[From anencephaly to the myth of headless men]. / De l'anencéphalie au mythe des hommes sans tête.

Among ancient fanciful creatures, men without a head have often been represented since the end of the Middle-ages, especially during the Renaissance and until the 18th century. They are probably inspired from new-born anencephalic infants.

Human anotocephaly (aprosopus, acrania-synotia) in the Vilnius anatomical collection.

A genetic theory of "multifactorial" malformations, i.e., anomalies of blastogenesis or organogenesis, involving polygenic predisposition with morphogenetic threshold effect, was developed by Sewall Wright in the 1920s and remains an essential basis of birth defects biology. Because of the phenomenon of universality, i.e., the deployment of identical inductive, or pattern-forming, upstream molecular mechanisms during the earliest stages of mammalian morphogenesis, Wright's work on guinea pig otocephaly is highly pertinent to "corresponding," i.e., homologous malformations in humans. This concept is illustrated on the hand of a human fetus in the Vilnius (Lithuania) Pathological Museum with anotocephaly, i.e., anencephaly and otocephaly so severe as to correspond to Wright's guinea pig otocephaly grade 11 or 12. The observation also supports our apology for old museums and old books as repositories for anomalies, no less important for their rarity.

["The devil of Korneuburg"]. / "Der Teufel von Korneuburg".

In 1827 in Korneuburg, a small town near Vienna, an unmarried servant had gone to church during pregnancy, praying in front of the statue of Saint Michael and looking at the devil's figure attached to the statue. In the 6th month of pregnancy, the servant was delivered of a malformed stillbirth. The Pathologist believed in a correlation between her experience in the church and the malformation of the child. This article deals with the oldest specimen with developmental anencephaly, a special form of acrania (protruding eyes, prominent nose and long arms) from the Pathological-Anatomical Museum in Vienna.

[Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844) and anencephaly: Contribution of one naturalist to medical knowledge]. / Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844) et l'anencéphalie: Apport d'un naturaliste à la connaissance médicale.

Anencephaly, frequent and severe congenital malformation (around 1% childbirth) is know since highest antiquity, but often confused with acephaly. Its existence during Egyptian Antiquity is demonstrated by observation, by E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, of an anencephalous foetus mummy. The first detailed anatomical observations are those of Morgagni, from 1742 to 1762, that is to E.G.S-H., as naturalist but as a doctor, we owe the crucial progress during the 19th century. As anatomist, by fine and meticulous observation of cranio-spinal skeleton, he shows persistency of all osseous pieces, distorted but preserving all their connexions: this brings him to create a fist nomenclature and a first classification. As embryologist, he establishes the principle of development arrest or delay at a given stage of embryonic life, and he affirms that the type of anomaly depends on her occurring date. Collecting his own observations and those of his predecessors, he describes several clinical characters. Observing amniotic flanges, he elaborates a physiopathological concept, identifies the accidental origin of this malformation, and tries to prove it by teratological experimentation.His works will be continued by his son, Isidore, doctor, who is considered as the Teratology science founder.

The birth of a monstrous child throughout history: the example of anencephaly between the Egyptian New Empire and the 21st century.

Anencephaly is of special interest for the historical study of human behaviour after the birth of a monstrous child. Examples of anencephalic human births from Egyptian Antiquity to the present time allow us to create a history of teratology, revealing hiatuses in the medical and scientific interpretation of monstrosity that contrast to a relative continuity in the imaginary processes that accompany the birth of a monstrous child.

An anencephalus foetus petrified by Gerolamo Segato (1792-1836).

We report the case of an anencephalic foetus petrified by Gerolamo Segato in the course of his experiments on body conservation. The specimen has been studied applying non-invasive methods. Digital radiography and computed tomography (CT) alogside more advanced techniques such as three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction and virtual endoscopy (VE) have been used to investigate anatomic morphology and to perform hypotheses about Segato's method of petrification which is still unknown.