The Anatomy of a Monstrous PIG Communicated to the R. S. By an Ingenious Student in Physick

membrane is supposed to confine them: and the more active principles are from their own nature always struggling to be quit of them. And this way, the parts of an Animal would be sooner broken into pieces, than a new one generated. But they believe it may be allowed, that the least and most insensible Animals and Plants are this way Formed. But how Minuteness make the Difficulty Greater. A Membrane to include the Conception with its first nourishment seems more necessary here, where the parts are more delicately put together, and from their exceeding fineness it might more easily miscarry. If after this method some Animals and Plants can be produc't, why is the same species and these very Individuals they suppose so made, furnished with Organs for Viviparous Generation? If Slime and Mud can afford Frogs and Fish, why does the First Spawn so many Eggs, and are the other Viviparous? Why does not so great a diversity of putrid parts in the Earth, differently affected by unaccountable accidents, often present us with new living Creatures, and Vegetables of peculiar species? But no such new Plants are taken notice of, and the Mites are of the same sort from Cheese and from Meal. The objection which is offer'd against Epicurus, will be made with the same force against this Opinion. If the Earth at first equivocally produce Men, Quadrupeds, Birds, and Fish, why has it not done it very frequently or at least sometimes since? We begin to suspect the Cheat, when the Artist is not able to perform the same again. The Anatomy of a Monstrous Pig Communicated to the R. S. By an Ingenious Student in Physick. About the beginning of Decem. 1682, among many Pigs of a Sow, there was one which had no passage for the Faeces either Solid or Liquid, altho the Anus was not outwardly clos'd up; which whether natural, or caused by the Neighbours who had attempted a Cure before I saw it, I cannot cannot positively assert. There was likewise no visible sign of either Sex. Being dissected it afforded these following observations. First the Guts were very much distended and transparent, and through them appeared the Faces very liquid accompanied with no small quantity of Wind; the end of the Rectum was entirely closed like a bladder, and sealed as it were Hermetically, pendulous in the cavity, and not in the least continued to a Sphincter, of which there was no sign. Secondly, there was no Bladder to be found, nor Uterus, or any mark of what Sex it was designed for. Thirdly, to supply the place of a Bladder, both the Ureters were inserted into the Rectum within an Inch or thereabouts of the end. Fourthly, the Stomack was full, even to distension, of an hard Substance, which being opened was exactly the same to appearance with hard press'd Curds. Fifthly, the Chile came freely enough out of the Ductus Pecquelianus, where it was inserted to the Jugular, upon the smallest pressure of the Intestines. Sixthly, I could not urge the liquid or Flatulent Contents of the Guts upwards within two Inches of the Pilorus, tho I pressed them till they brake, which hindered the inquiry after a Valve that possibly might be there to hinder the regress of any thing to the Stomack. Fleta Minor, or the Laws of Art and Nature in knowing, judging, assaying, fining, refining, and inlarging the body of confined Metals &c. By Sr. John Pettus Knight, &c. This useful Treatise contains in general the whole Art of proving and melting all sorts of Oars and Metals, and is divided by the Author into five Books.