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 

 gone by they were considered, even by educated pei'sons, 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 

 uneducated or the credulous, while they are moi'e widely disseminated in Eastern 

 climes. 



The veiy term monster has been derived either from the Latin term "monstro" 

 to sJiow, 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 cflects of evil agency as 

 one may observe by referiing to Rueff's work. Be Gonceptio et Generatione Ilominis, 

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

 daemonibus et rursus dasmones ex hominibus infantes concipere possunt ? " And 

 here he gravely arrived at the conclusion that these monstrosities had not really 

 demons for their fathers. Even at the present day, 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 Divine 

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

 disasters, and Lycosthenes went so far as to add pictures to his descriptions of 

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

 birth was intended to foretell. 



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 are 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 within, 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 wei'C 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 been known to procreate 

 with difierent women, children having the same deformity ; or even the 

 malformation may miss one generation to appear in a subsequent one. These 

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



* The observation "law of nature" simply, as Carpenter remarked, expresses a set of 

 uniformities in the surrounding universe which man assumes to hold good just so far as they 

 have been verified, but not necessarily any further ; while it accounts for nothing and explains 

 nothing. 



