416 JAMES CRAWFORD WATT 



born at term in approximately every one hundred and thirty 

 births. 



For a full discussion of the many teratological theories the 

 reader is referred to Ballantyne's text book on antenatal pa- 

 thology. It is sufficient to mention briefly any other likely causes 

 of the present deformity. Maternal impressions still possess 

 many firm believers, but I think as a cause their utter power- 

 lessness in this case is clearly demonstrated. The impressions 

 were received later in pregnancy, the deformity, as shown above, 

 must ha^'e been established very early, so the relation of the two 

 as cause and effect was absolutely impossible. (See page 387). 



Foetal diseases do not appear as a rational cause of this de- 

 formed condition and neither do amniotic diseases. Amniotic 

 bands and adhesions have been ascribed almost universal tera- 

 tological influences by devotees of this theory, and when they 

 could not be demonstrated, their previous existence and later 

 disappearance has been postulated. There is no cicatrix or 

 other evidence of any band connected to the extremities here, 

 and the symmetry of the deformity argues against its produc- 

 tion thus. The accompanying defects in the vertebral column 

 are evidently not due to such bands. 



There'is one cause in the production of monstrosities and of 

 pathological embryos that it seems to me is perhaps a fruitful 

 one and which I have not found mentioned by other authors. 

 I refer to attempts in the production of criminal abortion, which 

 as every physician knows, are so prevalent amongst the women 

 of this age. These attempts are not always immediately suc- 

 cessful but sometimes the pregnancy is terminated by the death 

 of the injured child at some later date and in some cases preg- 

 nancy goes* on to full term in spite of the injury. Is it not ex- 

 tremely possible that in these instances where the child continues 

 to live for some time after the attempt to destroy it, that it 

 should exhibit some monstrous condition, especially when the 

 attempt is made in the first two months? Both the use of 

 mechanical means and of drugs would result in these pathological 

 conditions, the instrument by direct injury to the child or to 

 the amnion, the drugs by affecting the implantation in the 



