# History of Monsters. 641

Again, according to Schenck, in May 1590, in the village of Harmolsheim within the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Strasbourg, Margaret, the wife of citizen Theobald Helden, gave birth to a two-bodied fetus. It possessed two heads, four hands, and as many feet, along with two sets of female genitalia. Every part was perfectly formed except for the navel, which was shared by both small bodies.

Furthermore, according to Liceti, in March 1607, in the territory of Genoa, a two-bodied male child was born to a married couple, Battista Colloreto and Peregrina. The bodies were joined at the belly but otherwise separate; however, one was twice the size of the other. The smaller fetus was missing one leg but was otherwise correctly formed, except that its eyes were not open. The parents themselves were not deformed and enjoyed good health; indeed, before the birth of this monster, they had fathered other children with perfectly formed limbs. The distinguished Liceti admits to having seen this monster several times when it was four years old in Venice and Padua, as the parents traveled the world exhibiting it and collecting quite a bit of money from curious spectators.

According to the same account by Liceti, in June 1614, in the village of Porcetto near the town of Cologne, a farming couple had twins who were born joined as if by a shared third abdomen. One of them was male, while the sex of the other was not distinct; in its place, a certain cavity was visible extending down to the knees, which looked more like a mark distinguishing the thighs than a female sex organ. The legs were fused together, much like the trunks of two plants often grow together. In place of feet, certain fleshy growths were visible at the ends, divided like the feet of a pig.

So far, we have discussed twins joined at their front; now we turn our discussion to connection at the back, as infants in the womb are sometimes fused together along the spine.

We read in the history of Lycosthenes that in the year 1475, a two-bodied fetus was born joined at the back. However, Ambroise Paré explains this more accurately: in that same year, in Verona, Italy, two girls were born to a woman, very tightly fused from the lower shoulders all the way to the buttocks, as seen in Figure VIII.

The novelty of the monster prompted the impoverished parents to carry it through all the towns of Italy to collect money from the crowds that flocked from everywhere to see the sight.

According to the same authors, in the year 1486, in a village of the Palatinate not far from Heidelberg called Rohrbach, hermaphrodite twins emerged into the light of life fused at their backs; their likeness appears in Figure IX.

Just as they may fuse at the belly and back, two fetuses in the womb sometimes grow together at the sides. Accordingly, we gather from the history of Lycosthenes that in 1534, in the town of Säckingen—the homeland of the distinguished Johann Jakob Beuter, a professor at the University of Freiburg, located three miles above Basel on the banks of the Rhine—a twin fetus was born joined at the sides. However, due to the severe pains of the mother in labor, it did not live long.

Likewise, as Schenck reported, in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, in the year 1543, two female infants were born joined at one of their sides, with two heads, four arms, four feet, and a single navel common to both. One of these emerged from the womb already dead, while the other was born alive but expired immediately.

Similarly, in the town of Aken in Saxony, infants were born joined at the side in such a way that the one on the right rested his left hand on the other's shoulder, and the one on the left stretched his right hand across the other's chest, just as Peucer depicted in his *Teratoscopia*.

Sometimes the side connection of two twins results in each fetus lacking one arm. Since in the year of our human salvation