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Description

Phillips recounts a case of a two-year-old child who had an enlarged abdomen from the age of three months. Around age two, she began suffering from bouts of vomiting, pain, and increasing enlargement of the abdomen, ultimately dying of the unknown disease. Phillips describes her autopsy, during which it was discovered that the child had an eight- to ten-pound tumour in her abdomen, strongly attached to the left kidney. The tumour was found to contain parts of a foetus.

Appears to be a copy letter as the letter is signed 'B C Brodie', which is then struck out and corrected to 'Edward Phillips' in graphite.

Subject: Medicine

Written by Phillips in Andover [Hampshire, England]. Read to the Royal Society on 4 May 1815.

Reference number
AP/8A/15
Earliest possible date
18 January 1815
Physical description
Ink on paper
Page extent
6 pages
Format
Manuscript

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Citation

Unpublished letter, 'Account of a case, in which the remains of a foetus were found in the abdomen of a female child' from Edward Phillips to B C [Benjamin Collins] Brodie, 18 January 1815, AP/8A/15, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/ap_8a_15/unpublished-letter-account-of-a-case-in-which-the-remains-of-a-foetus-were-found-in-the-abdomen-of-a-female-child-from-edward-phillips-to-b-c-benjamin-collins-brodie, accessed on 16 January 2026

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  • Archived Papers

    The 'Archived Papers' collection is comprised of original manuscript scientific papers and letters submitted to the Royal Society which remained unpublished or were abstracted in the journal 'Proceedings of the Royal Society' published from 1830 onwards.

    Dates: 1768 - 1989

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