History of Monsters | 522

terminated, bearing at the point a resemblance to a curled pig's tail. Moreover, another likeness of a navel was visible near the spine of the back, and the infant displayed no sex at all.

We must not omit the young French woman, about eighteen years old, who lacked lower limbs—specifically the thighs, legs, and feet. Bologna saw and marveled at her in the year 1594. She was born in the city of Besançon in the territories of Avignon and named Catherine Mazzina; she was of graceful form and stood about three spans and a palm high, yet lacked hips, legs, and consequently feet. Her arms were perfectly formed and longer than her chest and torso; the lower part of her body appeared somewhat split, resembling the base of a lyre.

She spoke articulately, sang, played the lute, and performed hand-dances in the Spanish, Moorish, Italian, and French styles. Similarly, she coordinated the movements of her incomplete body to the music of the lyre so skillfully that those watching from a distance would have certainly sworn she was dancing with her feet. In terms of mental capacity, she lacked none of the gifts Nature bestows upon other human beings.

Furthermore, she possessed the characteristics of both sexes, though she leaned more toward the female, as those traits were more pronounced; for this reason, she was called a woman rather than a man. We firmly believe this marvel is the same one exhibited in Rome in 1585. At that time, the monstrous youth was eight years old. Indeed, reports reached us by letter that an eight-year-old girl was being shown in Rome who had lacked legs, shins, and feet from birth, while her other limbs were properly formed, as shown in Figure III.

Occasionally, when Nature is hindered by various obstacles, she will produce a fetus in the womb with intact thighs and legs but without feet. Jakob Rüff proposes this specific infant configuration in his work *On the Conception and Generation of Man*. He testifies to having occasionally seen an infant who was otherwise normal and perfectly formed in every part of the body but lacked only feet. He attributes this fetal defect to imperfect seed. The likeness of this monster is shown in Figure IV.

Furthermore, it is beyond doubt that just as Nature, when weighed down by various impediments, sometimes fails to create legs or feet in a fetus, she may also be stimulated by other factors to produce a fetus with only a single leg and foot. This occurred in Meissen in April 1548, according to Lycosthenes; an infant was born there possessing only one leg and foot. The reader will find an illustration of this child in the fourth chapter of this History.