600 GLOSSARY. N/EVUS. 



, N.EVI, MOTHER'S MARKS. Spots of various kinds on the 

 surface of the body at birth are called nsevi, and, like malforma- 

 tions in general, have been ascribed to the influence of the mother's 

 imagination. It is quite probable that events or circumstances 

 that make a violent impression on the mother's sensibilities during 

 pregnancy may be the immediate cause of malformation in her off- 

 spring, because such a state of things may, by disturbing her func- 

 tions, derange the regular nutrition, and therefore the normal 

 development of her offspring for a time ; and such an effect may 

 be the more extensive and remarkable because the embryo of the 

 higher animals is not developed onwards in straight lines, but 

 forms structures of a temporary kind that are to be removed by 

 absorption at fixed epochs, and if not removed at the appointed 

 era, then not at all, but remain monstrosities at birth ; whence 

 disturbances of nutrition in the mother at any period of pregnancy, 

 by impairing the energy of fcetal action, may cause either defi- 

 ciencies or superfluities at birth. But the kind of monstrosity is 

 not determined by the kind of impression made on the mother's 

 sensibilities, but by the period of development through which the 

 embryo is passing at the time the disturbance occurs. If a preg- 

 nant woman should witness a criminal broken on the wheel, it is 

 credible enough that she may bring forth an infant marked by 

 some malformation, but not that her infant shall present any close 

 resemblance to the state of the victim of this horrid punishment 

 as she saw him on the wheel. 



The kind of connection, however, which exists throughout preg- 

 nancy between the mother and the embryo or the foetus, is very 

 different from that which still continues before the time of concep- 

 tion up to the moment when the ovum is detached from the ovary. 

 It seems not improbable, then, that impressions made on the mother's 

 sensibilities at the time of semination, at which time the ovum 

 may not be detached, may give rise to appearances on the offspring 

 having a connection with the nature of the impressions so made.* 



What seems an authentic example of this view occurred in the 

 experience of one of the authors of this treatise. He purchased a 

 five-year-old work mare for the purpose of breeding from. The 

 mare, though still so young, ceased to breed after having had three 

 foals, the cause of which was, that after being covered she imme- 

 diately threw off the seminal fluid. The next time of covering, 

 on the horse leaving her, he desired a bucketful of water to be 

 thrown quickly under her tail. This had the desired effect of re- 

 taining the seminal fluid ; but the foal she produced was marked. 

 with a patch of darker hair under the tail, like the appearance 

 made by the water upon her mother. 



* That there may be a considerable interval between semination and concep- 

 tion, see Matthews Duncan, ' Fecundity, Fertility, and Sterility,' p. 320. 



