M O N 
in the power of imagination, like the belief in witchcraft, 
is greater or lefs, according to the progrefs of knowledge, 
which in truth differs greatly in different countries and in 
different heads. We know that many enlightened wo¬ 
men are fully convinced of its abfurdity, while J'ui-diJcvni 
philofophers are ftill found to fupport it. 
The production of monffers has been explained mecha¬ 
nically by fome phyficians: they have fuppofed that defi¬ 
cient parts are deftroyed by external preflure or violence; 
that fuperfiucus parts are remains of another foetus be¬ 
coming adherent to a perfect one, and that compound 
fcetufes are made of two growing together. This is a per¬ 
fectly gratuitous hypothefis, and is repugnant to all our 
knowledge concerning the animal economy. By what 
fads are wejuftified in believing, that the ribs of two fce¬ 
tufes, and the clavicles, can detach themfelves from their 
refpeCtive fterna, and become fixed, each to the ffernuin 
of the other, as in the Ikeleton of the double fcetufes ? 
that two perfeCt hearts, if the cheft could be thus meta- 
morphofed, could be united with one auricle only, and 
with two ventricles, of which each produces a pulmonary 
artery and an aorta ? that a new communicating channel 
fhouid be formed between the two aortas, as in the double¬ 
bodied pig already defcribed ? If we could believe all 
thefe wonders, it would not be fufficient; for monftrofi- 
ties occur, when there has been no violence inflicted du¬ 
ring pregnancy. We cannot help being furprifed that 
Haller, who fhows how inadequate this explanation is to 
the folution of the phenomena in moll of the monflrous 
births, fliould admit it in any kinds. Yet he confiders it 
as perfectly applicable to molt of the unnatural pofitions 
of parts ; to lome unnatural formations ; to the abfence 
and dlvifion of organs, and to fome cafes of preternatural 
unions. He refers the hare-lip to a want of the cellular 
Arbltance that fliould unite the fuperior maxillary bones, 
and conceives that the parting of the bones lacerates the 
lip. (Lib. ii. cap. 13.) He afcribes the appearances in the 
acephali to accidents duringutero-geftation deltroying the 
brain and its cafe. The refpeCt due to the name of Haller, 
a name fo dear to all who interelt themfelves in phyfiolo- 
gical purfuits, leads us to bellow on thefe opinions a de¬ 
gree of notice which they would not otherwife gain from 
us. Let us allow, what is not fupported by a ihadow of 
proof, that a force can be applied to the child in utero, 
capable of caufing this extenfive deftruCtion ; how does it 
happen that the head fliould be deffroyed-in all cafes juft 
fo far as the orbits ? It muff either take place luddenly or 
gradually. The former cannot be the cafe, for the brain 
and its membranes could not be annihilated without kill¬ 
ing the child : moreover, in the frequency of thefe cafes 
how does it happen that the head is never found in this 
bruifed condition? If it be the confequence of gradual 
preflure, how furprifing it is that the deltrubtion fliould 
always be found precifely at the fame point, that no fpe- 
cimens of an earlier or later llage fliould ever have been 
met with. How is the prefence of the hair at the edge of 
the integuments, where it does not exilt naturally, to be 
accounted for ? Why are females fo much oftener the 
lubje&s of fuch accidents than males ? Why do not 
other parts fuffer in the fame way, fince the brain is pro¬ 
tected by a bony cafe at an early period, while the bones 
in other parts are internal ? How does external force 
deftroy the fpinous procefles of the vertebras through the 
integuments in the fpina bifida ? 
The function of generation is not more exempt from 
the operation of dilturbing caufes than any other in the 
animal economy. Any violent and fudden imprefiion in¬ 
terrupts it at once by caufing abortion; but minor caufes, 
although their effeCts are not feen, are not to be deemed 
inoperative. Particular bodily formations, particular men¬ 
tal characters, and difpolitions to certain difeafes, &c. &c. 
are tranfmitted to the offspring. Indeed, how can we ex- 
peCt, that, when all the reft of the being is artificial and 
vitiated, this one part fliould be undifturbed ? We aferibe 
then the aberrations from the ufuai form and ftructure of 
MON 711 
the body, which produce monfters, to an Irregular opera¬ 
tion of the powers concerned in generation ; and place 
them on a level, with refpeCt to their caufe, with un¬ 
healthy executions of the nutritive, fecretory, or exhalant, 
functions. We only mean, by thefe obfervations, to refer 
the aberrations of the formative procefs to the fame gene¬ 
ral principles as the other deviations from the healthy 
execution of functions ; and to proteft againft the confi- 
dering them as forming a peculiar cafe out of the common 
rules applying to organifed beings. Lawrence in Med „ 
Cliirurg. Trail)', vol. v. 
Monster, inlaw, is one that hath not human fhape, 
and yet is born in lawful wedlock; and fuch may not 
purchafe or retain lands; but a perfon may be an heir to 
an anceftor’s land, though he have fome deformity in any 
part of his body. Co. Lift. 7, 8. If there appears no other 
heir than fuch a prodigious birth, the land fliall efeheat 
to the lord. 
To MON'STER, v. a. To put out of the common order 
of things. Not in life: 
Her offence 
Muff be of fuch unnatural degree, 
That monjlers it. Shaliefpeare's King Lear. 
I had rather have one fcratch my head i’ th’ fun, 
When the alarum were ftruck, than idly lit 
To hear my nothings monfier'd. Shaliefpeare's Coriolanus. 
MON'STER, a town of Holland : eight miles weft of 
Delft. 
MONSTE'RAS, a town of Sweden, in the province of 
Smaland : twenty-five miles north of Calmar. 
MONSTI'ER, or Moustier, a town of Savoy, near 
the conflux of the Ifere and Doiron. Its ancient name 
was Forum Claudij ; in the fucceeding ages Monafterium 
Centronnm, and then Tarentaife, which it loft for Monftiers, 
or Monftiers, from a monaftery founded here. It is the 
fee of the archbilhop of Tarentaife. The town is now 
fmall, and without walls. Belides the metropolitan, it 
has two parilh-churches, and feveral religious lioufes. 
The accefs to the town is extremely difficult, by defiles, 
on the fides of torrents and precipices. Near the town, 
between the river Here and the brook Doiron, is a confi- 
derable fait-work. They take the liquor from a fpring in 
the neighbourhood, which, being boiled, produces good 
fait; they dig fait likewife from the neighbouring moun¬ 
tains. Monftier was anciently feudatory to the kings of 
Burgundy, but, after the Saracens had been driven out, 
and a certain tyrant been compelled to depart from the 
caftle of Brian$on, the princes of Savoy became lords of 
Tarentaife. It is twenty-feven miles eaft-fouth-eaft of 
Chambery, and forty-five louth-fouth-eaft of Geneva. 
Lat.45. 28. N. Ion. 6. 22. E. 
MONSTI'ER en DE'R, a town of France, in the de¬ 
partment of the Upper Marne : twelve miles of St. Dizier. 
MON'STRANT, adj. [from monftro, Lat. to Ihow.] 
Showing; declaring. Scott. 
MON'STRE,./.' An example; a pattern. Chaucer. 
To MON'STRE, v.a. To fnow. Chaucer. 
MONSTRELET' (Er.guerrand de), an old French 
chronicler, was a gentleman of good family in Cambray, 
of which city he died governor in 1453. He left a hif- 
tory, in French, of his own times, commencing with the 
year 1400, and carried down to 1467 ; the laft fifteen years 
being added by another hand. It was printed under the 
title of “ Chronique d’Enguerrand de Monftrelet, Gen- 
tilhomme, jaedis demeurant a Cambrai en Cambreiis 5” 
and the belt edition is that of Paris, 1572, 2 vols. folio. 
This work gives a faithful but prolix narrative of tiie 
wars between the houlesof Orleans and Burgundy; of the 
capture of Normandy and Paris by the Engiifh, and their 
expulfion ; and of al^ the memorable events in France 
and other countries during that period. It fills the fpace 
between the hiftories of Froiffart and Comines; and is 
reckoned particularly valuable on account of the number 
of original documents which it contains. Moreri. 
MONSTRIF'EROUS* 
