514 



The Journal cf Heredity 



failed to wash herself thorouj^hly in 

 those places! 



Of course, few of the eases now 

 credited are as j^ross as this; but the 

 principle involved remains, so far as I 

 can see, the same. 



We will take a hypothetical case of 

 a common sort for the sake of clearness : 

 the mother receives a wound on the 

 arm; when her child is delivered it is 

 found to have a scar of some sort on 

 the corresponding arm, and at about the 

 same place. Few mothers would fail 

 to sec the result of a maternal impres- 

 sion here. But how could this mark 

 have been transmitted? We are not 

 here concerned with the transmission 

 of acquired characters throu<^h the 

 gcrm-])lasm, or anythin<j^ of that sort, 

 for the child was already formed when 

 the mother was injured. We arc driven, 

 therefore, to believe that the injury 

 was in some way transmitted through 

 the placenta, the only connection be- 

 tween the mother and the unborn 

 child; and that it was then reproduced 

 in some way on the child, at a place 

 corresponding to that where it appeared 

 in the mother. 



XO MEANS OF TRANSMISSION 



Here wc have a situation which, 

 examined in the cold light of reason, 

 puts a heavy enough strain on the 

 credulity. But what mo.st mothers 

 may forget is that there is not a single 

 nerve or blood-vessel passing through 

 the placenta, from mother to child. 

 Not a drop of the mother's blood ]:)asses 

 to her unborn offsjjring. The child 

 does indeed derive all its nourishment 

 from the mother, but it is by soakage 

 from her blood to its own; there is no 

 direct connection. No one has ever 

 traced a single nerve or blood vessel 

 passing through. Is it conceivable to 

 any rational human being, that a scar, 

 or what not, on the mother's body (or 

 mind), can be dissolved in her blood, 

 soak through the jjlaccnta into the 

 child's circulation, and then gather 

 itself together into a definite scar on 

 the infant's arm? 



There is just as much reason to exi)eet 

 the child to grow to resemble the 

 cow on whose milk it is fed after birth, 



as to expect it to grow to resemble its 

 mother, because of pre-natal influence, 

 as the term is customarily used — for 

 once develo]jment has begun, the child 

 draws nothing more than nourishment 

 from its mother. 



Of course we are accustomed to the 

 pious rejoinder that man must not 

 expect to understand all the mysteries 

 of life; wc are accustomed to hearing 

 \-ague talk about the wonder of wireless 

 telegraphy. But in wireless telegraphy 

 we have something very definite and 

 tangible — there is little mystery about 

 it. We have waves of a given frequency 

 sent off, and caught by an instrtunent 

 attuned to the same frequency. How 

 any rational person can support a 

 belief in maternal impressions by such 

 an analogy, if he knows anything about 

 anatomy and physiology, ])asses com- 

 prehension. 



Now I am far from declaring that wc 

 can find a reason for everything that 

 happens. Science will not refuse belief 

 in an observed fact merely because it is 

 unexplainable. But let us examine this 

 ease of maternal impressions a little 

 farther. What can we learn of the 

 time element ? 



THE TIME ELEMENT 



Immediateh' we arc confronted with 

 the significant fact that most of the 

 marks, deformities and other efi"ects 

 which arc credited to i^re-natal influence 

 must on this hypothesis take place at a 

 eom])aratively late period in the ante- 

 natal life of the child. The mother is 

 frightened by a dog; the child is born 

 with a dog-face. If we ask ivhen her 

 fright occurred, we usually find it not 

 earlier than the third month, more 

 likely somewhere near the sixth. 



But it ought to be well known that 

 the develo]jment of all main parts of 

 the body has been comi)lcled at the 

 end of the second month. At that 

 time, the mother rarely does more than 

 .susjject the coming of a child. Her 

 anxiety about the child, and events 

 which she believes to "mark" that 

 child, usually occur after the fourth or 

 fifth month, when the child is fully 

 formed, and it is impossible that many 

 of the cfi"ects sujiposed to occur could 



