IN like manner, supposing such Women to conceive in their Minds, some deformed SPIRIT or ANIMAL, with Horns, Snout, Wings, Cloven-Feet, &c. (as has sometimes happen’d) What should hinder this Woman to produce a Birth with these Monstrous Marks? THIS is also therefore very possible, but more especially, when the Disposition of the Matter acquiesces, which it certainly does when the Seed and Blood are impure: For, Is it not manifest to our Eyes, that some Children bring with them long Hair and Nails into the World, merely from the Impurity of these material Substances? Then supposing the Force of an absurd Imagination to have seconded the Efficacy of such Sordid Stuff, what a Monster might not these Jointly have produced? Wherefore I shall only add upon the whole of This, that as such impious and foolish Imaginations ought to be suppressed, so both the Seed and the Blood ought to be pure and temperate, to prevent such præternatural Productions.
NOW, as to the Heat and Spirit contain’d in the Seed, we may easily conceive its Effects, and such as have been in Glass-Works, and have seen Glasses, made, may readily comprehend how Monsters are formed in the Womb: For in modeling the Glass, if the Work-Man blow the Pipe too much or too strongly, the Stuff is so extended, that the Glass becomes both longer and wider than its due proportionable Form; and so it may also happen in the Womb, by an immoderate Action, or too great an Extension or Diffusion of the Seminal Spirit, which sometimes may only affect some particular Part, such as the Head, Nose, Mouth, Ears, &c. and sometimes the whole FOETUS disproportionably.
SECONDLY, Hence we may rationally conclude, that a superfluity of Seed, and super-abundancy of material Humours may, in like manner, produce duplicated Members, such as Two Heads, Four Hands, Four Feet, Six or more Toes or Fingers, &c. and this especially, in case of the Woman’s strange Imagination concurring; which may easily happen, by fancying herself sometimes to see double with her Eyes, which Deception may probably proceed from the Concourse of Humours, gross Vapours, and confused or distracted Spirits. And This in short, it is evident, holds also good among the other Creatures (Irrationals) as Lemnius writes[[208]] of himself, that He saw a Sheep and a Calfe, each with two Heads, and a Hen with four Feet and as many Wings.
AGAIN, as from the Superabundance of Matter, Geminated Members, or Superfluous Particles may proceed; so from the Scarcity of these Matters, Want of requisite Aliment, or from any partial Invalidity of the Natural Faculties, some Members or certain Particles may be either maim’d and destitute of their Natural Use, or then (which is worse) be altogether irregular, defective, or Unnatural.
LASTLY as to the Place, I mean the Womb, in which the Conception is made; It ought not only to be perpendicularly seated in the PELVIS, or in a direct line from the VAGINA upwards, but also to be well conform’d and proportion’d: Otherways, as an ugly or unshapely exteriour Form or Mould of Wax or Clay, produces a corresponding deformed Image cast therein; so the Womb may as effectually be the Cause of a Deform’d or Monstrous Birth. And moreover not only so, but the Womb ought also to be in its due Temperament and Natural State, free of all Distempers and Inconveniencies, such as obdurated Glands, Ulcers, Cicatrices, &c. Otherways, as a Tree planted in Stony Ground, its Root cannot diffuse or spread it self round every way, but being cramp’d and oppress’d, it crooks and bends back; So it is with the FOETUS in the Womb, if oppos’d and resisted by the Constriction or Coarctation of the Place, or by any inherent Præternatural Substance, its Members cannot possibly be articulately and distinctly form’d, much less can they attain their Natural Growth and Figure.
IN short from what is here said, I think, the Notions of such Men, as will have Monsters, only and immediately to proceed from a Coition with Brutes, may evidently appear as absurd as they are verily groundless[[209]]: And for strengthening or backing of my Authority, I may add Galen’s own Words[[210]], saying, Vel semen Humanum in Utero Equæ, vel Equinum in utero Muliebri, aut non admitti, aut admissum corrumpi. Which is also farther confirm’d by Holy St. Jerom, saying,[[211]] non minùs absurdum est, Animal construi ex Equo & Homine, quàm Vitem Olivæ insertam, simul vinum & oleum proserre. Which Doctrine seems also most agreeable to Truth, in that there can be no Affinity or Concord betwixt these Specifically different SEEDS, neither in their Natural Actions, Aliment, Maturation, Time, or Manner of Birth, &c. to pass by all other disconsonant or incongruous Circumstances.
IN Fine therefore, for these Reasons, I believe Nothing of the many fabulous Relations extant, of the Hippocentauri, Onocentauri, Minotauri, &c. inhabiting the Land, nor of the Tritons, Nereids, Syrens, &c. which are said to possess the Sea; tho’ indeed both St. Antony[[212]], and St. Jerom[[213]], maintain the Existence of the Satyri and Sylvani: But be these Things as they will, I believe, that the Production of every MONSTER, concurs to the Perfection of the UNIVERSE, and that sometimes such Prodigies, or rather Dæmonical Illusions, may appear, as well as Monstrous Births happen, by the Will and Pleasure of the great CREATOR, who would thereby signify and portend something extraordinary, or more than Natural to us Mortals.
