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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many years did it take curators of Philadelphia’s Museum of Medical Antiquities to collect Spencer’s papers?

2. Who was one of Spencer’s most influential professors?

3. What was Alphonse’s birth date?

4. When did Dr. Gregory Black die?

5. When did Spencer achieve fame and notoriety for his work?

Short Essay Questions

1. What ideas about evolution would eventually separate Spencer from the rest of the scientific community?

2. What death did Spencer experience in the fall of 1874?

3. How did Spencer’s personality change in 1876?

4. By the end of Spencer’s second year at the academy, to what was he devoting his time?

5. Who did Spencer marry and how did they meet?

6. How did Dr. Gregory Black obtain bodies for his medical students?

7. What is the life cycle of the cicada?

8. What was a nightmare that Spencer wrote about in his journal in Chapter 4?

9. In Chapter 3, what was Bernard doing?

10. What other operation was mentioned in Chapter 3?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Chapter 6, Spencer faced ridicule and rejection after he tried to publish a paper about the fawn-child. What was the main thesis of his paper? What did some in the medical community say about the contents of the paper? Why did he have to find a new job?

Essay Topic 2

The book is a novel, but reads like a biography. What style did the author use to make the book seem real? What facts are scattered throughout the novel? How do these facts make the book seem more like a biography than a novel?

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter 3, Spencer performed operations to treat conjoined twins and other mutations of the body. How did Spencer’s work change from performing surgeries to help individual to mutations to creating mutations?

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