The Mermaid, Woolly Horse, Ploughing Elephants, etc., were merely used by me as skyrockets or advertisements, to attract attention and give notoriety to the Museum and such other really valuable attractions as I provided for the public. I believe hugely in advertising and blowing my own trumpet, beating the gongs, drums, etc., to attract attention to a show; but I never believed that any amount of advertising or energy would make a spurious article permanently successful. - P.T. Barnum Since ancient times, people have been fascinated by “monsters.” The term itself was adopted for mythical creatures but also real animals or humans with anatomical deformities. In the 18th and 19th centuries, such “freaks of nature” were an essential part of every respected collection of natural curiosities, and naturalists described them carefully. As a result, their studies ended up influencing the development of biology and evolution – even the ideas of Charles Darwin himself. 17th century English naturalist Robert Plot summarized this philosophy in his Natural History of Oxfordshire as follows:READ MORE -http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbressan/2015/07/17/how-animal-freakshows-helped-the-science-of-biology-develop/