606 Ulysses Aldrovandi

In investigating the causes of these monsters, one should not resort to "monster-bearing" parents, as we will not find the genuine causes there. If tall people are born of giants, or conversely, if short people are born of pygmies and dwarfs, this should certainly not be judged as monstrous, since Nature always strives to procreate something like itself. Therefore, we should turn our attention to the strong power of the metabolic faculty assigned to each part (speaking here of the large size of a living creature). When this faculty gathers more nourishment than is appropriate, the parts increase in size; consequently, the parts to be nourished attract it vehemently, and thus the animal develops a stronger appetite and requires a larger quantity of food.

What we attribute to all parts of a living creature must also be affirmed concerning any specific part—for example, an excessively large head. For while the rest of the body’s parts assimilate the amount of nourishment they require, that monstrous part alone converts an excessive supply of food to itself, drawing in nourishment from the other parts like a cupping glass, which is then easily transmitted there by those other parts.

Conversely, the opposite must be asserted regarding dwarfs, whose parts attract very little and, consequently, assimilate very little. Moreover, when the faculty for increasing and expanding the body has been weakened or broken by some cause, only the nutritional power remains to provide for the parts' sustenance.

The causes that break the growth of the body and hinder the expansion of its parts are not only severe and malignant ailments, but also poisons or foods smelling of a malignant quality that afflict the body before the age of seven. This occurred with the two dwarfs of the Most Illustrious Cospi; both, while still at a tender age, ate chicks that had died from eating rotten wheat. They were sick and swollen for four years, and finally, though the malignant quality of the food was overcome, they lost the faculty for bodily growth. For this reason, other children born to the same parents both before and after them grew to a stature similar to their parents.

# ON TWO-BODIED MONSTERS

Chapter XI

DEFINITIONS

Since the term "two-bodied" takes on many meanings in our history, we have deemed it worthwhile to explain the various significations of the name at the outset before proceeding to the specific monsters of this kind. We understand "two-bodied monster" in three ways here: first, as it includes human monsters; second, animal monsters; and third, intermediate monsters—namely, those composed of both human and animal parts. Sometimes it even refers to those which Lucretius called "double bodies" in these words:

"...But at no time Can they exist, with a twofold nature and a double body."

When contemplating human monsters of this type, we find them varied by a twofold distinction. Some are double in the upper part and single in the lower. Others we have observed to be doubled in the lower parts while the upper part is single.

At times, a body is seen that is perfectly formed and complete in all its limbs, to which another imperfect little body is attached. Sometimes it happens that two bodies are perfect and complete, but so joined in the mother’s womb by a natural bond that they present a monstrous deformity—specifically, two faces and two bodies, about which we may sing with Lucretius in this manner:

"And the double faces of men, and double bodies."