As previously stated, I propose to adopt the term Heteromorph for
a confusion with one another of two or more different skeuomorphs,
or with the amalgamation of any two or more biomorphs, or with the
combination of any skeuomorph with any biomorph. We may thus have (1)
Heteromorphs of skeuomorphs, (2) Heteromorphs of biomorphs, and (3)
Heteromorphs of skeuo-biomorphs.
To speak somewhat figuratively, heteromorphism is a sort of disease
that may attack the skeuomorph or the biomorph. Whereas the final term
of the life-history of the biomorph is, so to speak, senile decay, the
result of heteromorphism is a teratological transformation. Accepting
this view of the subject, the present section might be entitled “The
Pathology of Decorative Art.”
Any stage of the life-history of a biomorph, whether it is the
expression of decorative or religious art, is liable to be infected
by heteromorphism. The only section of graphic art which must from
the nature of the case be free from it is pictorial art. Where
heteromorphs are introduced into pictures they form one of the subjects
of those pictures, the picture itself is not subject to this modifying
influence; for example, the introduction of the representation of a
sphinx or a gryphon into a picture does not constitute the latter a
heteromorph.