Anatomy of conjoined twins
Date
28 October 1670
Creator
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p3
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 313mm
width (page): 201mm
width (page): 201mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Rough sketches of how a single colon branched to the anuses of both the twins, and of their diaphragm. From a letter by the physician William Durston dated 28 October 1670 at Plymouth, to Timothy Clarke, reporting the dissection of a pair of conjoined twins born to Grace Bastard, a wife of a shoemaker 'of honest repute' and mother of five. In this letter Durston included a tape measure to indicate the size of the twin from head to toe. Another drawing done 'by a youth' at Plymouth, which accompanied this letter, has been moved to the Royal Society's Letter Book (LBO/4/095a). Durston's letter was read at the meeting of the Royal Society on 10 November 1670, and printed in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. 5, no. 65 (1670), without this sketch.
In the previous year, Durston had reported to the Royal Society an abnormal swelling of a woman's breasts (EL/D1/11). In his letter, he similarly added a drawing and the tape-measure with which he had measured the breasts.
In the previous year, Durston had reported to the Royal Society an abnormal swelling of a woman's breasts (EL/D1/11). In his letter, he similarly added a drawing and the tape-measure with which he had measured the breasts.
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 10 November 1670, ‘Mr. Oldenburg read a letter written by Dr. Durston of Plymouth to Dr. Timothy Clarke, dated 28 Octob. 1670, containing an account of a monstrous birth at Plymouth, with some anatomical observations thereupon’ (Birch 2:451).
William Durston to Timothy Clarke, 'A narrative of a monstrous birth in Plymouth, October 22, 1670', Phil. Trans. vol. 5, no. 65 (November 1670), pp. 2096-99.
William Durston to Timothy Clarke, 'A narrative of a monstrous birth in Plymouth, October 22, 1670', Phil. Trans. vol. 5, no. 65 (November 1670), pp. 2096-99.
Associated place