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In this paper I set out to show how Canguilhem’s firsthand knowledge of innovative experimental teratology affected his analyses of anomaly and abnormality. After retracing Canguilhem’s interest in the work of Étienne Wolff to the preparatory work for his 1943 dissertation, in the first part of the paper I outline Canguilhem’s theses regarding the ontological a priori equivalence of all living forms and the epistemological necessity of “enhancing the knowledge of normal formations by using knowledge about monstrous formations.” In the second part of the paper, I focus on Wolff’s specific contributions to Canguilhem’s reflections on the concepts of totality and irreversibility. I conclude by observing the impact of the 1960s “molecular revolution” on teratology and by drawing more general conclusions about how the study of monsters illuminates the methodological underpinnings of historical epistemology.