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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.

This represents the child in the womb, in its natural situation

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What’s Mom Got to Do With It? Maternal Impression in Western Medicine To the contemporary reader, that idea seems ridiculous. Yet, this is exactly a story told in Thomas Fienus’ 1608 book A Treatise on the Power of the Imagination. According to the tale, a pregnant mother’s desire for mussels was so strong that her child was born with a head shaped like a mussel. Fienus then describes the child living for eleven years, fed through its “gaping bivalve,” before finally perishing due to a cracked shell.

Fienus, a prominent Swiss physician at the time, does admit a little skepticism at this account. Yet he spends over 150 pages of his treatise describing with full credulity other such stories of mothers scared by wolves whose children were born with wolf-like features, and of mothers who craved cherries and strawberries and whose children were born with birthmarks resembling these fruits.

These are examples of “maternal impression.” Maternal impression was a theory that an emotional or physical stimulus experienced by a pregnant woman* could influence the development of her fetus. It was used to explain birth defects and other congenital disorders for centuries. Often the impression was a direct analog in which a desire, trauma or even the sight of something could manifest itself on the fetus.

Throughout this path, we will look at some of the ideas behind the concept of maternal impression as they have appeared throughout Western medicine.

*While the Historical Medical Library acknowledges that people who do not identify as a woman can become pregnant and give birth, we will use the term woman and women in our writing on this subject to reflect contemporary usage as it relates to the primary sources consulted.