44 1 THE SUPPOSED TRANSMISSION OF MUTILATIONS. 



during pregnancy, a belief which was universally maintained up to 

 the middle of the present century. Many of those 'proofs' were 

 simply old wives' fables, and were based upon all kinds of subsequent 

 inventions and alterations. But it cannot be denied that there are 

 a few undoubtedly genuine observations upon cases in which some 

 character in the child reminds us in a striking manner of a deep 

 psychical impression by which the mother was strongly affected 

 during pregnancy. 



Thus a trustworthy person told me of the following case. A well- 

 known medical authority cut his leg above the ankle with a knife : 

 his wife was present at the time and was much frightened. She 

 was then in the third month of pregnancy : the child when born 

 was found to have an unusual mark upon the same place above the 

 ankle. People almost forget nowadays the tenacity with which the 

 idea of maternal impressions was kept up until the middle of this 

 century ; but it is only necessary to read the received German text- 

 book on physiology of fifty years ago, viz. that of Burdach, in order 

 to be convinced of the accuracy of this statement. Not only does 

 Burdach give a number of ' conclusive ' cases in man and even in 

 animals (cows and deer), but he also attempts to construct a theoretical 

 explanation of the supposed process. This is undertaken in the fol- 

 lowing manner, ' Imagination influences the function of organs ; ' 

 but the function of the embryo is the ' tendency towards development, 

 and hence the influence [of maternal imagination] can make itself 

 felt only as variations in the mode of development.' Thus by ex- 

 changing the conception of function for that of the development of 

 organs, Burdach comes to the conclusion that ' homologous organs of 

 the mother and the embryo are in such connexion ' that when the 

 former are disturbed a corresponding ' change in the formation of 

 the latter may arise.' 



It seems to be not without value for the appreciation of the 

 questions with which we are dealing to remember that the idea 

 of ' maternal impressions ' was only comparatively recently believed 

 to be a scientific theory, and that the proofs in support of it 

 were brought forward in form and language as scientific proofs. 

 In Burdach's book we even meet with detailed ' proofs ' that 

 violent mental shocks produced by maternal impressions may not 

 only exercise their influence upon one but even upon several children 

 born successively, although with diminishing strength. ' A young 



