THE PREFACE.
WEe call Monsters, what things soever are brought forth contrary to the common decree and or∣der of nature.* 1.1 So we term that infant monstrous, which is born with one arm alone, or with two heads. But we define Prodigies, those things which happen contrary to the whole course of nature, that is, altogether differing and dissenting from nature: as if a man should be delivered of a Snake•• or a Dog. Of the first sort are thought all those, in which any of those things which ought, and are accustomed to be, according to nature, is wanting, or doth abound, is changed, worn, covered or deformed, hurt, or not put in his right place: for sometimes some are born with more fingers then they should▪ othersome but with one finger: some with those parts divided which should be joyned, others with those parts joined which should be divided: some are born with the privities of both sexes, male and female. And Aristotle saw a Goat with a horn upon her knee. No liveing creature was ever born which wanted the Heart, but some have been seen wanting the spleen, others with two spleens, and some wanting one of the Reins.* 1.2 And none have been known to have wanted the whole Liver, although some have been found that had it not perfect and whole: and there have been those which wanted the Gall, when by nature they should have had it: and besides it hath been seen that the Liver, contrary to his natural site, hath lien on the left side, and the Spleen on the right. Some women also have had their privities closed, & not perforated, the mem∣branous obstacle, which they call the Hymen, hindering. And men are sometimes born with their funda∣ments, ears, noses, and the rest of the passages shut, and accounted monstrous, nature erring from its in∣tended scope. But to conclude, those Monsters are thought to portend some ill, which are much differing from their nature.