Anencephalous foetus / by Alban Doran, for William Skene.

  • Doran, Alban H. G. (Alban Henry Griffiths), 1849-1927.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anencephalous foetus / by Alban Doran, for William Skene. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    o ANENCEPHALOUS FOETUS. the same eminence to the right heel, the leg being drawn straight, ten inches. In general form and the position of the limbs it resembled a frog. The head was strongly- extended, the occiput and back of the neck not existing j the space between the chin and sternum was abnormally wide. The face looked straight upwards, the features were large. The vault of the skull was entirely deficient. The integuments joined the dura mater along a line repre- senting the lower limits of the frontal plate of the frontal bone and the lower part of the parietals. The basilar portion of the sphenoid projected upwards; the corre- sponding part of the occipital was ill developed, and bent downwards from its junction with the sphenoid almost at a right angle. Posteriorly the integumental line ran along each side of the widely opened laminae of the cervical and dorsal vertebrae, and joined in the dorsi-lumbar region. The lumbar vertebrae were similarly deficient, but were covered with cicatricial integument. Projecting from the base of the cranium, so as to rest on the upper part of the back, was a mass which consisted of the cranial hemispheres, small and covered with pia mater.* This mass was par- tially decomposed when I received the specimen, and I w’as obliged to remove it. The medulla appeared to be represented by a Y-shaped tract of nerve tissue, each arm, about one fifth of an inch thick, uniting below with its fellow to form a short flattened nerve, gradually lost on the spinal dura mater. In fact, the cord had become flattened out and atrophied. The thoracic viscera were healthy, the heart was very large. The caecum and ascending colon appeared to be included in the mesentery. A distinct transverse, de- scending, and sigmoid meso-colon existed. The uterus, * In this, and in other respects, the monster resembled a specimen figured in Ahlfeld’s ‘ Missbildungen,’ pi. xlviii, fig. 13. In reference to that specimen the author states that, in the comparatively few cases of ancncephalus where a distinct trace of the brain is present (as in Dr. Skene’s monster), the rudi- mentary encephalon lies on the back, owing to the characteristic posture of the head.