An Account of Balls of Hair Taken from the Uterus and Ovaria of Several Women; By Mr. James Yonge, F.R.S. Communicated to Dr. Hans Sloane, R.S. Secr.

ces Anglicanos ferè exurrexisset. Hic Annus ideo pro fico habendus est. Nam proportio Pluviae media singulis Annis est circa $20\frac{1}{2}$ pollices Upminstri; $42\frac{1}{2}$ Townelei in comitatu Lancastriae; & $22$ Parisius in Gallia; & $24$ pollices in urbe Flandriæ vocata Insula, uti observavi in Phil. Trans. N. 297. VI. An Account of Balls of Hair taken from the Uterus and Ovaria of several Women; by Mr. James Yonge, F.R.S. Communicated to Dr. Hans Sloane, R.S. Secr. In November 1705, I was call'd to deliver a Woman 30 Years old, who had 4 Days laboured in vain to bring forth her first Child: The Head, being too big for the Passage, stuck immoveable at the Os pubis; so that I could neither fasten a Crochet, nor draw it out by a Cupping-Glass fixt to the Scalp with an Air Pump. In this Extremity I directed my Son to open the Childs Head, and take out all the Brains, with so much of the Scull as he could; and then by a Cord fastned round the Neck with a Nooze, to pull it out, which was soon and easily done. The Child was Corrupted and stunk much, so did the Lochia, which flowed three Weeks; soon after they ceased, the Menstrua appeared, and the Woman went abroad: About six Weeks after her Delivery, she was seized with violent Convulsions, and Hysterick Fits, which lasted near three Days; when a painful Tumor arose in the left side of her Belly, which ended in an Eruption of white thick Matter near a Pint, with small Knobs of a Substance like the Yolk of boiled Eggs: All Symptoms immediately vanished, only she complained of the great Hollowness where the Tumor had been. Four Days after this, the like Swelling appear'd on the right side of her Belly, which continued with a small Flux of Matter about five or six Months, in despight of the many Remedies I used to cure her. About that time there appeared in the Pudenda a Bunch of something like greasy Wool, which being drawn forth, proved a Ball, or Wad of Hair, the bigness of a Turkeys Egg, immersed in an Unctuous Slime; adhering on one side to a Membrane so large as the Palm of a Mans Hand: And in the midst of it a Small Pyramidal Bone resembling a split Tooth. The Tumor sunk upon this, and the Fluor ceased immediately, and her Lunary Flux (which all this while had not appeared) flowed as usual; and she continueth in perfect Health ever since, full nine Months. You will herewith receive the Membrane, (somewhat shrunk and dry,) together with the Bone, and Folliculus, to lay before the R. Society, whose Sentiments I shall humbly wait to know. The Bone is perfectly such, so is the Hair, being fine, soft, and indifferently strong, of no great length, of a light brown Colour, intangled like a parcel of Combings. This Case, though rare and extraordinary, hath sometimes hapned to others. That Famous Naturalist Dr. Tyson, who hath so much obliged the World by his Labours and Discoveries, tell us, That in November 1679, he dissected a young Gentlewoman, and found the right Testicle, or Ovarium, twain into two Bags, almost so big as a Mans Head, full of a pale Serum, in which floated several Lumps of a soft fat Matter, which dissolved in part when put into hot Water. One of those Pieces was half so big as a Man's Fist, in which lay a great deal of Hair (as there did though not so plentifully in all the rest) of a Silver Colour, soft, fine, strong, and above two Foot long; it was not fasten'd to, nor seemed to grow from any part, but lay intangled in this Matter, and in it a Bony Bony Substance exactly resembling that which is commonly called the Eye or Dog-Tooth. Another time dissecting a Woman forty Years old, he found near the Uterus, a Bag so big as a large Turkey-Egg, and in it a fatty Substance, like that above mentioned, with a great quantity of light soft Hair fastened to a fleshy Substance: Within this Cystis a Bone, in some sort resembling a Mandible, having several Sockets, in which were seated there Dentes Molares, or Grinder Teeth, and a fourth not yet quite grown out. The Learned and Inquisitive Doctor Grew tells us, That Muf. R.S. in your Musæum lyeth such another Tooth, found by p. 15. Dr. Tyson, after the same manner. And the Doctor himself tells us, ubi supra, That the great Dr. Needham found a Tooth and Hair in the Ovarium of a dead Woman. And Dr. R. Hook (whose Death I have a thousand Reasons to lament) saith, That Dr. Samson found the like in two great Globose Tumors depending on, or rather parts of the extended Ovarium, wrapt up in dissoluble and inflammable fat, of a yellow Colour. About ten Years since, Sir Andrew Leak (who now lyeth in the Bed of Honour) gave me a small Bunch of Hair, being part of what had been found in the Belly of a young Woman at Deal, by Mr. Jof. Nichols a Surgeon there; I send you that Hair, with a short History of it, by leave from the kind Hand who lately imparted it to me. A.D. 1696. A Virgin of thirty fell into a Periodical Fever, and afterward a total suppression of her Menstrua; which was soon followed with a Pain and Tumor in the right side of her Belly, which grew and encreased, maugre all the Remedies advised by the Neighbouring Physicians, till it became bigger and harder than that of a Woman in her last Month. When it had grown a full Year, it began to soften, and then the Censorious People who suspected her Honesty, thought her in a Dropsie. At fifteen Months end, the Belly was so distended, that it seemed ready to Burst; which made the Patient desire the Physicians to advise Mr. Nichols to make the Paracentesis; but all were surprized, when instead of Water there rushed out a pint and half of sweet well-digested Matter: The next Day he let out as much more, and then perceived Hair four or five Inches long issue forth with the Matter, but so fastned in the Inside, that he could not pull them out, the Woman complaining he would draw out a piece of her Belly. She lived but four Days after the Operation; and on Dissection of her Belly there was found ten Quarts of the same Matter which flowed through the Tap-hole, and in it floating a Lump of Hair so big as an Halfpenny Loaf, wrapt up in a fatty Matter, from which being cleansed, it weighed full half an Ounce. On the Right side of the Womb he found a Protuberance bigger than a large Walnut, from which the Hair grew eight Inches long; that Tumor, or rather the Ovary being separated from the Matrix, there was found in it a perfect Dog-Tooth socketed in a Bone of a triangular Figure, in which another Tooth was growing; the Bone had a Periostium on it surrounded with Flesh, fastned at the Calvaria to the Scull. If you desire to see those things, or to have a more particular account of this Dissection, Mr. Nichols will oblige you with the same freedom and readiness he hath done your Servant. My Patient's Case hath two Difficulties in it which I can't get over, viz. How these Substances got in where they lodged? And how they got out thence by the way they did? Without doubt they were nested in or near the Testicle; the place of Tumor and Pain, and the many Anatomical Discoveries made by those great Philosophers I have quoted, do ev'n demonstrate it: They could not be conveyed into that Bowel, and must therefore be made in it; but how, and of Materials, is a Question to be put at Delphos or Gresham College, for Apollo, or the Royal Society, to Answer. Such Philosophers who call those extraordinary Appearances Lusus Naturae, seem like those of old, who wearied in their Natural Searches by some puzzling Difficulty, take Refuge in Words, ascribing the Cause of Things which they can't discover or discern, to Occult Qualities, &c. If they mean by Lusus Naturae, the Sport or Recreation of Nature, they accuse her who doth nothing in vain, and is the Author of all the Order, Beauty and Benefits we enjoy, as delighting to make Monstrous, Deformed, Useless and Mischievous Things; Things preternatural and contrary to Nature, because destroying its best Works, Man. If by it they mean that Nature being on the Work of Generation, mistook, failed, or was disappointed; and instead of forming an Embryo or Fetus, made a Chaos, turn'd into a confus'd Lump of Bone, Fat, Hair and Membranes, the Materials or Elements of Animal Bodies, they greatly err; for in all such Acts of Nature, the Coition of both Sexes is required, according to the old, or either of the new Hypotheses de Generatione Animal. which in the Girl of Deal was wanting; she being found, upon a very nice and strict Scrutiny of Jealous Eyes, to die a Virgin, and Intact. We are told by many Authors of the best Credit, That great Quantities of Hair have been found in all the Parts of Humane Bodies, the Fluids not excepted. Dr. Tyson did, about twenty Years since, publish a large Collection from them. That Penetrating Eye, beyond the Ken of which scarce any thing in Nature is concealed, reasons like a Philosopher, on the Nature and Production of Hair in Human Bodies, Living or Dead; especially in those Parts we are writing of; but the Teeth and Bones seem too hard, even for so acute an Investigator. He hath indeed given given us some very fine Thoughts, and Ingenious Conjectures concerning their Origin and Production; and perhaps he may by this time have discovered more clearly their Causes. If this Paper of mine occasion his divulging those Sentiments, how proud shall I be of the Midwifery! This is the only Difficulty all those Stories I have told from others are incumbered with; but mine hath another no less hard to resolve. It's obvious how those things were got out of the Women that dyed; but my Patient, who survived the Evacuation, puzzleth me to find the Ductus per Quem for such a Lump to pass from without the Womb into the Vulva. It was certainly lodged without the Uterus; But which way could such a Lump of greasy Hair, with a Bone, and a large Membrane adhering, pass into it? I know none but the Tuba Fallopiana; but the Orifice of that into the Womb is so small, that it sometimes wont admit an Egg no bigger than a Corn of Pepper to pass: Whence those Conceptions which are made in that Trunk are occasioned. It will distend very largely, so as to hold a big Fœtus; but where it is inserted to the Matrix, the Foramen is too narrow for Substances of such Magnitude to pass, unless some very extraordinary Accident expanded it; and what that can be, I can't apprehend. LONDON, Printed for Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, Printers to the Royal Society, at the Prince's-Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard.