Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 16, 2025
Classical writings, the literature of the Middle Ages, and the popular beliefs of the present day all contain views concerning teratologic subjects which so closely resemble those of the Chaldean magi as to be indistinguishable from them.
On the other hand I have often tried in vain to win an anomalous race from an accidental deviation, or to isolate a teratologic variety out of more common aberrations. Two illustrative examples may be quoted.
But the term ever-sporting variety seems more adequate to convey a right idea of the nature of this curious type of inheritance. From this discussion it will be seen that the behavior of the crimson clover is not to be considered as an exception, but as a widely occurring type of phenomenon, occurring perhaps in all sorts of teratologic deviations, and in wide ranges of species and genera.
Ballantyne has summed up about all there is to be said on this national monstrosity, and his discussion of the case from its historic as well as teratologic standpoint is so excellent that his conclusions will be quoted "It may be urged that the date fixed for the birth of the Biddenden Maids is so remote as to throw grave doubt upon the reality of the occurrence.
It may simply be said, in conclusion, that the phenomenon of Biddenden is interesting not only on account of the curious bequest which arose out of it, but also because it was an instance of a very rare teratologic type, occurring at a very early period in our national history."
If this be so, then the teratologic difficulty is removed, for the case becomes perfectly comparable with the well-known but rare type of double terata known as the pygopagous twins, which is placed by Taruffi with that of the ischiopagous twins in the group dicephalus lecanopagus. "Pygopagous twins are fetuses united together in the region of the nates and having each its own pelvis.
For this reason the greatest possible importance was attached to the teratologic auguries which occupy so much space in the fragments of the great treatise on terrestrial presages which have up to the present time been published."
Had there been no bequest of land in connection with the case of the Kentish Maids, the whole affair would probably soon have been forgotten. "There is, however, one real difficulty in accepting the story handed down to us as authentic, the nature of the teratologic phenomenon itself.
Pitcher-like leaves may be found on many trees and shrubs and herbs, but ordinarily one or only two of them are seen in the course of many years on the same plant, or in the same strain. Many of our older cultivated plants are very rich in anomalies of all kinds, and Cyclamen, Fuchsia, Pelargonium and some others are notorious sources of teratologic phenomena.
The rendering into English of the account of 62 teratologic cases in the human subject with the prophetic meanings attached to them by Chaldean diviners, after the translation of Opport, is given as follows by Ballantyne, some of the words being untranslatable: "When a woman gives birth to an infant that has the ears of a lion, there will be a powerful king in the country;
Word Of The Day
Others Looking