10 MALL. [VoL. XIX. 
help teratology out of its difficult position. However, what 
little progress has been made in the study of terata has been 
made by the embryologist and we naturally still have conf- 
dence in him. The course to be followed, therefore, is the 
study of early abortions, and this I have done diligently. 
I can, therefore, subscribe fully to what Ballantyne has 
recently said in his able and scholarly treatise on antenatal 
pathology. He says, page 77: “Now, in reference to the 
inquiry into the problems of teratology or embryonic path- 
ology, let me emphasize the importance of a thorough | 
scrutiny of the foetal membranes and of the routine exami- 
nation, microscopic as well as macroscopic, of all abortion 
sacs and their contents thrown off in the early months of 
pregnancy. What is most wanted at present are careful 
descriptions of monstrous embryos from abortion sacs, obser- 
vations upon teratological conditions while the organism is 
still in the embryonic period of antenatal life. These are 
essential for the further progress of a knowledge of human 
teratogenesis, and they are at the present time the desiderata 
of embryonic pathology. Microscopic human monstrosities 
are, aS a matter of fact, almost unknown.” 
The last sentence is hardly justifiable, for a pretty large 
number of young pathological embryos have been described 
by His, Giacomini and myself, but these do not resemble 
monsters at full term any more than an embryo of the fourth 
week resembles a new-born child. Whether the early path- 
ological embryos are young monsters, or young monsters of 
so extreme a degree that they will not continue to grow, is’ 
now the most important question of the capital problem in 
teratology. I think that the specimens that are reported in 
this publication contribute to the answer of this question, but 
many more observations are required before the answer will 
be accepted by all teratologists. 
The history of teratology co-exists with that of medicine 
and includes mythology, the vilest superstitions and scientific 
embryology. The medical profession have abandoned the 
idea of supernatural causes in the production of monsters 
