miss Biffin. The hands and feet are closely united, you see, to the body. No limbs are developed. Sometimes there is a deficiency in the arch of the palate, which is common in fish; frequently the diaphragm is imperfectly developed, as in oviparous animals; at other times we find as a specimen of monstrosity a communication between the different cavities of the heart, such as exists in reptiles. The absence of the brain and spinal marrow is not uncommon in the human subject. Very frequently the cerebral system is composed only of ganglia and nervous filaments, as in the case of many of the articulated animals. The cases are much more rare in which inferior animals resemble the higher from an excess of developement. Geoffroy St. Hilaire mentions cases in the carnivorous tribe in which there was an excess of developement, and the tail had entirely disappeared. He has seen other cases in which the spinal marrow ascended as high in the vertebral canal as in man. All this is, physiologically, extremely curious. The fact of the natural formation of the inferior tribes existing in monstrosity in man, clearly proves-and this proof has only been afforded to us in recent times-that monstrosity is not, as was once believed, a disorder arising from the blind freaks of nature, but that it is governed by constant and precise laws, and is capable of being submitted to a regular and scientific classification, and this classification has been effected in a very elaborate manner by Geoffroy St. Hilaire. Another law, a law very closely connected indeed with monstrosity, and one of the fundamental principles of embryology, is this, that no organs originally pre-exist in the ovum. All the organs are formed at various parts of the growth of the ovum. At first each organ is extremely minute, extremely simple; and each afterwards passes through a series of changes in the process of developement. When the different organs have arrived at their permanent and natural state, some of them have passed through a greater number of changes than others, and have deviated from their original conformation more than others. In some, the changes are few and unimportant; in others, they are numerous and important. This is the normal, but not the invariable law of developement, for an organ may stop beneath the ordinary degree of developement, or be entirely abortive; or, on the contrary, it may exceed it, and thus arise the two great classes of monsters-one from arrest of developement, the other from its excess. Now, of course, the admission of the law of the non pre-existence of organs in the germ is fatal to the old doctrine of original monstrosity before fecundation. The ancient doctrine taught that monstrosity arose before fecundation had taken place, from some original malformation of the germ. This position is now entirely abandoned, not upon any hypothetical grounds, but, from the immense number of facts which have been collected in opposition to it. It is true that Meckel has endeavoured to revive this doctrine, but only with a view to escape from difficulties and to account for certain cases of monstrosity, which it is safer in the present state of science to confess are utterly incapable of explanation. According to the law which admits the formation and not the evolution or unfolding, as it were, of organs, monsters from arrest of developement may be considered as permanent embryos, in some respects. We see at the end of their intra-uterine life some of the organs in the simple state in which they were at first formed. A third law is that of eccentric developement. According to the doctrine of Haller and all the physiologists of the 18th century, every vessel and every nerve, dividing more and more, proceeded from the heart and brain towards the surface; and this, by philosophers and physiologists who either preceded Haller or adopted his more mature views, was termed the law of centrifugal developement. But in consequence of the labours of Serres and Geoffroy St. Hilaire this notion is almost entirely abandoned, and the opposite doctrine, that of eccentric or centripetal developement is now generally received. Serres and Geoffroy St. Hilaire say—and there is no doubt that it is true to a great extent, though not entirely,-that the vessels and nerves are formed before the heart and nervous centres-the brain and spinal marrow. I proved to you on a former occasion, that the blood-vessels were formed before the heart: and that even the raotion of the blood could be seen before the pulsation of the heart, clearly showing the correctness of the general law laid down by Serres and Geoffroy St. Hilaire, in opposition to the philosophic dogma of the organisation of parts taking place from the centre to the surface, rather than from the surface to the centre. The heart, for example, the brain, and the spinal marrow, are very frequently found wanting in cases of monstrosity; but the blood-vessels and nerves are never wholly deficient. They may be more or less deficient, thus representing the structure of inferior animals, but they are never entirely wanting. If these vessels proceeded from the heart, the spinal marrow, and the brain, and those three organs were deficient, the vessels would be deficient also; but that is not the case, proving that the elaboration, the developement, of the vessels is not necessarily dependent upon the previous formation of the heart, the brain, or the spinal marrow. Again; Serres contends (and he is supported to a great extent by Allen Thomson, a very good authority upon the subject of embryology) that the developement of the body commences from the two lateral halves, and that each central, each single organ is originally a double one. This can only be observed in the earliest periods of the formation of the embryo. The right and left portions are at first distinct and separate, but afterwards become united. Now if, from an arrest of developement, the union of the two halves is prevented, which occasionally happens, if this primitive state of formation becomes permanent, then two lateral organs, of course, are formed. If organs lying on the median line of the body, are originally composed of two halves -and this is clearly proved to be the case,-and any thing interferes to arrest or retard their developement, then that which ought to be a single organ remains permanently two. When this occurs in the human subject, it again presents as a monstrosity in a higher, that which is the natural structure in many of the lower animals. The two original halves of an organ may be quite distinct, or partially separate, according to the period of formation at which the arrest of developement took place. Again; fissure of the lips, the palate, and the scrotum and spina bifida in man, are all specimens of arrests of developement, but are similar to the natural structure of inferior animals. Serres also states that the hollow organs situated on the median line are composed of two halves as well as the solid organs. There are, at one period of developement, two aortæ, two vaginæ, two uteri, &c. All these organs are considered to pass through three successive stages in the process of developement. In the first stage, they are double, and the two portions are quite separate; in the second, they approach and unite upon the median line, the two inner walls being applied against each other; in the third, there is a developement of the inner walls, by which the two halves become gradually approximated, and that which originally constituted two separate halves is now reduced by a process of nature into one single organ. If by arrest of developement the second stage of formation remains permaneut, the inner walls of the primitive organs, which form naturally a temporary septum, are not removed, and the organ is divided by a longitudinal partition. Here [showing the preparation] is a very rare specimen of a longitudinal division of the vagina and uterus, extending from the os externum to the fundus of the uterus, dividing both organs into two. The arrest of developement must have occurred here at a very early period; and here again we see realised in the monstrous formation of man the natural structure of different animals. There is another fact dependent upon the law of developement towards the centre, and that is, the greater constancy of those organs which are of early formation than those of later developement. Any cause at any period of pregnancy disturbing the process of growth will very little, if at all, interfere with the developement and growth of organs nearly or perfectly formed; but it may have considerable influence upon organs as yet imperfectly developed. Thus, it has been found that the umbilicus and small intestines are by far the most constant parts in monsters; and that for the clearest reason, because they are among the parts first formed, and as such they are exposed to fewer causes of arrest or disturbance of developement than those which are afterwards formed, and which are exposed, to lapse of time and various circumstances interfering with their elaboration and growth. Many examples of the kind might be adduced. Still it is impossible for any one who reads the works of Serres and Geoffroy St. Hilaire with a determination to arrive at the truth, if he can, to go to the full extent of the position which those philosophers have laid down with respect to the laws of centripetal developement. The causes of the arrest of developement and of the excess of organisation seem to be at present beyond our reach. Arrest of developement teaches us much as to the origin of monsters with deficient organs; but scarcely any thing as to cases of monstrosity from excess of parts. And the attempts to explain these rarer anomalies are as yet by no means satisfactory. There is another law by which the production of some anomalies has been explained, and that is, the law of compensation in different organs. Excess of nutrition in one organ is proved to involve the total or partial atrophy of another, and vice versa. If one organ be preternaturally large, another is preternaturally small; or if one be preternaturally small, we find, by the same law of compensation, that another is preternaturally large; thus establishing a very curious law. Let us not neglect facts because they do not appear practical; they are always important, and we know not to what useful results they may ultimately lead. Many applications of this law of compensation may he made to the subject of monstrosities. Thus, for example, we occasionally |