Dear Sir, I take the liberty to remit you an account of the delivery of a very curious acephalous monster, accompanied with a short description of its anatomical structure. If, after a perusal of it, you should apprehend it may be acceptable to the Royal Society, I beg that you will do me the honour to lay it before them. Mrs. Brackett, of Clerkenwell Close, aged twenty-three years, was, at the end of her first pregnancy, by a natural labour, delivered of a perfect female child, on Friday the 8th of October, 1773, at seven o'clock in the morning. The attending midwife, Mrs. Ayres, soon perceived by the abdominal tumour that there was another child. After waiting about three hours, a flooding came on; but without pain, or any advancement of the second delivery. The
hæmorrhage
producing faintness, debility, and danger, the attendants and midwife were alarmed, and I was sent for. When I came, I found her in the situation above described; and therefore thought it my duty to accomplish the remaining part of the labour, as soon as I could, consistently with the safety of the mother.
C Helen Brock (ed.), The correspondence of Dr William Hunter, 1740–1783, 2 vols, London, Pickering & Chatto, 2007, vol. 1: pp. xli, 371; vol. 2: pp. 485, £225.00, $395.00 (hardback 978-1-85196-904-30).
