Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 1.djvu/215

Rh seldom having a passage oftener than once in nine days, sometimes only once in fourteen days. She ceased to grow at ten years of age, and was only four feet six inches in height. Across the shoulders she measured fourteen inches, but her pelvis measured only nine inches, from the ossa ilia to the sacrum. Her breasts and nipples never enlarged more than those of a man; nor did she ever men- struate, or show any other sign of puberty, either in mind or body ; on the contrary, she always expressed aversion to the familiarities of young men.

At the age of twenty-one she became uneasy at ﬁnding herself different from other women, and, attributing the difference to her not having menstruated, frequently applied for medical advice.

She was, from her infancy, subject to the attacks of a complaint in the chest, attended with cough. These attacks increased in vio- lence as she advanced in age ; and in her twenty—ninth year, one of them came on, attended with convulsions, of which, after a few hours, she died.

Upon examining the female organs after her death, it appeared that the os tincae and uterus had the usual form, but had not increased beyond their size in the infant state. The passage into the uterus, through the cervix, was oblique, and the Fallopian tubes were per- vious to the ﬁmbriae. The ovaria were so indistinct that they rather showed the rudiments which ought to have formed them, than any part of their natural structure.

From the history of the preceding case, it appears, not only that an imperfect state of the ovaria is attended with an absence of all the characters belonging to the female after puberty, but also that the uterus itself, although perfectly formed, was checked in its growth. in consequence of the imperfect structure of those parts.

The infant here treated of died at the age of ten days, during which period nothing particular was remarked, except that the skin exhi- bited the blue colour so common in cases of imperfect pulmonary circulation.

Upon opening the body, all the viscera were found in the natural state, except the heart, which exhibited the following remarkable structure:

Externally, only one auricle could be perceived, into which the pulmonary veins and venae cavae entered in the usual manner. The pulmonary artery was wanting, and the body of the heart had but one ventricle, which was separated from the auricle by tendinous valves, and opened into the aorta.

The auricle was also single, and had a narrow muscular band, which crossed the ostium venosum, in the place of the septum. The aorta sent off an artery from the situation of the ductus arteriosus: this