Les écarts de la nature
Les écarts de la nature ou recueil des principales monstruosités (“The astray of nature or the collection of essential monstrosities”) is a natural history and medicine work first published in 1775 by the French artist couple Nicolas-François and Geneviève Regnault , which describes malformations in humans and animals.
content
The first edition of the book essentially consists of 24 colored panels showing various human and animal birth defects. In their foreword, the authors wrote that they consciously avoided depicting older, repulsive individuals. As an artist, they also refrained from investigating the reasons for the deformities.
The book was published in 1808 by the French doctor Louis-Jacques Moreau de la Sarthe under the title Description des principales monstruosités dans l'homme et dans les animaux précédée d'un discours sur la physiologie et la classification des monstres (“Description of the essential monstrosities of man and animals, with a previous consideration of the physiology and classification of monsters ”). Moreau de la Sarthe addressed a more scientifically oriented audience and added an illustrated introduction of 15 pages, which also contained a classification of malformations going back to François Chaussier :
- Malformations of size (dwarfs and giants)
- Multiplication of body parts (double bodies, double heads, four arms, etc.)
- Missing limbs (no head, no arms)
- Malformations of the body position (e.g. clubfoot )
- Body parts growing together
- Superficial color abnormalities
- Abnormal surface finish or consistency of body parts
Moreau attributed the deformities to illness or other physical damage the fetus suffered during pregnancy. In doing so, he rejected the popular belief that the mother's thoughts would lead to such birth defects.
literature
- Andrew Curran, Patrick Graille: Exhibiting the Monster: Nicolas-Francois and Genevieve Regnault’s Les Ecarts de la Nature. Eighteenth-Century Life 21, 2 (1997): 16-22, ISSN 0098-2601
