Reproduction
Object numberRCSHC/P 1535
Scientific nameHomo sapiens
CollectionHunterian
CategoryDry preparations
DescriptionThe skull of a young boy with a second imperfect skull attached to its anterior fontanelle.
From a child born at Mundul Gait in Bengal in 1783. The boy is recorded as having been roughly four years old at time of death. The first head was not malformed, with the brain distinct from the second head, although the blood supply for the additional head was obtained via the brain of the first. The upper head faced in the opposite direction and had smaller features than the first head. The base of the second skull is contracted with near-closure of the foramen magnum from which a short stump of tissue is recorded to have developed. Records also report that there were folds of skin at the site of the ears, as the external auditory meatus had not developed. Although the features of the second head moved, these movements are believed to have been purely reflex and not controllable. The eyelids were usually open, even during sleep. At birth the child was reputedly thrown onto the fire by a horrified midwife, and although rescued an ear and eye had been severely burnt. The parents had kept the child as an exhibit, keeping the boy covered until payment was received to view him. This may explain the emaciated state the child was found in. The boy is recorded to have died following a fatal bite from a cobra.
Production date 1787
Preparator
Owner/user
presented
Related objectsRCSSC/P 3190RCSSC/HDB/3/1/844/2RCSSC/HDB/3/1/844/1
Physical Location
Location
Not on public display: contact museum for access conditions
Physical Information
Physical descriptionDry preparation of bone mounted in a cuboid perspex container.
Dimensions
whole height: 262 mm
whole width: 161 mm
whole depth: 128 mm
whole weight: 686 g
whole width: 161 mm
whole depth: 128 mm
whole weight: 686 g
Bibliography
SourceProger 1966-1972
Vol. 2, pages 234-5.
NotesText as for Lowne 1872 (see below).
SourceLowne 1872
p.37-38
Transcript138. The skull of a Bengalee child, with a second imperfect skull attached to the anterior fontanelle, which is widely extended.
The base of the second skull is much contracted, the foramen magnum being almost closed. All the bones of the face are much smaller than those of the supporting skull. The faces are turned in almost opposite directions, so that the left frontal bones of one skull articulate by suture with the right parietals of the other, and vice versa. The history of this skull and an account of the child are given in the Phil. Trans, vol. Ixxx. p. 296, from which the following particulars are extracted :
"The child was a male; it was more than four years old at the time of its death, which was caused by the bite of a cobra. It was very emaciated, a fact attributed to the parents having used it as a show, always keeping it covered up, except when payment was made for its exhibition. The woman who acted as midwife was terrified at the appearance of the additional head, and tried to destroy the child by throwing it on the fire; it was rescued after one eye and ear were considerably burnt.
There was no trunk to the second head; but it was surmounted by a short neck terminating in a rounded tumour, which is stated by one observer to have been quite soft at the age of two, and by another to have been quite hard and cartilaginous at the age of four. Its external ears were represented by mere folds of skin, and there was no auditory meatus. The normal face and head were not malformed. The brains were distinct, each invested in its own membranes; the dura mater of each adhered to that of the other at the point of contact. The chief supply of blood to the upper head was by a number of vessels passing from the membranes of one brain to that of the other. The movements of the features of the upper head appear to have been purely reflex, and by no means to have been controlled by the feelings or desires of the child. The movements of the eyes of the accessory head did not correspond with those of the child, and the eyelids were usually open, even during sleep."
SourceHome 1799b
NotesHome's paper includes drawings of the child, made in Bengal, together with additional biographical information received from the original donor, Mr Dent. There is also a description from Dent of the dissection of the head during preparation.
TranscriptThe child was male. Its father was a farmer at Mundul Gaut, in the province of Bardwan, who told Mr Dent that it was more than four years old at the time of its death. The mother, who was thirty years of age, had three children, all naturally formed; and her fourth child was the subject of the present paper. Mr Dent endeavoured to discover whether any imaginary cause had been assigned by the parents, for the unnatural formation of the child; but the mother declared, that no circumstance whatever, of an uncommon nature, had occurred: she had no fright, met with no accident, and went through the period of pregnancy exactly in the same way as she had done with her other children. The body of the child was uncommonly thin, appearing emaciated from want of due nourishment. The neck of the superior head was about four inches long, and the upper part of it terminated in a hard, round, gristly tumour, nearly four inches in diameter. The front head had cut the gums, in the upper and under jaws of both heads. When the child cried, the features of the superior head were not always affected; and, when it smiled, the features of the superior head did not sympathize in that action.
