Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy. Inclusive of several papers from the Philosophical transactions, etc / by John Hunter ... With notes by Richard Owen.
- John Hunter
- Date:
- 1840
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy. Inclusive of several papers from the Philosophical transactions, etc / by John Hunter ... With notes by Richard Owen. Source: Wellcome Collection.
88/494 page 80
![80 . HUNTER ON THE ANIMAL GECONOMY. acceptation of the term, the variety of monsters will be almost infinite ;* and, as far as my knowledge has extended, there is not a species of animal, nay, there is not a single part of an animal body, which is not subject to an extraordinary formation. Neither does this appear to be a matter of mere chance; for it may be observed that every species has a disposition to deviate from Nature in a manner peculiar to itself.t It is likewise worthy of remark, that each species of animals is disposed to have nearly the same sort of defects, and to have certain supernumerary parts of the same kind: yet every part is not alike disposed to take on a * [Mr. Hunter attempted, notwithstanding, to reduce this variety of monsters to definite groups, and left the following outline of a classification of monsters, in an explanatory introduction to the extensive series of those objects in his collection: ‘*¢1, Monsters from preternatural situation of parts. $0.9, addition of parts. “3. ——. deficiency of parts. combined addition and deficiency of parts, as in herma- phroditical malformation.’ Licetus,? Huber,» and Malacarnee had proposed classifications of monsters prior to the time of Hunter, all of which are more or less tinctured with the superstitions of the times; thus, the fenth class in the system of Licetus is appro- priated to the offspring of the illicit intercourse of demons with women: the Jifteenth of Malacarne contains the brutes with human members, &c. Blumen- ' bach, towards the end of the eighteenth century, published an arrangement of monsters which closely resembles that of Hunter; he, however, distinguishes, but without sufficient reason, unnatural hermaphrodites from monsters, and divides the latter into ‘1, Monsters by an unnatural conformation of certain parts of the body,— Fabrica aliena. . 66 4, ‘ie fet ce 25 transposition of parts,—Situs mutatus. “3, a deficiency of parts,—Monstra per defectum. 4, _ supernumerary parts,—Monstra per excessum.”’ The study of the various congenital aberrations from the specific form presented in the different classes of the animal kingdom, has since been ably and success- fully pursued by Meckel, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Otto, Breschet, Charuet, &c., the general results of whose labours may be found in the Histoire Générale et Particu- liére des Anomalies de Organization chez Homme et les Animauax, ou T'raité de Leratologie, by Isid. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire: 8vo, 1832.] _ T [The value of the principle here enunciated will be appreciated, when it is stated that it is the basis of the latest and most elaborate work on the subject of monsters. It is claimed for Geoffroy St. Hilaire as the most important of: his deductions in Teratology, and the chief point in which his system differs from, and is superior to, those of his predecessors. ‘¢ C’est de principes precisement inverses que mon pére a pris sur point de départ; et c’est aussi, comme cela devait étre a des résultats inverses qu’il est parvenu. Etablissant, par un grand nombre de recherches, que les monstres sont, comme les étres dits normaux, Soumis ades régles constantes, il est. conduit a admettre que la méthode de classi- fication que les naturalistes emploient pour les seconds, peut étre appliquée avec succes aux premiers.” Isid. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, Joc. cit., p. 99.] 4 Fortunius Licetus, De Monstris, ex recensione G. Blasii: Amstelodami, 1665, 4to. b Observationes nonnulle de Menstris: 4to. Cassel, 1748. ¢ 6 De’ Mostri umani de’ Caretteri fondamentali su cui ne se portrebbe stabilire la Classificazione,’’ Mem. della Soc. Ital., tom. ix. 4. |](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33292292_0088.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
