GENERATION OF ANIMALS, IV. iii.-iv. 



offspring which is formed has the head of a ram or 

 an ox ; and similarly with other creatures, that one 

 has the head of another, e.g., a calf has a child's head 

 or a sheep an ox's head. The occurrence of all these 

 things is due to the causes I have named ; at the 

 same time, in no case are they what they are alleged 

 to be, but resemblances only, and this of course comes 

 about even when there is no deformation involved. 

 Thus, humorists often compare those whose strong 

 point is not good looks in some cases with a fire- 

 spouting-goat, in others with a butting ram ; and 

 there was a physiognomist who in his lectures used 

 to show how all people's faces could be reduced to 

 those of two or three animals, and very often he 

 carried con\iction with his audience. It is however 

 impossible for a monstrosity of this type to be formed 

 (i.e., one animal within another), as is shown by the 

 gestation-periods of man, sheep, dog, and ox, which 

 are widely different, and none of these animals 

 can possibly be formed except in its own proper 

 period. 



This, then, is one sort of " monstrosity " we hear 

 spoken of. There are others which qualify for the 

 name in virtue of having additional parts to their 

 body, being formed ^\ith extra feet or extra heads. 



The account of the cause of monstrosities is very 

 close and in a way similar to that of the cause of 

 deformed animals, since a monstrosity is really a sort 

 of deformity. 



Now Democritus " explained the formation of IV 

 monstrosities thus. Two semens fall into the uterus, ?„^""", 



^ dancy oi 



one of them having started forth earlier and the other parts. 

 later, fand the second when it has gone out goes 



" See Dials, Vorsokr.^ 68 A 146. 



419 



