Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/792

Rh 762 M O N M O N Cresar, and afterwards occupied by a brother of Cicero, who was besieged there by Ambiorix, chief of the Eburones. In the 8th cen tury a lady of the name of Waudru or Waltrud, countess of Hain- ault, founded a convent, which became the centre of the town. In 804 Charlemagne made it the capital of the county of Hainault ; it was fortified in 1148. Baldwin VI., afterwards Latin emperor of Constantinople, was very active in promoting the interests of Mons, and endowed it with a celebrated charter in the year 1200. After being reduced by nearly one half by the plague, Mons received within its walls the Jews whom Philip the Long had expelled from France. The city attained its highest degree of prosperity under Charles V., but its greatness was arrested during the government of the duke of Alva by civic disturbances, which lasted until the reign of Albert and Isabella. In more recent times Mons has had to pay tribute to the warlike spirit of its neighbours ; it was taken by Louis XIV. in 1691, given back in 1697, and retaken in 1701 and again in 1709. In 1748 it fell into the hands of Austria ; the Belgian insurgents stormed it in 1789 ; the French in 1792, when Dumouriez won the battle of Jemmapes under its walls ; in 1814 it belonged to the Netherlands, and has formed part of the Belgian kingdom since 1830. MONSOON. See METEOROLOGY, supra, p. 148 sq., and INDIAN OCEAN. MONSTER. Monsters or monstrous births are the sub ject of Animal Teratology, a department of morphological science treating of deviations from the normal development of the embryo. The term &quot;embryo&quot; is conventionally limited, in human anatomy, to the ovum in the first three months of its intra-uterine existence, while it is still develop ing or acquiring the rudiments of its form, the term &quot;foetus&quot; being applied to it in the subsequent months during which the organism grows on the lines of development already laid down. It is mostly in the first or embryonic period that those deviations from the normal occur which present themselves as monstrosities at the time of birth ; these early traces of deviation within the embryo may be slight, but they &quot; grow with its growth and strengthen with its strength,&quot; until they amount to irreparable defects or accretions, often incompatible with extra-uterine life. The name of &quot; teratology,&quot; introduced by Etienne Geoffroy St- Hilaire (1822), is derived from repas, the equivalent of monstrum ; teratology is a term new enough to have none but scientific associations, while the Latin word has a long record of superstitions identified with it. The myths of siren, satyr, Janus, cyclops, and the like, with the cor responding figures in Northern mythology, find a remote anatomical basis in monstrosities which have, for the most part, no life except in the fcetal state. The mythology of giants and dwarfs is, of course, better founded. The term monster was originally used in the same sense as portent : Cicero (De Div., i.) says, &quot;Monstra, ostenta, portenta,prodigia appellantur, quoniam monstrant, ostendunt, portendunt, et prxdicunt.&quot; Luther l speaks of the birth of a monstrous calf, evidently the subject of contemporary talk, as pointing to some great impending change, and he expresses the hope that the catastrophe might be the Last Day itself. The rise of more scientific views will be sketched at the close of the article. Although monstrosities, both in the human species and in other animals, tend to repeat certain definite types of erroneous development, they do not fall readily into classes. It is remarked by Vrolik that a scientific classification is impracticable from being too cumbrous, and that a con venient grouping is all that need be attempted. The most usual grouping (originally suggested by Buffon, 1800) is into monstra per excessum, monstra per defectum, and monstra per fabricam alienam. It seems useful, however, to place the more simple cases of excess and of defect side by side ; and it is necessary, above all, to separate the double monsters from the single, the theory of the former being a distinct chapter in teratology. 1 In a passage quoted by Bischoff from the 19th volume of Luther s works, llalle ed., p. 2416. 1. Monstrosities in a Single Body. The abnormality may extend to the body throughout, as in well-proportioned giants and dwarfs ; or it may affect a certain region or member, as to take the simplest case when there is a finger or toe too many or too few. It is very common for one malformation to be correlated with several others, as in the extreme case of acardiac monsters, in which the non-development of the heart is associated with the non- development of the head, and with other radical defects. Giants are conventionally limited to persons over 7 feet in height. The normal proportions of the frame are adhered to more or less closely, except in the skull, which is relatively small ; but accurate measurements, even in the best-proportioned cases, prove, when reduced to a scale, that other parts besides the skull, notably the thigh-bone and the foot, may be undersized though overgrown. 2 In persons who are merely very tall, the great stature depends often on the inordinate length of the lower limbs ; but in persons over 7 feet the lower limbs are not markedly disproportionate. In many cases the muscles and viscera are not sufficient for the overgrown frame, and the individuals are usually, but not always, of feeble intelligence and languid disposition, and short-lived. The brain-case especially is undersized the Irish giant in the museum of Trinity College, Dublin, is the single exception to this rule but the bones of the face, and especially the lower jaw, are on a large scale. Giants are never born of gigantic parents ; in fact, sterility usually goes with this monstrosity. Their size is some times excessive at birth, but more often the indications of great stature do not appear till later, it may be as late as the ninth year; they attain their full height before the twenty-first year. They have been more frequently male than female; the German giantess lately exhibited (1882) was as tall as any authentic case in the male sex. Divarfs are conventionally limited to persons under 4 feet. They are more likely than giants to have the modu lus of the body perfect. &quot;In the true dwarf, as far as I have been able to ascertain, the proportions between the several parts of the frame are good, corresponding, or nearly corresponding, with those of the normal adult ; and the diminutive stature depends, accordingly, not upon re latively imperfect growth of any particular segments, or even upon the permanence of a foetal or childlike con dition, but upon the whole frame being undersized &quot; (Humphry). Where disproportion occurs in the true dwarf it takes the form of a large -sized head, broad shoulders and capacious chest, and undersized lower limbs. Dwarfs with rickets are perhaps to be distinguished from true dwarfs ; these are cases in which the spine is curved, and sometimes the bones of the limbs bent and the pelvis deformed. As in the case of giants, dwarfs are seldom the progeny of dwarfs, who are, in fact, usually sterile ; the unnatural smallness may be obvious at birth, but is more likely to make itself manifest in the years of growth. Dwarfs are much more easily brought up than giants, and are stronger and longer - lived ; they have usually also strong passions and acute intelligence. The legends of the dwarfs and giants are on the whole well based on fact (see DWARF and GIANT). Redundancy and Defect in Single Parts. The simplest case of this redundancy is a sixth digit, well formed, and provided with muscles (or tendons), nerves, and blood vessels like the others ; it is usually a repetition of the little finger or toe, and it may be present on one or both hands, or on one or both feet, or in all four extremities, as in the giant of Gath. The want of one, two, or more digits on hand or foot, or on both, is another simple anomaly ; and, 2 See the tables in Humphry s Treatise on the Human Skeleton, p. 109.