VERNEY, (JOSEPH DU). - DESCRIPTION OF A "MONSTRE DOUBLE".

Observations sur deux Enfans joints ensemble.

(Paris, Jean Boudot, 1707). 4to. Without wrappers. Extracted from "Mémoires de l'Academie des Sciences. Année 1706". Pp. 418-432 and pp. 516-521. With 7 large folded engraved plates (antomy and physiology).

First appearance of du Verneys rather famous description and dissection of two children linked together by the lower abdomen and lacking an anus.
Jacques du Verney was "medicin ordinaire du roi". During a conference open to the public he exhibited a "monstre double" to a crowd of Parisians and provincials in order to refute the fortuitous and haphazard accidentalist theories...According to Verney, the very form of this monster leaves little doubt as to God'øs agency in nature...the monstrous fetus are read as a sign of celestial "Telos". (Based on "The Faces of Eighteent-Century Monstroisity).
Together with LEMERY: Que les Plantes contiennent réellement du fer, & que ce metal entre necessairement dans leur composition naturelle. Pp. 411-418 and 2 large folded engraved plates.

Order-nr.: 44724