68 



beholding a well-filletl pocket book — "It's mine" — as conclusive proof of 

 the wallet's collective ownership. 



V. Non-selective maternal impression; where a mother succeeds in mark- 



ing both ot the twins. 

 These cases are extremely uncommon, for as we shall see, maternal 

 influence api)ears to be extremely rare and twins occur about one in 

 eighty-eight births. I am therefore glad to report as an illustration, a 

 case given by Wiistnei. He tells of a woman who was accustomed to 

 taking her nap with her forehead against a porcelain stove. She gave J 

 birth to twins and it was found that each had a rather long impression 

 running up and down on the forehead. The case is not reported in sutfl- 

 cient detail to comment on it. I present it for its face value, together with 

 the suggestion that a mark down the forehead of each of the twins would \ 

 be likely to make a skeptic examine the birth canal of the mother for a 

 bony prominence in the pelvis. 



VI. Non-selective type of maternal impression ; where a mother only suc- 



ceeded in marking one of the twins. 

 These cases must also be unconnnon and 1 luivc^ fdund no instaiu\» 

 reported by the champions for maternal impression either because they 

 do not occur at all or because they do not strengthen the cause. I am of 

 the opinion that the latter is the case; for abnormality in one twin is not 

 particularly infrequent. I can, however, call attention to a case where the 

 twins did not succeed in marking a single baby — the notorious example 

 of the Balzac twins — a variety of Siamese— and one of them, I forget 

 which, gave birth to a normal baby. 



VII. Threatened maternal influence; where the mother is in-ofoundly 

 shocked and the infant refuses to register any marking whatever. 



It may be remembered tlial the Messina disaster was calculnteil to 

 upset the routhie of that town, and yet after the eartlupiMkc only one 

 abnormal child was born of the women who were pregnant at tlie time, 

 and that in a woman who had been pinned down for many luun-s with a 

 beam over her abdonnMi. Indeed, it was reported that a number of women 

 that had al)orted spontaneously in previous pregnancies wer(> so severely 

 shocked that they carried their eliildren to term. Rischofr .(mid not dem- 

 onstrate a single case of niateiiial iniprcssion in ll.OOii coiiliiiements ; and 

 William Hunter "during many yi'ars every woman in a large T>ondon 

 lying-in liospital was asked before iier connnement wiutlu'r anytliing Iiad 



