271 



MONSTROSITIES. 



The subject of monstrosities or abnormal variations among men and the lower 

 animals, has always excited attention in every class of the community, for in times 

 o-one by they were considered, even l)y educated persons, as mysterious portents 

 of events which would shortly take place, or else the result of diabolical influences. 

 And even now, in some districts, such ideas are observed to linger among the 

 nnedncated or the credulous, while they are more widely disseminated m Eastern 



climes. . ^^ ^ '» 



The very term monster has been derived either from the Latin term monstro 

 io slww, or from "moneo" to warn, in accordance with the views held by different 

 schools of thought or superstition. For some imagined that these abnormal 

 creatures showed the results of witchcraft, or the direct effects of evil agency as 

 one may observe by referring to Rueff 's work, De Conceptio et Genemhone Hoimnis, 

 A.D. 1580, wherein he devoted a chapter to the question "An homines ex 

 dwmonibus et rursus diemones ex hominibus infantes concipere possunt !> And 

 here he o-ravely arrived at the conclusion that these monstrosities had not really 

 demons for their fathers. Even at the present clay, in some portions of Hindustan, 

 the natives deem it no crime to destroy such creatures at the time of, or 

 shortly after their birth, as they hold contrary views to the conclusions arrived at 

 by Rueff. Individuals of great intellect as Aldrovandus, Ambrose Pare, and many 

 other illustrious men have held that these monsters being presages of Uivine 

 vencreance, were sent into the world in order to warn people of impending 

 disasters, and Lvcosthenes went so far as to add pictures to his descriptions ot 

 each variety of monsters, and which lie believed showed the calamity which its 

 birth was intended to foretell. l- ± i 



Vrolik observed that monstrosities were most numerous among domesticated 

 animals, but " they seldom happen among Reptilia, still less frequently among 

 Fishes, Molluscs, Articulata, and Radiata." Thompson remarked that they do 

 not come by chance, but the laws regulating their occurrence arc still undiscovered, 

 while monsters in a wild state have less chance of survival than perfect animals, 

 being more or less unable to escape from their enemies. , 



The period at which original malformations commence, may be at or prior to 

 the time of fertilization of the ovum, for they may be congenital or acquired 

 Or it may be some cause affecting the development of the embryo from its earliest 

 stage subsequent to fertilization ; and these last may be again subdivided into 

 causes affecting the development of the embryo or foetus from withm, or such as 

 accidents, &c., which may occur from without. 



It has been remarked in the higher forms of vertebrate life that malformations 

 or an influence originating such, may exist in either the ovum or spermatozoa 

 prior to fertilization, as was observed in the case of a female cat at Cheltenham 

 possessing an abnormal number of toes, which were reproduced in her young 

 and for several successive litters. Similarly, the father may be the origin of 

 malformations : thus an otherwise well-formed man has beenknown to procreate 

 with different women, children having tlie same deformity; or even the 

 malformation may miss one generation to appear m a subsequent one. iJaese 

 instances, which might be increased indefinitely, are only adduced to show that the 



*The observation "law of nature" simply, as Carpenter ^^^^'^k^'^' ^.''Pf !f ' \f *u^''^ 

 uniformities in the surrounding universe which man assumes to ^^I'^Sf d just so far as they 

 have been verified, but not necessarily any further; while it accounts for nothmg and explams 

 nothing. 



