MoXSTlioSlTIEs. 



411 



The Eiulociimian monstrosities are those double foetuses of which 

 one, or part of one, is inchuled within the other. They are the Crypto - 

 didiimi of Gurlt's second Class. 



Oriijin of Monstrosities, and the Laws of Teratology . 



The causes which operate in the production of what we have 

 designated " monstrosities " appear to be numerous. 



Putting to one side, as unworthy of notice, the superstitious ideas 

 which long prevailed with regard to the formation of these monstrosi- 

 ties — because they can all be explained by the laws of teratology — we 

 come to the period when Regis started the hypothesis that the germs 

 of these must have been originally produced with those of normal 

 beings, and that they were developed in i\\e ordinary course of genera- 

 tion. This hypothesis, or something like it, was accepted by.Winslow, 

 Duvernoy, Haller, and others, up to the time of Meckel. Geoffroy 



.^^^'# 



Fig. 121. 

 DoiitLE I'AR.v.'siTic Monstrosity; Polyintlian notome/utt : Cow. 



Saint-Hilaire, however, successfully combated it, and demonstrated 

 that these anomalies in organization are not primary, but accidental ; 

 that embryos which, had they been placed in ordinary circumstances, 

 would have been developed in a normal manner, and had, in fact, 



a child's stocking, dangling fn^ni side to side a.^ the animal moved, but in no wuy 

 unsightly or repulsive to IcmjIc at." 



Such aninuals are worshipped, :ind not put to any work ; they are usually exhibited 

 covered with .1 kind <>f earth coloured cloth trimmed with cowrie-shells, and the owners 

 derive a livelihood by exhibiting them. The " fakeers " or holy mendicants usually 

 obtain {xis.session of them. The.se double or pohmelian monstrositie.s receive their 8acre<l 

 designation from the i^txl Mahadeo, who is bilieved b\- the Hindoos to have ridden upon 

 a bull called "Nadeah," which was capable of changing its 8ha]>e, and producing a-s many 

 legs or horns for otfen.sive or defensive purposes as it might find necessary. Thus it 

 happens that any animal with unnatural or extraordinary marks is supposed t<> hav«' 

 some affinity to the great " Nadeah ' of Mahadeo, the founder «f Hindoo teratology. 



