Sooterkin
Sooterkin , also known as Suyger , is a fabled little creature the size of a mouse that some pre- Enlightenment people believed that women could give birth as freaks under certain circumstances . The legend developed before the 17th century on the fact that Dutch peasant women liked to put foot warmers under their skirts in winter, which, according to the vernacular , could lead to these ugly little freaks.
By the 17th century, the belief that women could bear animals was widespread among the population. John Cleveland had written in 1654:
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"There goes a report of the Holland Women, that together with their children, they are delivered of a Sooterkin, not unlike to a Rat ..."
(The report goes that Dutch women, in addition to their children, also have a Sooterkin, a rat not dissimilar to give birth ...).
But also opinion-leading scientists and obstetricians in the time before the Enlightenment saw this fantasy as an extension of the theory of maternal impression (influence of the mother's impressions on the fetus or the so-called oversight of pregnant women) as a real possibility. Jane Sharp , 17th century midwife who wrote The Midwives Book , the first book on obstetrics, also pursued this theory alongside Ralph Josselin , Caspar Peucer , Stephen Batman and Ralphe Nubery .
The English doctor John Maubray (1700-1732), influenced by the Dutch obstetrician Hendrik van Deventer (1651-1724) , also explained in his work The Female Physician of 1724 that women run the risk of giving birth to mouse-like creatures under certain impressions or circumstances. Maubray also warned pregnant women that being too familiar with pets could result in children looking like these pets. Maubray was one of the referees in the case of Mary Toft , who allegedly gave birth to rabbits , which he saw as evidence of his theories.
The term sooterkin was sometimes used in the English and Dutch language areas for a termination, a failed plan or a settlement that was not implemented. Etymologically , the name is derived from the Middle High German suttern (boiling). Translated in an English-German lexicon from 1834 as bogeyman ; the name is possibly derived from the dialect disfigured sweet child .
Individual evidence
- ^ Webster's 1811
- ↑ John Cleveland: A Character of a Diurnal Maker. London, 1654.
- ↑ AWBates: The sooterkin dissected: the theoretical basis of animal births to human mothers in early modern Europe. 2003 (PDF; 314 kB)
- ↑ John Maubray: The Female Physician .
- ^ Webster's Online Dictionary
- ^ Webster's Online Dictionary
- ^ Adolphus Bernays: A New English-German and German-English Dictionary .