67 



tween elbow and wrist. The only way she conlcl account for the deficiency 

 was the fact that her husband's brother, who had his hand amputated, 

 lived in the same family during the earlier months of her pregnancy. 

 While she received no special shock, being familiar with his condition, yet 

 maternal impression continued through a considerable period had its dis- 

 as: :>us effects." This case is illustrative and suggestive for, as Dr. Stall 

 says, it shows that the unconscious impression may be as potent as the 

 conscious. Assuming that the evidence is quite good, how does Dr. Stall 

 account for the normal children born directly of our mutilated war vet- 

 erans ? 



III. Missed maternal impression; where a well defined shock occurred 



but the resulting defect did not resemble its alleged cause. 

 "An instance came under my observation but a few years ago in which 

 the boy of the family had fallen from a banister of a porch some eight or 

 ten feet to the ground below where his head came into contact with stones 

 inflicting a large gaping wound of the scalp. The mother had it to care 

 for until my arrival. In a few months (seven to be exact) she gave birth 

 to a child with spinal defect that soon extended to the head to form hydro- 

 cephalus, causing great enlargement and the death of the child." Here 

 the unborn child did not exactly register its mother's distress. Inasmuch 

 as Goethe misunderstood the bones of the head and regarded them as 

 modified vertebra*, the error on the part of the child is wholly excusable 

 under the circumstances, for as Dr. Blondel said nearly two hundred years 

 ago, it is "not yet acquainted with the outward objects that disturb the 

 mother." 



IV. Postpartum maternal impression ; w^here a woman on beholding a 



marked child remembers the circumstance that must be held re- 

 sponsible. 

 I abbreviate a case reported by Ballantyne. "On July 2, 1884, she 

 gave birth to a full term male child on whose chest there was a peculiar 

 mark similar in size to the apple which was thrown at the patient, but 

 rather paler in color. She then remembered the above mentioned circum- 

 stance (being hit by an apple in the previous October) and connected the 

 impression and the mark together as cause and effect." Ballantyne, while 

 he places this case in his list of maternal impression, remarks that it is 

 not a strong case ; to which I heartily agree. As evidence we cannot ac- 

 cept it any more than we accept the statement of several individuals on 



