Encyclopedia > Teratology

  Article Content

Teratology

The medical study of grossly deformed individuals is called teratology (the study of "monsters" or "wonders"). Monster, is a pejorative term for a grossly deformed individual. These severely deformed humans rarely survive, although there have been some celebrated examples such as Joseph Merrick, known as the 'Elephant Man'. Some cases, such as conjoined twins, were formerly regarded as monsters, but are now candidates for surgery.

With greater understanding of the origins of these phenomena, this field now overlaps other fields of medicine, particularly developmental biology and embryology.

External links



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
242

... 2nd century - 3rd century - 4th century Decades: 190s 200s 210s 220s 230s - 240s - 250s 260s 270s 280s 290s Years: 237 238 239 240 241 - 242 - 243 ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 22.7 ms