ANIMALS. 4.15 



dergo, are but accidental deformities, which a kinder climate, 

 better nourishment, or more civilized manners, would in a 

 course of centmies, very probably remove. 



CHAP. XII. 



OF JIONSTERS. 



Hitherto I have only spoken of those varieties in the h.i- 

 nian species, that are common to whole nations ; but there are 

 varieties of another kind, which are only found in the individual, 

 and being more rarely seen, are therefore called monstrous. If 

 we examine into the varieties of distorted nature, there is scarce- 

 ly a limb of the body, or a feature in the face, that has not suf- 

 fered some reprobation, either from art or nature ; being enlai-ged 

 or diminished, lengthened or wrested, from its due proportion. 

 Liimseus, after having given a catalogue of monsters, particularly 

 adds, the flat heads of Canada, the long heads of the Chinese, 

 and the slender waists of the women of Europe, who, by strait lac- 

 ing, take such pains to destroy their health, through a mistaken 

 desire to improve their beauty.' It belongs more to the physi- 

 cian than the naturalist to attend to these minute deformities; 

 and indeed it is a melancholy contemplation to speculate upon a 

 catalogue of calamities, inflicted by unpitying Nature, or brought 

 upon us by our own caprice. Some, however, are fond of such 

 accounts ; and there have been books filled with nothing else. 

 To these, therefore, 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 sufiicient here 



1 Linnjei .Syst. vol. i. p. 2!). Mnnorcliidea ut minus fertiles. 

 2 Vide Phil. Trans, passim. IMiscelian. Curioss. Joliaii. Haptist. Wenck. 

 Dissertatio Pliysica an i>x virills liumani serainis rum brutali per nofarium 

 coitum commi.xtiono, ant vicissiin ex bruti maris cum muliebri liuniauo sonii- 

 nis comniixticme possit vcrus iKimo generari. Vide etlam, Jolinstoni 

 riinumatographia Naturali?. Vide Adalbert! Disquisitio I'hysica ostenti du. 

 orum pueronim uiius qimrum dente aureo, alter cum capite gifjanteo BiluM 

 gpoj-Uibantnr. A man witliout Wwgi and Bti>mai-li, Journal de Scavans, ICai, 

 p,301; ancthcr without any braiu, Andreas Caroli Memorabilia, p. 166, an. 



