Search

This paper offers an historical introduction to Pere Alberch's evolutionary thought and his contributions to Evo-Devo, based on his unique approach to experimental teratology. We will take as our point of reference the teratogenic experiments developed by Alberch and Emily A. Gale during the 1980s, aimed at producing monstrous variants of frogs and salamanders. We will analyze his interpretation of the results of these experiments within the framework of the emergence of evolutionary developmental biology (or "Evo-Devo"). The aim is understand how Alberch interpreted teratological anomalies as highly revealing objects of study for understanding the development of organic form, not only in an ontogenetic sense-throughout embryonic development-but also phylogenetically-throughout the evolution of species. Alberch's interpretation of monsters reflects the influence of a long tradition of non-Darwinian evolutionary thought, which began in the nineteenth century and was continued in the twentieth century by people such as Richard Goldschmidt, Conrad H. Waddington, and Stephen Jay Gould. They all proposed various non-gradualist models of evolution, in which embryonic development played a central role. Following this tradition, Alberch argued that, in order to attain a correct understanding of the role of embryological development in evolution, it was necessary to renounce the gradualist paradigm associated with the Darwinian interpretation of evolution, which understood nature as a continuum. According to Alberch, the study of monstrous abnormalities was of great value in understanding how certain epigenetic restrictions in development could give rise to discontinuities and directionality in morphological transformations throughout evolution., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

While the discipline of Teratology has existed for about 60 years, there has been a deep interest in the causes of human malformations for millennia. Absent the scientific method and acting on fervent beliefs that made sense to ancient/medieval populations, "mechanisms" were described and prognostications of future events were assigned to terata resulting in tragic (and unwarranted) sequelae. This article examines the collective beliefs and thinking within various eras in the hope of providing lessons to inform future behavior. The eugenics movement is an informative, recent example. Science of the 19th century had unraveled some of the mysteries of development and the role of genetics in determining birth outcomes. There was, however, a deep misunderstanding about the enormous amount of information that had yet to be uncovered. Based on immature science and faulty assumptions, it was suggested that "unfit" individuals be euthanized and their parents sterilized. Such "solutions" would be considered deplorable today. Surprisingly, such a reprehensible program was supported (at least in part) by many intelligent and highly regarded individuals. Today, it is imperative that we enter into the era of molecular biology and gene editing cautiously and perspicaciously. The history of teratology has elucidated our inability to understand where our new technologies and actions might take us and how unintended consequences could disrupt even our most carefully thought-out plans., (© 2018 The Author. Birth Defects Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

The anatomical collection of the Anatomical Museum of Leiden University Medical Center (historically referred to as Museum Anatomicum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae) houses and maintains more than 13,000 unique anatomical, pathological and zoological specimens, and include the oldest teratological specimens of The Netherlands. Throughout four centuries hundreds of teratological specimens were acquired by more than a dozen collectors. Due to the rich history of this vast collection, teratological specimens can be investigated in a unique retrospective sight going back almost four centuries. The entire 19th century collection was described in full detail by Eduard Sandifort (1742-1814) and his son Gerard Sandifort (1779-1848). Efforts were made to re-describe, re-diagnose and re-categorize all present human teratological specimens, and to match them with historical descriptions. In the extant collection a total of 642 human teratological specimens were identified, including exceptional conditions such as faciocranioschisis and conjoined twins discordant for cyclopia, and sirenomelia. Both father and son Sandifort differed in their opinion regarding the causative explanation of congenital anomalies. Whereas, their contemporaries Wouter Van Doeveren (1730-1783) and Andreas Bonn (1738-1817) both presented an interesting view on how congenital anomalies were perceived and explained during the 18th and 19th centuries; the golden age of descriptive teratology. Although this enormous collection is almost 400 years old, it still impresses scientists, (bio)medical students, and laymen visiting and exploring the collections of the Museum Anatomicum in Leiden, The Netherlands., (© 2018 The Authors. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Dr. Thomas H. Shepard died on October 3, 2016 at the age of 93. He was a major figure in the fields of teratology, embryonic and fetal pathology, and pediatrics. He was beloved by his colleagues as he was by the many students and fellows whom he taught, mentored and befriended. His contributions to teratology are extraordinary and he is greatly missed. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., (© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

In 1793 Lorenzo Mascheroni, appointed to the chair of Mathematics at the University of Pavia and well-known poet, wrote "L'invito di Dafni Orobiano a Lesbia Cidonia". In the poem he described the beauty of the University of Pavia and its wonders gathered in the scientific collections of the museums. From the beginning, one of the glass cases of the Museum for the History of the University of Pavia shows some of the preparations described in the Mascheroni's verses. In addition to some fossils, human teratological preparations are also exposed: they recall the verses of the poem dedicated to the description of "monstrous" preparations. However, after a detailed scientifc and historical research, the traditional association of the exposed anatomical preparations with the verses is questioned.

David Poswillo trained at Otago University Dental School, Dunedin, New Zealand (BDS) and the Royal College of Surgeons of England (FDSRCS). His great interest became the genesis and repair of cleft lip and palate and, in addition to clinical work, he undertook an experimental study of the embryology of cleft palate in pregnant rats exposed to three teratogenic agents. The microscopic work was carried out in his garden shed in Christchurch. His groundbreaking work on amniotic puncture at a critical period came to international notice and he was given the first Chair in Teratology of the Royal College of Surgeons. In experimental studies he showed that thalidomide induced focal haemorrhage in the developing embryo. Poswillo was also Consultant Oral Surgeon at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead and his skills as surgeon and teacher attracted numerous trainee surgeons. He was Professor of Oral Surgery in Adelaide and then in London. Poswillo was Chairman of two advisory committees whose lucid reports on anaesthesia, sedation and resuscitation in dentistry (Poswillo Report) and on tobacco and health were far-reaching and influential. David Poswillo had immense energy and enthusiasm and is remembered by many for his personal interest and stimulating guidance.

It was not until the last third of the 19th century, the period in which, according to historiography, the country definitely inserted itself into modernity, that anomalies and monstrosities had a presence in Mexico. Therefore, what I present here are four moments of teratology in Mexico, four dates in which I try to recount how teratology, which still occupied a marginal place within the main themes of national science, not only reached to cover the realm of medical discussions at the time, but also laid the foundations for new disciplines like biology and anthropology.

`This paper considers the monstrous nature of medical tools and devices through the lens of horror cinema and the art of Damien Hirst. In it I argue for a shift from the monster and the monstrous as organic to the threat of the monster as an inorganic object in tools such as the scalpel and syringe. However, the metaphorical significance of the monster is sustained in these tools where human technological creations continue the discourse of the monster as a product of human creativity.

The emphasis of the normal, the human aspect and feature in monstrosities is a leitmotif that becomes prevalent in the scientific debate on teratological phenomena in the nineteenth century. The discourse highlights the organisation of the civilising process with regard to creating an antithesis between human and animality. In this respect, anthropology establishes anthropometry as a measuring and classifying instrument, hence supporting concepts of norm and abnormity in the scientific discussion. The classification approach finally translates teratological occurrences into the "human system" with the monstrosity being transformed into a subject of knowledge. Scientific discourse poses and installs the latter as living attraction for medical and anthropological examination, thus stressing boundary permeability between man and animal. Evolutionary theory finally initiates the quest for the missing link between man and ape, with congenital disorders, such as microcephaly, becoming particularly supportive of the idea of a manifesting existence of a primitive pre-human form.

In 1855 the leading British transcendental anatomist Robert Knox proposed a theory of retrogressive development according to which the human embryo could give rise to ancestral types or races and the animal embryo to other species within the same family. Unlike monsters attributed to the older theory of arrested development, new forms produced by retrogression were neither imperfect nor equivalent to a stage in the embryo's development. Instead, Knox postulated that embryos contained all possible specific forms in potentia. Retrogressive development could account for examples of atavism or racial throwbacks, and formed part of Knox's theory of rapid (saltatory) species change. Knox's evolutionary theorizing was soon eclipsed by the better presented and more socially acceptable Darwinian gradualism, but the concept of retrogressive development remained influential in anthropology and the social sciences, and Knox's work can be seen as the scientific basis for theories of physical, mental and cultural degeneracy.

This article aims at analyzing the entry "Monstre", written by Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1827 and included in the Dictionnaire classique d'histoire naturelle. Under Etienne Geoffroy the study of monsters brought new heuristic and theoretical approaches to the research fields of anatomy and embryology, and acquired the status of a scientific discipline having its own theoreticalfoundations and therefore its own standards for classification, seen as non-random means for revealing a groundbreaking knowledge.

Allegedly kidnapped from a secret city in Central America, the "Aztec children" began a showman's career in the early-1850s. They died around 1900, after being observed by countless pathologists and ethnologists from Europe and the US. Most of the literature on the "Aztec children" has emphasized racial theories, the imperial gaze, and the character of "ethnological shows", where monstrosity and ethnicity were practically synonymous. Less attention has been paid to the fact that scientists continuously insisted that the case was false, an argument that instead of debunking the myth of the "Aztec children", contributed to establishing the "Aztecs" as "a matter of fact". In examining the case of the "Aztec children", this essay aims to explore what can be called the shifting nature or elusiveness of falsehood.

A case of a parasitic perineal monstrosity from the collection of the Pathology Museum of the University of Florence, is described on the basis of the original medical records and illustrations. The surgeon Giorgio Pellizzari (1814-1894) first reported this extraordinary case of sacrococcygeal teratoma containing a rudimentary inferior limb. Reader of Descriptive Anatomy, Pellizzari was a well-known Anatomy Dissector and Curator of the Physiological Museum of the Regio Arcispedale di Santa Maria Nuova in Florence. This report underlines the importance of studying the archive material in order to thoroughly comprehend a single museum talking object. This handling of matters will help to turn anatomical collections into a unique teaching toolfor modern medical practice and a noteworthy documentation of scientific, artistic and historical value. Through analysis of the original catalogue and investigation by means of modern scientific techniques, discovering the story behind the object becomes afeasible challenge.

Teratology is the science of congenital developmental disorders (CDDs), overt or latent defects of the organism resulting from the effect of internal and external factors on developmental processes. In this article the significance and position of present-day teratology is discussed in the context of development of this branch of science and related disciplines. The authors present an updated overview of the most important milestones and stages of the development of teratology. Based on the analysis of the historical development of theses and theories that represent a decisive contribution to this field, we present a survey of the fundamental principles of experimental and clinical teratology. The aim of observing these principles is to get insight into developmental relations and to understand mechanisms of action on the level of cell populations (elementary morphogenetic processes), tissues and organs. It is important to realize that any negative intervention into the normal course of these processes, either on genetic or non-genetic basis, inevitably leads to a sequence of subsequent changes resulting in the development of congenital developmental disorders. Despite modern approaches of molecular biology and genetics, along with top diagnostic techniques, we are still not able to identify the actual cause in more than 50% of all congenital defects. One-half of the unidentified cases are referred to as "multifactorial", a term that is rather ambiguous. It either means that some of the basic principles of teratogenesis still escape our attention, or the interpretation of some of the well known principles might be misleading. A third possibility is rather pessimistic. The development of the individual is so sophisticated and dependent on a delicate network of a multitude of factors mutually affecting each other that it is extremely prone to give rise to a plethora of spontaneous errors which are unpredictable and impossible to prevent. Nevertheless, the long and complicated history of scientific endeavour has yielded considerable present-day knowledge on causes and mechanisms of CDDs, a history whose beginnings date back to antiquity.

Between September 1752 and July 1753, Wouter van Doeveren, a student of Gaubius, Albinus and Winter at Leyden University, studied, together with a couple of friends at various Paris hospitals in order to improve his skills in the fields of surgery and obstetrics. After his return to Leyden, he took his doctor's degree in medicine and started his practice in that town. In 1754 he was appointed professor of medicine at Groningen University. In 1770 he was appointed professor of theoretical and practical medicine at Leyden University. He held that office until his death on 31 December 1783. He was a most appreciated foreign member of the Société Royale de Médecine (Paris) and of the Royal Society of Medicine (Edinburgh). He succeeded in improving his medical skills, by doing thorough research in the fields of pathological anatomy and teratology. He laid the foundations for national healthcare regulations for the United Provinces.

The mythology of the Greeks and Romans is full of monsters of fiction: giants, cyclops, centaurs, hydras, Gorgons… The accounts of travelers, reproduced in the Natural History of Pline l'Ancien reported the existence, in distant countries, of men with a dog's head (baboons), of men with a single tall foot (sciapode), beings whose face is embedded in the chest (or acephala blemmyes), to which must be added a wide variety of men with no mouth, no nose, or equipped with giant ears or feet turned backwards, as well as hermaphrodites. Teratology reports on monstrous births, which have constituted the factual basis from which the imagination conceived adults whose morphology corresponds to the monsters of legend. Newborns sirenomelia were behind the legend of sciapode and sirens. Cyclopia have inspired the legend of the cyclops. Anencephaly probably explains the description of headless or blemmyes. The genesis of the legend of baboons may have multiple origins: firstly the existence of people suffering from congenital hypertrichosis, on the other hand, the influence of Egyptian mythology where the god Anubis has a dog's head. The acardiac fetus may explain some monstrous forms, features the work of Hieronymus Bosch. The significance of the monsters of legend, their genesis, their persistence through the ages is complex. By approaching teratology, we added a new field of exploration of real monsters of antiquity and Middle Ages., (Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier SAS.)

James Wilson originally proposed a set of "Principles of Teratology" in 1959, the year before he helped to found the Teratology Society. By 1977, when these Principles were presented in a more definitive form in Wilson and Fraser's Handbook of Teratology, they had become a standard formulation of the basic tenets of the field. Wilson's Principles have continued to guide scientific research in teratology, and they are widely used in teaching. Recent advances in our knowledge of the molecular and cellular bases of embryogenesis serve only to provide a deeper understanding of the fundamental developmental mechanisms that underlie Wilson's Principles of Teratology., (© 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

This review of the central nervous system (CNS) and behavioral teratology of the retinoids over the last 50 years is a commemorative retrospective organized by decade to show the prominent research focus within each period and the most salient findings. In the 1960s, research focused on the gross CNS malformations associated with exposure and the delineation of dose-response and stage-specific responses in rodent models. Relevant scientific events before and during the 1960s are also discussed to provide the zeitgeist in which the field of neurobehavioral teratology emerged in the 1970s. During this period, studies demonstrated that adverse effects on postnatal behavior could be produced in animals exposed to doses of vitamin A lower than those that were teratogenic or impacted growth. Work during the 1980s showed an overrepresentation of behavioral studies focused on the reliability of screening methods, while the marked effects of human exposure were illustrated in children born to women treated with isotretinoin during pregnancy. The human catastrophe invigorated research during the 1990s, a period when technological advances allowed more elegant examinations of the developing CNS, of biochemical, cellular, and molecular developmental events and regulatory actions, and of the effects of direct genetic manipulations. Likewise, research in the 1990s reflected a reinvigoration of research in neurobehavioral teratology evinced in studies that used animal models to try to better understand human vulnerability. These foci continued in the 2000-2010 period while examinations of the role of retinoids in brain development and lifelong functioning became increasingly sophisticated and broader in scope. This review of the work on retinoids also provides a lens on the more general ontogeny of the field of neurobehavioral teratology. Birth Defects Research (Part A), 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Members of the Teratology Society (established in 1960) were involved in the first governmental developmental and reproductive toxicity testing guidelines (1966) by FDA following the thalidomide epidemic, followed by other national and international governmental testing guidelines. The Segment II (developmental toxicity) study design, described in rodents and rabbits, has evolved with additional enhanced endpoints and better descriptions, mechanistic insights, range-finding studies, and toxico/pharmacokinetic ADME information (especially for pharmaceuticals). Society members were also involved in the development of the current screening assays and tests for endocrine disruptors (beginning in 1996) and are now involved with developing new testing guidelines (e.g., the extended one-generation protocol), and evaluating the current test guidelines and new initiatives under ILSI/HESI sponsorship. New initiatives include ToxCast from the U.S. EPA to screen, prioritize, and predict toxic chemicals by high throughput and high-content in vitro assays, bioinformation, and modeling to reduce (or eliminate) in vivo whole animal studies. Our Society and its journal have played vital roles in the scientific and regulatory accomplishments in birth defects research over the past 50 years and will continue to do so in the future. Happy 50th anniversary!, ((c) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

Few families have had an impact on medicine to equal that of the Meckel family. Johann Friedrich Meckel the Elder is of special interest to the neurosciences, given that his dissertation on the fifth cranial nerve included the first description of the arachnoid space investing the trigeminal nerve into the middle fossa. He was interested in neuroanatomy, along with botany and pathology of the inguinal hernia and the lymphatic system. His mentors included the eminent Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777) and August Buddaeus (1695-1753), and he extended his own influence on the work of Giovanni Morgagni and Alexander Monro II. He spent the latter part of his life in Berlin as professor of anatomy, botany, and obstetrics. His son, Philipp Friedrich Theodor Meckel (1755-1803), was one of the founders of the current collection of anatomic specimens at the University of Halle and provided important groundwork for the practice of obstetrics. Meckel the Elder's grandson, Johann Friedrich Meckel the Younger (1781-1833), was a more prolific investigator and founder of the science of teratology. Many anatomic structures, such as Meckel's diverticulum, bear his name, and he vastly expanded the university's anatomic collection. August Albrecht Meckel (1789-1829), Meckel the Younger's brother, practiced legal medicine and investigated avian anatomy but died prematurely from tuberculosis. August's son, Johann Heinrich Meckel (1821-1856), took the instructor's position in pathologic anatomy at the University of Berlin that his great-grandfather had held at the Charité. After his untimely death from pulmonary disease, his position was filled by Rudolf Virchow. The history of this family is discussed in detail.

This review of holoprosencephaly provides a mythologic and teratologic distillate of the subject under the following headings: Babylonian tablets; Greek mythology; pictures from the 16th through the 20th Centuries; 19th Century teratology; history of more modern concepts and their terminologies; and ocean-going ships named "Cyclops.", (2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

The 1st-2nd century greek writer, Phlegon was a representative of the genre "paradoxography". In his book entitled Peri thaumasion (Book of wonders) he collected 35 extraordinary stories among which he described hermaphrodites, sex-changers and strange births. Phlegon's stories are only a part of the more than 79 ancient writings from Greek and Roman literature that describe children born with congenital defects. The article discusses the aspects of hermaphroditism in ancient times as well as ancient teratology. These stories might have had a core of truth. Although it is extremely difficult to identify a single potential cause for it, already ancient writers tried to give an explanation. With the help of modern teratology sciences many teratogenous causes can be partly identified. A part of the most probable factors among these were the same as today: malnutrition, viruses, alcohol, vitamin deficiencies etc., but lead poisoning has also be taken into account as a principal cause.

In France between 1780 and 1815, doctors opened a broad correspondence with medical faculties and public officials about foetal anomalies ("monstrosities"). Institutional and legal reforms forced doctors to encounter monstrous births with greater frequency, and they responded by developing new ideas about heredity and embryology to explain malformations to public officials. Though doctors achieved consensus on pathogenesis, they struggled to apply these ideas in forensic cases, especially with doubtful sex. Medical networks simultaneously allowed doctors to explore obstetrical techniques, as licensing regulations forced practitioners into emotional encounters with child anomalies. Doctors thus developed a new ethics for treating monstrosities, viewing them as pathological specimens, forensic objects, and obstetrical tragedies.

Francisco Ort-Llorca (1905-1993) was one of the most outstanding Spanish embryologists of the XX century. He was disciple of Henri Rouvire in Paris (France), Alfred Fischel in Vienna (Austria), Walther Vogt in Munich (Germany) and Pedro Ara in Madrid (Spain). From 1935, he was professor of Human Anatomy at the Faculty of Medicine of Cadiz, belonged then to the University of Seville (accidentally, in the University of Valencia, during the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1939) and, later on, at the Faculty of Medicine of Madrid (Complutense University) from 1954 to 1975. He was internationally recognized in anatomical sciences and stood out for his contributions to descriptive and experimental Embryology and Teratology, particularly in those aspects connected to the normal and pathological development of the heart and visual organs.

Though relatively neglected in the age of molecular biology, the older literature of teratology includes superb illustrations and descriptions of malformations, and other information of permanent value to science and medicine. Accessing that literature can be challenging, as most is in works that are rare, published in languages other than English, and not available in digital form. This article describes some valuable sources of information concerning the antiquarian literature of descriptive teratology., ((c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

When Napoléon Bonaparte invaded Egypt in 1798, he took with him a group of savants to study the natural history, architecture, ancient history and society of Egypt. One young naturalist, Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, went along and made his mark in the study of living and mummified animals, setting the course for his future successes and fame when he returned to Paris in 1801. But during his time in Egypt, when he was free to roam physically and intellectually, he formulated a radical, all-encompassing theory, which he claimed could explain all natural forces and processes in the world.

Introduction: Holoprosencephaly with cyclocephaly is an early disturbance of organogenesis and has been classified as a severe brain malformation starting in 1755 by Eller in Germany, then in 1822 by Etienne Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire in France, and finally in 1828 by Tiedemann in Germany. In 1839, Dr. Arellano published in Mexico a necropsy case of holoprosencephaly. This was the fourth publication worldwide on this kind of pathological alteration. Furthermore, in reference to diaphragmatic herniation, Arellano's paper is the fourth world report, having appeared 9 years before Bochdalek's publication. We have not found any other report that appeared before 1839 in the Americas on this particular malformation, and we consider that Arellano's paper was the first of its kind on the American continent., Conclusion: As is well known, the publications of this Mexican medical researcher were, for his time, at the level of those of the most developed countries. It is also important to know that the medical journal where Arellano's work was published, the "Periódico de la Academia de Medicina de Mégico(sic)," founded and directed by Dr. Manuel Carpio in 1836, is the direct forerunner of the present Gaceta Médica de México, the oldest currently published journal in the Americas.