The Editor: Maternal Impressions 



513 



occupies a position of national import- 

 ance in the "Better Babies" movement, 

 is almost contemptuous in her disdain 

 for those who think otherwise: 



"Science wrangles over the rival 

 importance of heredity and environ- 

 ment, but we women know what effects 

 prenatal influence works in children." 

 "The woman who frets brings forth a 

 nervous child. The woman who rebels 

 generally bears a morbid child." "Self- 

 control, cheerfulness and love for the 

 little life breathing in unison with your 

 own will practically insure you a child 

 of normal physique and nerves." 



Such statements, backed up by a great 

 array of writers and speakers whom the 

 layman supposes to be scientific, and 

 who think themselves scientific, cannot 

 fail to influence strongly an immense 

 number of mothers and fathers. If they 

 are truly scientific statements, their 

 general acceptance must be a great 

 good. 



But think of the disillusionment if 

 these widespread statements are false! 



Have we, or have we not. a short cut 

 to race betterment? Everyone inter- 

 ested in the welfare of the race must feel 

 the necessity of getting at the truth in 

 the case; and the truth can be found 

 only by rigorously scientific thought. 



Let us turn to the observed facts. 

 I find this sample in the health depart- 

 ment of a popular magazine, quite 

 recently issued : 



"Since birth my body has been cov- 

 ered with scales strikingly resembling 

 the surface of a fish. My parents and I 

 have expended considerable money on 

 remedies and specialists without deriv- 

 ing any permanent benefit. I bathe 

 my entire body with hot water daily, 

 using the best quality of soap. The 

 scales fall off continually. My brother, 

 who is younger than myself, is afflicted 



with the same trouble, but in a lesser 

 degree. My sister, the third member 

 of the family, has been troubled only 

 on the knees and abdomen: My mother 

 has always been quite nervous and 

 susceptible to any unusual mental 

 impression. She believes that she 

 marked me by craving fish, and pre- 

 ferring to clean them herself. During 

 the prenatal life of my brother, she 

 worried much lest she might mark 

 him in the same way. In the case of 

 my sister she tried to control her mind. 

 Could we transmit this condition^ to 

 our children?" 



THE MARK OF THE MEAT MARKET 



Another I find in a little publication 

 which is devoted to eugenics.^ As a 

 "horrible example" we are given the 

 case of Jesse Pomeroy, a murderer 

 whom older readers will well remember. 

 His father, it appears, worked in a meat 

 market. Before the birth of Jesse, his 

 mother went daily to the shop to carry a 

 luncheon to her husband, and her eyes 

 naturally fell upon the bloody carcases 

 hung about the walls. Inevitably, the 

 sight of such things would produce 

 bloody thoughts in the mind of the 

 child r 



These are extreme cases ; let me quote 

 from a medieval medical writer another 

 case that carries the principle to its 

 logical conclusion: A woman saw a 

 negro — at that time a rarity in Europe. 

 She immediately had a sickening sus- 

 picion that her child would be "marked," 

 that he would be born with a black skin. 

 To obviate the danger, she had a happy 

 inspiration — she hastened home and 

 washed her body all over with warm 

 water. When the child appeared, his 

 skin was found to be normally white — 

 except between the fingers and toes, 

 where it was black. His mother had 



2 Such a skin affection is usually due to heredity. Davenport says it "is especially apt to be 

 found in families in which consanguineous marriages occur and this fact, together with the pedi- 

 grees [which he studied], suggests that it is due to the absence of some factor that controls the 

 process of cornification of the skin. On this hypothesis a normal person who belongs to an 

 affected family may marry into a normal family with impunity, but cousin marriages are to be 

 avoided." Technically the disease is known as icthyosis, xerosis or xerodoma. See Davenport, 

 C. B., Heredity in Relation to Eugenics, p. 134. New York, 1911. 



' Of course, their eugenics is to be effected through the mental exertion of mothers. And 

 I am now in correspondence with a western attorney who is endeavoring to form an association 

 of persons who will agree to be the parents of " willed " children. By this means, he has calculated 

 (and sends me a chart to prove it) that it will require only four generations to produce the Super- 

 man. 



