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Further into Imperfecta Living Curiosities: Agency and Exploitation of the Teratological Body Curiosity draws us to the monstrous. But seeing is believing: whether in a book, a museum, or in a show, for centuries people have flocked to see “monsters” for themselves. In the 19th century, many people born with non-normative bodies performed as “freaks” in circus sideshows. Circuses became a sensation and they served as a forerunner to the modern entertainment industry. This exhibit explores the lives of the performers and showmen whose livelihoods depended on the public’s curiosity about seeing wondrous bodies for themselves. Seeing is Believing: Visualizing the Teratological Body When it comes to the wondrous, seeing is believing. From this page, you can explore some of the ways that “monsters” have been depicted over the centuries. Woodcuts in early modern texts, preservation in medical museums, and photography all have been used to display people. These technologies allowed one person’s image to travel across the world and allowed their subjects to “survive” beyond death. What Does It Mean to be "Other?" What does it mean to be a “monster?” What does it mean to be “normal?” These are not objective categories. They have changed meaning throughout history as people have become exposed to a wider diversity of nature, people, and ideas. From this path, you can explore some types of “Otherness” that have, throughout history, challenged apparently objective categories and shaped the direction of science.

External Impressions

One such story is from Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715), a French priest and philosopher. His most famous work, De la recherche de la vérité or Treatise Concerning the Search for Truth, was published in 1674.

Malebranche’s story is of a woman who, after witnessing a criminal broken at the wheel , a common form of public execution at the time, gave birth to a developmentally disabled child. This child’s limbs were fractured in the same locations as had the criminal’s been broken. One possible medical explanation for this is the congenital disease osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease, which results from one’s inability to produce type 1 collagen, a protein used in bone creation.

Malebranche also wrote of a woman who from “much gazing at a picture of St. Pius,” had a child who resembled the saint. The explanation of these phenomena was simple: “Children see what their Mothers see, they hear the same Cries, they receive the same Impressions of the Objects, and are moved by the same Passions.”

This page has paths:

Contents of this path:
2. Monstrosities of a Mother’s Making
4. Modern Science and the Limits of Maternal Impression Many of the ideas and scenarios presented here as examples of maternal impression seem fantastic or even absurd to the modern reader. Indeed, the continuing scientific revolutions of the 20th century, such as those in the field of genetics, did much to dispel the hold of maternal impression on western medicine. However, articles dating to the 1990’s continue to state that, in some cases, maternal impression is a real and literal exchange between a mother and the fetus she carries.

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The execution of conspirators by means of breaking them on the wheel and crucification in Lisbon in 1759. Etching with engraving.