ANIMALS. 99 



upon us by our own caprice. Some, however, are 

 fond of such accounts ; and there have been 

 books filled with nothing else. To these, there- 

 fore, I refer the reader; who may be better 

 pleased with accounts of men with two heads, or 

 without any head, of children joined in the middle, 

 of bones turned into flesh, or flesh converted into 

 bones, than I am.* It is sufficient here to ob- 

 serve, that every day's experience must have 

 shown us miserable instances of this kind, pro- 

 duced by nature or affection ; calamities that no 

 pity can soften, or assiduity relieve. 



Passing over, therefore, every other account, I 

 shall only mention the famous instance quoted by 

 Father Malbranche, upon which he founds his 

 beautiful theory of monstrous productions. A 

 woman of Paris, the wife of a tradesman, went to 

 see a criminal broke alive upon the wheel, at the 

 place of public execution. She was at that time 

 two months advanced in her pregnancy, and no 

 way subject to any disorders to affect the child in 

 her womb. She was, however, of a tender habit 

 of body ; and, though led by curiosity to this hor- 



* Vide Phil. Trans, passim. Miscellan. Curioss. Johart. Baptist. Wenck. 

 Dissertatio Physica an ex virilis humani seminis cum brutali per nefarium 

 coitum commixtionc, aut vicissim ex bruti maris cum muliebri humano se- 

 minis commixtione possit verus homo generari. Vide etiam, Johnstoni 

 Thaumatograpbia Naturalis. Vide Adalbert! Disquisitio Physica ostenti 

 duorum puerorum unus quorum dente aureo, alter cum capite giganteo Bi- 

 luae spectabantur. A man without lungs and stomach ; Journal des Sca- 

 vans, 1672, p. 301. Another without any brain; Andreas Caroli Memor- 

 abilia, p. 167. an. 1676. Another without any head; Gioraale di Roma, 

 anno 1675, p. 26. Another without any arms ; New Memoirs of Literature, 

 vol. iv. p. 446. In short, the variety of these accounts is almost infinite ; and, 

 perhaps, their use is as much circumscribed as their variety is extensive. 



