8 14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



met with skepticism and even ridicule on the part of scientific 

 men, only to be vindicated finally by more thorough and exact 

 knowledge. It is too often the case that, where the processes are 

 recondite and difficult to follow, assumption passes for knowl- 

 edge. The function of some of our own bodily organs yet re- 

 mains to be established, and we probably assume too much in re- 

 quiring that all nervous force must be transferred through nerve 

 tissue, or that there may not be protoplasmic filaments which are 

 not resolvable, in their finer ramifications, even with our best 

 microscopes. The very nature of mind and its processes puts it 

 beyond the reach of the scalpel of the anatomist or the physiolo- 

 gist, just as many psychical phenomena bafile the exact methods 

 of science, at least those so far employed. Leaving out of the 

 question the evidence of peculiar marks due to maternal emotion, 

 cases of which are part of the unwritten history of almost every 

 famil}'-, the striking cases of which I have authoritative evidence 

 of addition to, subtraction from, or singular modification of, ana- 

 tomical parts, confirm me in the belief that this is a most impor- 

 tant psycho-physiological cause of modification. 



In the romance of "Elsie Venner," in which the heroine's 

 strange attributes are connected with pre-natal influence of the 

 mother, who died of the bite of Crotalus, Oliver Wendell Holmes 

 has strongly put forth this doctrine in the form of fiction. I allude 

 to this clever romance because of the medical knowledge of the 

 eminent author, and because, while admitting in the preface that 

 a grave scientific doctrine lies beneath some of the delineations 

 of character, he also affirms that he has had the most startling 

 confirmation of its truth. The data collected on the subject I 

 hope to bring together on some other more fit occasion ; and I 

 would take this opportunity of urging any in my hearing, or who 

 may read these lines, if they have had or are aware of any 

 authoritative and illustrative cases, to communicate them to me 

 with as much detail as possible. 



This theory once established, its bearing on evolution as a 

 prime cause of variation must at once be manifest ; for it gives 

 not only tangibility to the Lamarckian idea of desire influencing 

 modification, but also a conception of how Infinite Mind in 

 nature may act through the finite in directing such modification. 

 No doubt but that there is a great deal of nonsense and superstition 

 mixed with the genuine, and that the idea that every little whim, 

 or fancy, or imagining of the mother will produce record or mark 

 is one of the unjustified outcroppings of the fundamental fact, 

 and helps to explain the difficulty of getting at the real facts and 

 the ease with which Darwin rejected the idea. In my judgment, 

 this factor acts only when, from whatever cause, and particularly 

 under the spur of necessity, the emotions are exceptionally inten- 



