Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Dr. Doddridge to Henry Baker F. R. S. concerning a Wether Giving Suck to a Lamb; And of a Monstrous Lamb

III. Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Dr. Doddridge to Henry Baker F. R. S. concerning a Wether giving Suck to a Lamb; and of a monstrous Lamb. Dear Sir, Northampton, July 2. 1748. THE Occasion of my writing to you now is to inform you of a remarkable Fact, which I have just heard from a Member of the Church of which I am Pastor, and in whom I can entirely confide.—He tells me, that he has in Upper Heyford Field, about four Miles from this Town, a Wether-Sheep which now suckles a Lamb. I know not by what Accident, the Lamb sometime since ran after it, and fixed upon its Paps; drawing hard, Milk followed. The Lamb has subsisted very well upon what it sucked from him, and at the late shearing Time he himself pressed the Teats, and Milk came out in a considerable Quantity. This reminds me of what Mr. Ray tells us from Boccone, that a Countryman in Umbria nourished his Child by his own Milk, and Florentinus and Malpighius are quoted on the same Occasion. Bartholinus, in his Anatomy, p. 215. has some remarkable Passages to this Purpose: he quotes a Passage in Aristotle concerning a He-Goat in Lemnos, who had a great Quantity of Milk. I shall add to this a short Account of a monstrous Lamb, which was weaned in a Field near Newport Pagnel about the Middle of last last March, and was brought to me soon after it died. It had two perfect Heads (and two long Necks), each as large as that of a common Lamb, but sucked only with that on the right Side. So far as I could learn the Organs of both were compleat. It walked only on four Legs, but had a fifth hanging down between the two Necks, rather longer than the other four; the Bones and Hoof were double, and had four Claws: the concave Side of it was turned upwards, and whenever the Creature walked this Leg moved up and down as it seemed spontaneously, and in a manner answerable to the Motion of the other four: it had two Tails, but no Vent behind: it had also two distinct Spines, but they met about five Inches above the Tail, and then divided again; but where they met they were not as one entire Spine, but as two adhering to each other. There were two Sets of Ribs, only those which met upward (where the Spine should regularly have been placed) were rather shorter than the other: and it seemed that the Blade-Bone belonging to the doubled Leg that grew between the Necks was larger than the rest, and seemed to be two Bones, but not entirely distinct: it had two Hearts of equal Bigness, lying over each other almost like a St. Andrew's Cross, or (as we should say in Heraldry) Saltire-wise. There were two Oesophagi and two Asperæ Arteriae: four small Lobes of Lungs, but the two Gullets were inserted into one common Stomach.—I am not Master enough of the Formation of ruminating Animals to inform you farther what was peculiar in this. We found nothing preternatural in the Formation of the Intestines, but the the Tails grew so near, that the Return of both seemed to point to one Vent, tho' as I observed, the Anus was deficient. It had three Kidneys, one of them very large in proportion to the other two; so that I apprehend there was a Conjunction. I send you this Account whilst the Matter is fresh in my Memory, and am, Dear Sir, Yours, &c. P. Doddridge. IV. Abstract from a Letter sent by Monsieur Buffon, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, &c. to Martin Folkes Esq; Pr. R. S. concerning his Re-invention of Archimedes's Burning Specula. Read Oct. 27. As what I read some time since to 1748. our Royal Academy upon the Subject of my Re-invention of Archimedes's* burning Specula, cannot appear in our Memoirs before the Year 1747, I think of publishing by themselves my Observations upon these Mirrors, as soon as I shall satisfy myself upon certain Particulars, by some new Experiments I am now preparing to make. The Speculum I have already constructed, and which is but six Feet broad and as many high, burns Wood at the Distance of 200 Feet, it melts Tin and Lead * See these Trans. No. 483.