DR. J. W. BALLANTYNE'S PAPER 347 



from the comparative simplicity of the ovum or egg 

 into the great complexity of the human embryo, 

 clearly recognizable at the end of the second month 

 as a babe in miniature. The general character of the 

 life of these two months is development, with its 

 kaleidoscopic or cinematographic changes ; and it 

 differs greatly from that of the seven months, which is 

 mainly one of growth along lines already well defined. 



The Mechanism of Ante -natal Life. 



These two periods agree in this, however, that 

 they are both conditioned by the life and health of 

 the mother ; their environment, so to say, is maternal. 

 Even before the mother is conscious that she has 

 conceived, certainly before she is sure that she is 

 carrying a child in her womb, the close dependence 

 of the new life upon the older one has begun. Not 

 only that, but the mother's organs and tissues have 

 begun to react to the stimulus of the tiny mass of 

 intensely vital formative stuff which lies within. 

 Physiology has only begun to realize how wonderful 

 and how well worthy of the closest scrutiny is the 

 inter-action between the infantile and the maternal 

 organisms in these weeks and months of ante-natal 

 existence ; there is no older problem and no more 

 fascinating modern theme than to discover how the 

 bones grow in the womb, and to investigate the whole 

 of Nature's mechanism whereby she makes it possible 

 for the mother to nourish and direct the growth and 

 development of her unborn infant, and for the latter 

 to so stimulate and encourage, so to speak, the mother's 

 tissues and organs to increased effort and even to 

 novel endeavour in order to meet the new demands 

 made upon them. 



Ante-natal Hygiene and Eugenics. 



Even heredity and the study of the laws which 

 govern the handing on of what \vr call good or bad 



