CHAP. VI.
Of Monsters.
WHEN the Parts destinated to the Generation of Man, are in all respects well constituted, Nature in the Beginning fabricates a fair and comely Conception, and at last produces a Lovely Creature of its own kind, absolutely perfected, and compleatly furnished with all its own graceful Ornaments: Whereas if any Deficiency, Enormity, Fault or Blemish be actually in Those Parts, then the conglomerated Principles of GENERATION are variously form’d into different Sorts of prodigious CONCEPTIONS and Monstrous BIRTHS. However——
WITH respect to the Variety, as well as the Veracity of this SUBJECT, that I may make short Work on’t, I refer the Curious Reader to the Works of Jacobus Ruffius, Cornelius Gamma, &c. who have not only described at large, the various Shapes and Figures of the most remarkable MONSTERS which have been Born, but also particularly noted the Times and Places of their BIRTHS; which they have authentically collected from many creditable Authors.
IN the small Conversation, by the By, which I have had either at Home or Abroad with the Learned, I have met with none who have deny’d the Truth of this POSITION in general; tho’ some of my Superiors in this Place, have been pleas’d to contradict in particular, what I am just now going (and chiefly for that very reason) about to publish to the World, in the next following Chapter.
BUT notwithstanding that we all agree as to the FACT, yet I have found but few ready to discuss the proper Causes of Monstrous BIRTHS: Only so far, that some would have them to proceed immediately from the Commixture of Humane with Brutal SEED; others, directly from the INFLUX of the Stars; Some again, from a vitious Constitution, or oblique Situation of the WOMB; others also, from a Lascivious and enormous Act of Copulation; and some at last, from the sordid and corrupted SEMINAL Matter of the Persons Copulating. Which may be all indeed, in some respect, consentaneous to Reason; but notwithstanding, in speaking to such Causes, I think, we ought previously to consider the Requisites concurring to the Production of the FOETUS; what they naturally are, and how they ought to be qualify’d.
THE First and chief of which is the Forming Faculty; 2ly. The two Instruments, by which this Faculty operates, viz. the SPIRIT or innate Seminal Heat, and the Imagination, 3ly. The MATTER, viz. both the SEEDS, and the Menstruous Blood; 4ly. And lastly, the PLACE, namely the Womb: Whence I conclude that any one, or more, or (perhaps) all of THESE, degenerating from their due state or natural Qualities, may prove the Cause or Causes of a MONSTROUS CONCEPTION, or Æquivocal GENERATION.
AS to the Forming Faculty, it never errs or fails, but always performs its Duty, as far as depends upon it self, or its own Intention; tho’ indeed it often happens to be frustrated by the Instrumentary Causes: As the most ingenious Artificer cannot finish his Work, however successfully begun, without a proportionable Metal to work upon, and corresponding Instruments to work by; So it is, in this Case, with the Forming Faculty: Hence it is that MONSTERS are also pertinently call’d, as they undeniably are, the Works of NATURE; however degenerating from its proper END, that it may effect something, even such a MONSTER, rather than that the indigested and unalterated Matter should remain in the WOMB, and turn either to a MOLE or a STONE, as has often happened[[205]]. Which being thus consider’d, we shall find the Error or Fault to ly either in the Instruments, in the Matter, or in the Place.
FIRST then, as to the Instruments, of the two above-mentioned, I take the Imagination to have the most prevalent Power in CONCEPTION; which I hope may be readily granted, considering how common a Thing it is, for the MOTHER to mark her Child with Pears, Plums, Milk, Wine, or any thing else, upon the least trifling Accident happening to her from thence; and that even in the latter ripening Months, after the Infant is entirely formed, by the Strength of her Imagination only, as has been already manifestly set forth at large[[206]].
WHICH if so, Pray, what wonder is it, if the Woman in time of CONCEPTION (which is by far the more critical Juncture) should by the same reason conceive, and at last bring forth her FOETUS with a Calf’s, Lamb’s, Dog’s, Cat’s-HEAD, or the Effigy of any other thing whatsoever? And this the more especially, considering, that not only the conceiving Woman, but also the copulating Man, may effect the same thing; if he should imprudently set his Mind on such Objects, or employ his perverted Imagination that way. Now this absurd Imagination takes even place also among the very BRUTES, as Lemnius relates[[207]] of a Sheep with a Seal’s, or Sea-CALF’S HEAD, having no doubt seen that Animal in the critical Time of Conjunction or Conception.