The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 280: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A NIGHT OF TERRORS 245 to sean these objects nearer; and, as she gazed with mingled loathing and fearful interest, she discovered something connected with each tiny body that enhanced the poignancy of those feelings. For they were monsters — human mon- sters — which were preserved in those bottles, and on which the eyes of the young girl were thus fixed! That those infants had died at their birth, was probable; that some, if not all, had been murdered, either by stifling or poison, was not very unlikely, — but this latter idea did not for a moment strike Caroline Walters. All her thoughts were absorbed in the loathsome monstrosities which she was contemplating. For in one Jar was an infant with an enormous protuberance, having the appearance of an immense wen, upon one side of its little head; another contained a child of hideous features and without any arms; a third displayed the horrid spectacle of twin bodies with one head, — the revolting production of nature thus having four arms and four legs; and a fourth vase contained an infant corpse that had neither arms nor legs at all. In fine, these specimens of the terrible eccentricities which occa- sionally come within the cognizance of those who practise midwifery were amongst the most revolting which the annals of the art have ever recorded. Turning away at length from the disgusting exhibition, and with such a sickening sensation at the heart that she was forced to place the candlestick upon a table for fear she should drop it and be left in the dark amidst those horrors, Caroline leaned against the wall for support. While thus sustaining herself, and wondering what sentiment of curiosity could have originally prompted her to enter the room at all, she cast her eyes around as if fearful lest some terrific spectre should suddenly rise from amidst the pile of lumber or appear upon the threshold of the door, when her looks settled upon a tall black wooden case, standing upright against the wall. Again she shuddered with a cold trembling from head to foot; for this box at first struck her as being a coffin that was planted there! But a second and more searching glance showed her that it had not that angular projection of the sides which marks the sinister shape of the receptacle for the dead. And now that same mysterious and invincible curiosity (C(O) AAV Doo (C(O)