Found a questionable book in the GSA library describing monsters. It said that it has been claimed that the genetic condition Porphyria may be responsible for the mythologies of werewolves and vampires. Though the symptoms of porphyria do bear a resemblance to vampire folklore, a little investigation seemed to show that its a pretty groundless theory. This did lead me to think about medical conditions and abnormalities being explained through folklore and myth, so I made a visit to the Glasgow University Anatomy Museum to photograph abnormalities. This brought up a very interesting discussion with my tutor on the ethics of photographing dead bodies or body parts. Most of the abnormalities on display there were in specimins of babies and foetuses. From this I started thinking about changelings, since they are a piece of folklore which was used to explain sudden differences in a child, particularly in their personality or temperament. I tried to research changelings at the Mitchell library but only found fictitious references. One of which was from a play called 'The Changeling'. In it insane people were described as having animalistic qualities.
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