Abstract
Man’s early pictorial and written records make it clear that he was aware of and curious about the structural defects that from birth afflicted some of his fellow men. His attitudes about these congenital variants have ranged widely in different cultures: from romanticizing them in mythology, to using them as portent of coming events, to accepting them as divine retribution for wrongdoing, to simply regarding them as manifestations of witchcraft. Historical medical writings contain descriptions of the more bizarre malformations but explanations as to their genesis, if not always as fanciful as those seated in popular superstition, were equally fatalistic in outlook.
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© 1972 Wistar Institute Press
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Wilson, J.G. (1972). Mechanisms of Teratogenesis. In: Persaud, T.V.N. (eds) Problems of Birth Defects. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-6621-8_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-6621-8_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-011-6623-2
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