Oh Nisvia Malerna. 347 



fiable bases in its constitution, is determined by the phie- 

 noniena presented by the amalgam frnm that alkali ; and li- 

 the conversion of nitrc^ren mto oxygen and hydrogen should 

 be established, it would appear that both hydrogen and ni- 

 trooen must be different combinations of anmionium with 

 oxygen, or with water. 



[To be continved.] 



XLVIII. Inquiry whether Ncevia Matertia, n'lth which 

 Children are sometimes lorn, should be qltribuied to the 

 Imagination of the Mother. 



To Mr. TiUoch. 



Sir, Jln looking over a late volume of the Linnean Tran<!- 

 actions, I met with a fact that seems almost to set at rest a. 

 ]one disputed physiological question, which formerly en- 

 gaged a considerable share of attention in the philosophical 

 world, but has not hitherto, as far as I know, been satis- 

 factorily resolved. 



The question to which I allude, is that which refers to 

 the share which is be attributed to the imagination of the 

 mother in {.roducing the marks which infants are soirie- 

 times born with, f^y philosophers of a former dav, the af- 

 firmation nf this question was decidedly insisted upon, and 

 more than one volume has been iilled with reputed instances 

 of the effects of the mother's imagination upon her oflT- 

 spring, hi the present day, too, the whole female world 

 still retain a similar belief upon this subject, and almost 

 every woman can qviote her own or her neighbour's expe- 

 rience in support ot her opinion. The medical men, how- 

 ever, always laugh at their histories, and consider them as 

 mere idle tales, i was myself for a long time prepossessed 

 with the same notion ; but at length I heard ol two or three 

 instances of children having been born without limbs or 

 with wounds, in consequence of the mother's imagination 

 having been violently acted upon ; which almost staggered 

 my scepticism. One of these cases was related to n;c by 

 an intellitrcnt friend who had seen the child born with only 

 one lee, as well as its mother, who declared her firm be- 

 lief, that the cause of this imperfection in her child was a 

 violent fright which she experienced from seeing a be^jgar 

 suddenly uncover the wounded stump of his thigh. My 

 friend very closely cross questioned this woman ; and the 

 result of his cxaminatron was an entire conviction that it 



was 



