but there was but one Fundament to disburden
Nature; sometimes one would Speak, and the other would keep silence, and
sometimes both speak at the same time. It liv'd several Years, but one
of them surviving the other, it carried the Dead one so long, that at
last it fainted with the Burden. And at a Village call'd _Ubaten_ in
_Flanders_, a Child was Born which had two Heads and four Arms,
appearing like two Maids joyn'd together, having two Arms lifted up
between and above the Heads, the Thighs being plac'd as it were cross
one another.

In the Year 1579, A Monster was Born in _France_, cover'd all over with
Hair like a Beast, its Navel being in the place where his Nose should
have been, his Eyes plac'd in the Situation of the Mouth; and its Mouth
was in the Chin. It was of the Male-kind, and liv'd but a few Days,
affrighting all that beheld it. And near _Elselling_ in _Germany_, in
the Year 1529, there was a Boy Born with one Head and one Body, having
four Ears, four Arms, and four Feet, and but two Thighs, and two Legs:
This Birth, in the Opinion of the Learned, proceeded from a Redundancy
of Seed beyond what was sufficient for one Child, but not enough for
Twins, wherefore Nature Form'd what she could. There might be many other
particular Instances given of Monstrous Births, as some sticking
together by the Bellies, others by the Breech; some Born without Arms or
Legs others without Heads, yet have they liv'd for some time, till want
of Sustenance made them pine away and Die, as having no place to receive
it, and others with Heads like Dogs, Wolves, Bears, and other Beasts.
But I shall proceed to the cause of their Generation.

The Natural Cause of Generation of Monsters, according to the Ancients,
is either in the Matter, or in the Agent; in the Seed or in the Womb:
The Matter may be unable to perform its Office two ways; by Defect, or
by Excess: By Defect, when a Child hath but one Arm, or one Leg, &c.
and by Excess, when it hath three Hands or two Heads. The Agent or Womb
may be in Fault several ways, as in the forming Faculty, which may be
too strong or too weak, by which a deprav'd Figure is oftentimes
produc'd, the ill Conformation of the place of Conception will cause a
Monstrous Birth; and the imaginative Power at the time of Conception, is
so forcible, that it stamps a Character of the thing upon the Child; so
that the Child of an Adulteress, by the strength of Imagination may have
a nearer resemblance of