348 On Ncevia Materna. 



was a fact tliat she had been frightened when pregnant in 

 the way she stated, and that the infant subsequently bora 

 was maimi.-d precisely as the beiigar was who had been the 

 cause of her alarm. Since learning this fact I have been 

 more inclined to listen with patience to similar histories, 

 yet with some doubts, chiefly built upon the universal in- 

 credulity of the medical men to whom I have related them, 

 remaining. These, however, are now done away by the 

 fact stated in the I.inncan Transactions alluded to above, 

 the substance of which I shalj briefly state. 



The servant of Mr. Milne, F.L.S., in removing a kettle 

 from the fire, trod very heavily upon the tail of a pregnant 

 she cat lyiug upon the hearth. The cat inunediatcly uttered 

 a dreadful scream, and ran out of the room with every 

 mark of violent terror. When this cat littered, half of her 

 kittens had their tails bent in the middle at right angles^ 

 with a round knot thicker than the rest of the tail at the 

 angle formed. 



This fact seems to be very important, and to prove nearly 

 to a demonstration, that the imagination of pregnant fc- 

 niales has the power of acting upon the bodily conforma- 

 tion of iheir young. It is very certain that the tails of the 

 young kittens were not trodden upon, What then could 

 have thus distorted them, but the imagination of the parent 

 influenced by the sudden alarm which she felt ? It may be 

 denial that the distortion was the consequence of the pres- 

 sure on the mother's tail; but such a denial appears to me 

 very unphilosophical, especially when we take into account 

 the number of similar facts on record, with respect to the 

 human species. If this were the first instance heard of, 

 there would doubtless be reason for hesitation ; but it is so 

 closely analogous to hundreds of like events which are 

 Stated to have occurred to women, that it seems to me con- 

 clusive. It may be said perhaps that cats are exposed to 

 have their tails trodden upon every day, and that we never 

 hear of similar mutilations. But it should be considered, 

 that in the case recorded in the Linnean Transactions, it 

 was the ertraordinary injury sustained by the animal, and 

 the violence of the impression it made upon her, that alone 

 paused the circuinstfrnee to be recollected. Mr. Milne would 

 never have remembered any ordinary scream of his cat from 

 having been accidentally trodden upon, nor have thought of 

 referriug to it the remarkable conformation of her kittens. 



1 shall be glad if some of your physiological correspon- 

 dents would favour me with their opiaiou on this state- 



men^. 



