A Letter from Mr. James Yonge, F. R. S. to Dr. Hans Sloane, R. S. Secr. Containing an Account of an Unusual Blackness of the Face; And of Several Extra-Uterine Foetus's

IV. A Letter from Mr. James Yonge, F. R. S. to Dr. Hans Sloane, R. S. Secr. containing an Account of an Unusual Blackness of the Face; and of several Extra-Uterine Foetus's. Honoured Sir, The Relation I sent September 1707. of an hairy Bunch ejected by Urine from a Nephritick Woman, I find did not meet that Regard, and Credit which I think it well deserved. I own that Mr. Leeuwenhoek's Objections seem to have some strength, but cannot shock my Belief at all: For beside a nice Examination, and full Consideration of all Circumstances at first, I am confirm'd in the Assurance I then had, that it came thorough the Urethra, was not convey'd, or by any accident dropt into the Pot, by such Evidence à posteriori, as are little short of Demonstration: viz. That the Tumour which was in the side of her Belly, in which her chief Anguish lay before the Evacuation, vanish'd with it; together with all those other Symptoms, which molested her; viz. Strangury, foetid and purulent Urine, and have not now in two Years made any return. I have a couple of other Rarities to present (with my humble Duty) to the R. Society; one of them is matchless, and to me wholly new. I will relate it very briefly, because being not yet at an end, I expect occasion to give you a further account of it. A Girl 16 Years old, a Daughter of Elizabeth Worth of this Town, had about the end of last April a few hot Pimples rise on her Cheeks, which Bleeding and a Purge or two cured. She continued very well 'till about a Month afterward, when her Face, so far as is usually covered with a Vizard-mask, suddenly turned black like that of a Negro. This surprizing Accident much amaz'd and frighted the Girl: especially after some foolish People persuaded her she was bewitch'd, and never to be cured: By Prayers, Exorcisms, and other Incantations they endeavoured to relieve and take off the Fascination; which proving ineffectual, the Passion and Terror of Mind encreased to a great degree, even to Distraction, and then they demanded my Assistance. By the Arguments I used, and some composing Antihysterical Remedies, the Violence of her Fits became much pacified. I also directed a Lotion for her Face, which took off the Discoloration, but it returned frequently, but with no regularity, sometimes twice or thrice in Twenty Four Hours, sometimes five or six times. It appears insensibly to the Girl, without Pain, Sickness, or any Symptoms of its approach, except a little warm Flushing just before it appears. It easily comes away, and leaves the Skin clear, and white, but smuts the Cloth that wipes it from the Face; it feels Unchious, and seems like Grease, and Soot, or Blacking mixt. It hath no Tast at all, which is to me very strange, that a fuliginous Exsudation should be insipid. She never had the Menses; is thin, but healthful; the Blackness appears no where but in the prominent part of her Face. There are a thousand Eye-witneses to the truth of this Wonder; but I am not able to find, or conjecture the caused of it, nor have I ever heard of the like. I shall be glad to know your Opinion, and ready to make such further Enquiries as you shall please to send, in order to discover the cause of this dark and strange Phenomenon. The second Rarity I am to impart is extraordinary, but not wholly new, and solitary; as the first is, hav- ing been observed by some the last Century. It was communicated to me by a very Learned Divine of this Country, in these Words———; 'I send this to ac- quaint you with a strange Occurrence observed here last Week: A Gentleman's Servant having kill'd an Ewe, which was thought fat, and taken out the Bowels, found a very unusual and monstrous lump of Fat, proceeding like a Wen from the middle of the Omentum. I was call'd to see this Wonder; and having cut it open, found inclosed a Lamb of the same Parts, Feature, and Dimensions with others of that kind. How it came there? And how nourished? are Que- stions I would have resolved. I soon apprehended what it was that seem'd so very strange and unaccountable to my Friend, having thirty Years since been shewn the like, found in a Bitch, by an expert and ingenious Surgeon in Oxford; and from that time observed, and considered all of that Nature which have occurred to me in Books, or otherwise; and so was ready to tell that Learned, and curious Gentleman, that that Lamb was not conceived in the Womb, but in one of the Fallopian Tubes; wherein growing too big to be contained, it either broke out into the place where it was found, or slipt back toward the upper Orifice, and tho- rough it into the Belly: That afterward assisted by the prone and inclining Posture of the Sheep's Body, it slipt for- forward to the Omentum, and was there nourished the usual way, viz. by the Placenta, which was doubtless fixed in the Tube, and the Pedunculus being kept whole, will easily extend from thence to the Fetus, where it lay. Had this Sheep been nicely dissected by a skilful Hand, I verily believe we should have found my Opinion true in fact. Riolan Jun. Anthropog. Nov. lib. 2. c. 34. was the first that publicly observed these strange Conceptions; and he tells us they have the Coats, Secundine, &c. of such Fetus's as are ingendred within the Womb. And considering the late Anatomical Discoveries, and new Hypothesis of the genital Parts in Women, and their uses in Generation, made by Thoed. Kirkringius, Reg. de Graaf, and others; it seems more than probable, that such Conceptions as we are speaking of, happen when in Coition one of the Eggs descends into the Tube; and being unable to pass into the Uterus thorough the lower Orifice (which is sometimes, and in aged People always, contracted;) and being however impregnated by the Aura Seminalis, or *Animalcula, wherewith the Testicles and seminal Parts of some Males do so prodigiously and incredibly abound; it there grows till too big to be contained, and then breaks forth into the Belly: Though sometimes, as I shall shew by a memorable Instance, they continue in the Tube itself. There the Placenta fixes, and sucks Nourishment as from the Fundus Uteri; and if the Pedunculus holds together, conveys it to the Fetus, as it doth to those in the natural Place of Breeding. I have perhaps with too much freedom and too little exactness laid before you my Notions, and the * Mr. Leeuwenhoek saith, the Milt of a Codfish hath more Animalcula, than there are People on the Earth. Dr. Hook. Phil. Coll. No. 1. Idea I have of this Matter; but 'tis with humble Submission to your Censure and Correction: Craving leave to amplify a little on this subject, By reciting what of the kind hath been by several others discover'd, and considered. Such Extra-uterine Embryo's have been sometimes found in Women; but not publickly taken notice of till the beginning of the last Century, by the younger Riolan. ut supra, with this Remark: (Speaking of the Fallopian Tubes) They appear, saith he, of the same Nature and Substance as the Womb, Quia carnea est, in qua, quod est mirabile, fetus Humanum concipi fuit observatum. Then gives an account of four such strange Conceptions, which occurred to his Knowledge. Since which time, more marvelous ones have happen'd in that Country; two of them much amused the Curious everywhere. One was found at Paris, January 1669, by Mr. B. Vesal, in the right Tube of a Woman. It was four Months old, and so grown, and the Tube so distended, as made him mistake it for another Womb, and accordingly to call the Account he published thereof, Demonstration d'une double Matrice. Mr. Oldenburgh put an Extract of it into the Philosophical Transactions, No. 48. and the German Academy, Vol. i. Obs. 110. did the like: But neither seem'd to understand the Mystery, till de Graeff took it right, and made use of this very Observation to illustrate and confirm the Hypothesis of Kirkringius. And soon after Elsholtius, a learned German, did the same in a little but curious Tract, De conceptione Tubaria, qua Humani Fetus extra Uteri cavitatem in tubis quandoque concipiuntur. He recites the Story as from Mr. Vesal, and gives the Figure of the supposed two Wombs and the Fetus in the distended Tube; and among other such Conceptions, mentions two large Melas found without the Matrix of one Woman. About Ten Years afterward a much more wonderful, and incredible one happen'd there, which puzzled the Philosophers to apprehend, or believe. It comes very well attested by Mr. Bayle, who first published an History of it in the Journal des Scavans, A.D. 1678. Soon after M. Nic. Blegny did the same in a particular Tract with Figures, which I have by me: And afterward Mr. Oldenburgh put an Extract of it into the Philosophical Transactions, No. 139. 'A Woman, A.D. 1652. came to her full time of bearing, but altho' she had all the Symptoms usual at that season, no Child came. She continued in that Condition twenty Years, still feeling the Child within her. From that time she felt not any motion it had. In June 1708. she died, and the next day was opened. In her Belly, without the Womb, a dead Child was found lapt up in the Omentum: It weigh'd Eight pounds; and altho' it was kept in that hot Season three Days out of the Mother's Belly, it did not stink. Mr. Blegny was curious to Inspect, and give a particular Account of this wonderful thing to the World, not only in the Tract above-mentioned, but also in the first Volume of his Zodiacus Medicus, Obs. 9. with very remarkable, and learned Animadversions. Before either of these appeared in France, there happen'd one in Holland to H. Rhoonhuys. 'A Woman with Child, at her full time, was four Days in Labour, and although she had so many Midwives, could not be Deliver'd. Our Author was called, December 1658. found the Internum Uteri Osculum close shut: Without Flowings, or other Fore-runners of Delivery. He finding the common Passage so closely shut up, and a very painful Tumour above the Navel, proposed the Cesarean Section. The Woman having seen that dreadful Operation made at Paris, earnestly desired him to perform it on her. But he, to observe some unnecessary Forms, delay'd it till the Woman was past Life: Who he believes might with the Child have been preserved, if the Operation had been done when he first saw her. Opening the Belly after death, he found a Child amidst the Intrals; and, as he saith, the Placenta fastned to the Colon, and part to the Fundus Uteri; and that there was a Breach in the Womb capacious enough for the Infant to pass thorough it into the Belly; and that Wound he thinks was made by a blow, altho' it hurt not the external Parts, nor made Impressions on the tender Embryo. I can't approve, nor will I censure the many things in his Report liable to exception, and which Criticks will be apt to think absurd. I presume to believe he mistook the extended Tube for a Matrix, as Vesal did. Erranti nullus terminus. A much more famous, and learned Man than he, (T. Bartholinus,) did the Year after Rhoonhuyse's Exploration, meet such an extraneous Fetus lapt up in a Mola, which he found in the Belly of a Woman; and thus conjectures —— Non possum aliud divinare, quam quod fetus hic primo fuerit in Tubis uteri conceptus. He imparted this Story first to G. Horstius, Ep. 58. Vol. 4. Afterward to the whole World, in the 92d Observation of his sixth Century. A. D. 1662. In the City of Aurange, D. Baldwin, and Mr. De la fort found —— Puellum Egregium, optime formatum extra uterum. The report of this Discovery is made publick by the famous Sachs, with very learned Remarks. Miscell. Cur. Vol. i. Obs. 110. which he concludes cludes (as I shall) with one more stupendious than all I have cited, which he had from the Silesia Chronicle, written long since by N. Polinus, and thus relates it. 'A.D. 1581. A Woman that had born Ten Children in Fifteen Years Matrimony, conceiv'd again, and at the full time was deliver'd through an Abscess of the left Hypocondria. — Ex qua infans boni habitus extractus, qui Baptizatus fuit, & annum unum cum demidio supervixit; Mater vero, summis in doloribus tertio die obiit. Sir, I humbly beg your Opinion of these Reports, and my Notions; that if I am skilful or lucky enough to meet your Concurrence and Approbation, I may accordingly value myself, or be better informed. Plimouth, August 16. 1709. James Yonge.