A compendium of human & comparative pathological anatomy / by Adolph Wilhelm Otto ; tr. from the German, with additional notes and references by John F. South.

Adolph Wilhelm Otto

Date:: 1831

Credit: A compendium of human & comparative pathological anatomy / by Adolph Wilhelm Otto ; tr. from the German, with additional notes and references by John F. South. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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$formation, of the gradual development of the whole body or of a part of it, and consequently are incomplete developments, are called RETARDED FORMATIONS, evolutiones retardatce.^ These are usually congenital, they may however occur also at a later period. To the retarded formations belong for the most part the distant resemblances which human monsters sometimes bear to animals; however, on closer comparison, the sup- posed resemblances greatly disappear, or are merely accidental, occurring always with reference to single parts alone and with great difference in the remaining parts. Still less has the brute monster any real resemblance^ to the higher form of man; we can always distinguish in each monster, by a more exact examination, the class, kind, and species to which the malformed animal belongs; and the same laws of formation which prevail in the normal series of animals, are active in the abnormal, prevent an endless deviation,* and are the ground of the great resemblance of many monsters. (1) Timmermami D. de notandis circa naturae lusus in machina liumana. 4to. Rintel. 1765.—Jnsfeldt D. de lusibus naturae. 4to. L. B. 1772. Ottens D. de lusibus naturae naturam illustrantibus. Harderov. 1799. \_Fortun. Liceto De monstrorum natura, causis et difFerentiis. Libri duo, with engravings. 4to. Patav. 1634.—J. Hofer Observ. Monst. human, in Acta Helvet. Vol. III. p. 373. 4to. Basil, 1751—1767.— Vine Malacarne De'Mostri Umani, de caratteri fonda- mentali su cui se ne potrebbe stabilire la classificazione, e delle Indicazione che presentano nel Parto 4to.—lb. Osservazioni anatomiche in conferma d'una pro- posizione circa I'origine de'Mostri. 4to. Modena, 1805.—J. M. de la Sarthe Description des principales Monstruosites dans Thomme et dans les animaux pr^cedee d'un discours sur la physiologic et la classification des Monstres, with coloured engravings, fol. Paris, 1808.] (2) Harvey De generatione. Amstel. 1662. p. 300.— Wolff in N. Comm. Petro}). T. XYU.—Reil Archiv f. die Physiol. Vol. IX. p. 63, G'i.—Meckel Handbuch der pathologischen anatomic. Vol. I. p. 48—61.—Mansfeld in MeckeVs Archiv f. Anat. und Phisiol. 1826. No. I. p. 9Q. von Walther in his and Graefe's Journal f. Chir. Vol. II. p. 4. (3) Blumenbach, p. 6. (4) S. Th. V. Sommerring Abbildungen und Beschreibungen einiger Miss- geburten, etc. fol. Mainz, 1791. p. 38. § 91.—Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire Philoso- phic anatomique, T. II. des monstruosites humaines. 8vo. Paris, 1822. p. 101. §7. No class of animals is free from malformations, lesions, and disorganizations ; but each of them, and frequently even single orders, families, and kinds, are very differently affected by them according to the peculiarities of their organization, kind of life, &c. There are malformations and organic diseases which belong only to certain kinds,^ or are particularly frequent in them.^ It sometimes even happens that the morbid direction of the formative impulse, accidentally excited in the parents, is so permanent and innate, that several young born at the same time are similarly malformed,^ or that the young of several$