most absurd and ridiculous notions universally ffat ti6jAi&r«tti 

 garding the nature of monstrosities, which frequently gave 

 rise to practices the most cruel and barbarous. Similar pre- 

 posterous ideas prevailed in the world to a comparatively 

 modern date : we are even gravely told by Riolanus, one of 

 the most distinguished men of his age, who lived in the 

 seventeenth century, that giants, dwarfs, or children born in 

 any way deformed, — alt of whom, according to his opinion, 

 are made after the image of the devil, — may be allowed to live, 

 but should be excluded from public sight, and be perpetually 

 shut up in some place of security. About the beginning of 

 the eighteenth century this species of philosophy was becom- 

 ing less popular, and the unprecedented rapidity with which 

 the sciences of anatomy and physiology advanced during that 

 period soon brought tbnHj^Bffii^ 



total fallacy. The irnm^iiQriW^UBi9okbwrtt\wr^Brftesdttoi> ifftffl 

 who gave the death blow to the old doctrines, and, in his 

 work De Mo?istris was the first to reduce teratology to 

 any thing like a science. After the death of this great man, 

 teratology was doomed to a long period of repose; it was, no 

 doubt, sufficiently discussed and agitated, but itfimsfii)D"hoh«i$ 

 improved, or enriched with the addition of original matter, 

 until Bichat and Serres, by their profound investigations, ex- 

 tended its boundaries very considerably. But no one has ever 

 contributed so much towards the improvement of this branch 

 of knowledge as M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, by the publication of 

 his late most elaborate and instructive work on the subject. 

 It is not too much to say that this author has effected in tera- 

 tology what Linnaeus did in other branches of natural history. 

 He found the science in the greatest confusion, a heap of facts 

 atHrown together with iftt^&Sttall <3fl^e$rnJilg u §gBglRPlb£ 

 tyro, and pei^M^i^dttflth^(fe4n^dlsmtiei^9dHfch^:n^. 

 -*ttng©#l r ihes<Mw!&iJ Bnfc^fefl^dwh'ftitf wi^ifefe^Bfapiftjiai^e %&± 

 quiries and researches to perfect. It is tobe hoped that the 

 glorious results of the labours of this illustrious naturalist 

 will excite in the minds of the scientific of England a desire 

 *te) 8^te%^«t©'^fo#3€h^tft8«il»tes^daito Itel^^li^sbteftcj^^teii 

 they hav^ftfteft'ffqko6V^^<b^^ 



many among the'm fc&stta^^Vt#^|,d»e fei%^ 9 tffr$®Oet$fl$tfe 

 mystery, terfl^^d^hfe^fi^yf*t^a^k^l^ n ^ig^f<^k 1ft) 

 longer adV&bc%ttlm1ta<^l}isn1^ 



^TrYeofrith'tej ^rijlirsk^eftifimsPas^^^eyf^^s^^ia^ 



shillings, and pefittij wifhnJ^gryooWict they pui^isjftbedft 

 scientific, literary, or commercial ; and any thing unproduc- 

 tive, directly or indirectly, of those commodities, they cast 

 aside as not being worthy of their notice. — ^ J. J. l ' 



