THE MOEPHOLOGY OF COSMOBIA; SPECULATIONS CON- 

 CERNING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CERTAIN TYPES 

 OF MONSTERS. 



Bt 



HARRIS HAWTHORNE WILDER. 

 With 4 Plates and 32 Text Figures. 



Introduction. 



Should one wish to learn the methods of a conjurer, he might vainly 

 watch the latter's customary repertoire, and, so long as everything went 

 smoothly, might never obtain a clue to the mysterious performance, 

 baffled by the precision of the manipulations and the complexity of the 

 apparatus ; if, however, a single error were made in any part or if a 

 single deviation from the customary method should force the manipu- 

 lator along an unaccustomed path, it would give the investigator an 

 opportunity to obtain a part or the whole of the secret. Thus, although 

 the simile must not be pushed too far, it seems likely that through the 

 study of the abnormal or unusual some insight may be obtained into that 

 mystery of mysteries, the development of an organism, an insight 

 denied to those who study only the usual and normal; and this is 

 especially likely to be the case where the abnormalities studied are not 

 deformities, such as are caused by failure of nutrition, mechanical injury, 

 or other external cause, but where they are due to some modification 

 in the germ itself, leading the organisms to develop in accordance with 

 laws as definite and natural, though not as usual, as those governing 

 normal development. 



That any of the cases usually classed as "monstrosities" can be as 

 natural and symmetrical in their development as are normal individuals, 

 and be thus as legimate a subject for biological investigation, seems not 

 to be generally believed, an attitude which has been fostered by the 

 customary practice of denying them a place in the text-books of general 

 anatomy and embryology, and banishing them to a sort of extra-mural 



The American Journal of Anatomy. — Vol. VIII, No. 4. 



