Then the Empress commanded her anatomists to dissect such kinds of creatures as are called monsters. But they answered her Majesty, that it would be but an unprofitable and useless work, and hinder their better employments; for when we dissect dead animals, said they, it is for no other end, but to observe what defects or distempers they had, that we may cure the like in living ones, so that all our care and industry concerns only the preservation of mankind; but we hope your Majesty will not preserve monsters, which are most commonly destroyed, except it be for novelty: Neither will the dissection of monsters prevent the errors of nature’s irregular actions; for by dissecting some, we cannot prevent the production of others; so that our pains and labour will be to no purpose, unless to satisfy the vain curiosities of inquisitive men. The Empress replied, that such dissections would be very beneficial to experimental philosophers. If experimental philosophers, answered they, do spend their time in such useless inspections, they waste it in vain, and have nothing but their labour for their pains.