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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.

Museums

In the 18th century, surgeons discovered how to use chemicals, like alcohol or formalin, to preserve human and animal body parts for long periods of time. These anatomical preservations became valuable and useful tools for students learning medicine. Instead of learning about the body through images, they could now study actual body parts preserved in jars. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, many medical schools had a museum containing anatomical preservations, as well as bones, drawings, instruments, and other materials, that students could study. Surgeons were especially interested in collecting “monstrous births” during this period. This is because gestation, the development of the fetus during pregnancy, was not well understood. This is why most medical museums, like the Mütter, have teratological collections. These bodies were important clues to answering questions about human development. Unlike images in books, however, not everyone could see anatomical preservations. Many of these museums weren’t truly “public,” like the Mütter is today; instead, they were restricted to physicians, surgeons, and students.

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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.
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Twins, Conjoined Thoracopagus Like many conjoined twins, these two boys were stillborn. Staff at a medical school found the jar hidden away in a closet and donated it to the Mütter Museum. Gretchen Worden (1947–2004), the late director of the Museum, who was fascinated by conjoined twins, nicknamed them Jim and James.

Conjoined twins are rare, occurring in only 1 out of every 200,000 live births. Identical twins form when a single fertilized egg divides into two parts, which then grow into separate embryos. If the egg does not fully divide, the embryo begins to split into twins, but does not completely separate. The twin fetuses develop with their skin and some internal organs fused together.

Death rates are high. About 40 to 60 percent of conjoined twins are stillborn; approximately 35 percent live for only one day after birth. If twins do survive birth, they have difficult lives. Modern medicine makes surgical separations possible in some cases, but the operations, which often attract international media attention, are long and complex. Sometimes, difficult decisions are necessary; if major organs are shared, one twin may need to be sacrificed so that the other can live.

These twins are the thoracopagus type, joined at the upper part of the torso and sharing a heart. About 40 percent of conjoined twins are thoracopagus. Twins connected at the lower abdomen (omphalopagus, 33 percent) may share a liver, digestive system, or genitals. A much rarer connection type is craniopagus (6 percent), in which the bodies are separated but the skulls are fused. Chang and Eng Bunker (1811–1874), the famous “Siamese” (actually Thai-American) conjoined twins, were joined at the abdomen by a band of cartilage. Their shared liver and a death cast of their bodies are on display at the Mütter Museum.