A case of congenital malformation of the fetus

M.g! In 1888, while demonstrating a case of anecephaliae in the local Society of Physicians), I expressed the proposition that all cases of congenital deformities, especially those that change the appearance of the born fetus, should be published, due mainly to their social significance. At the same time, I pointed out the phenomenon that the birth of freaks by a woman living somewhere in the wilderness, in a village, often arouses rumors in the poorly educated population that it was not a person who was born, but some kind of beast or fiend of the devil, and that such freaks cannot be born of a human husband. As a result of the said, unfortunate women who gave birth to a freak can be accused of witchcraft, sorcery, or ascribed to them intercourse with devils - all this unintentionally, the population can completely ruin the life of such a woman. Yes, not only in the wilderness, but even in big cities, in the center of education, such slander can happen and can do a lot of harm.