288 PRINCIPLES OF STOCK-BREEDING. 



any essential particular from the instances of heredi- 

 tary transmission of acquired habits, that have been 

 noticed in another chapter. 



A habit of the mind of either parent may be trans- 

 mitted to their progeny in accordance with the same 

 laws that determine the transmission of any other 

 character or quality, and it seems to be entirely un- 

 necessary to assume that the imagination of the mother 

 is an active agent in determining the result. 



Malformations of the foetus have not been attrib- 

 uted by physiologists to the direct influence of the 

 imagination of the mother, for the following rea- 

 sons: 



" 1. Malformations seldom, or perhaps never, agree 

 with the apprehensions er fears, a priori, of pregnant 

 women. On the contrary, it often happens that a 

 woman who has once procreated a malformation and 

 is continually troubled by the fear of another similar 

 occurrence, may become the happy mother of a second 

 well-formed child." 



" 2. Malformations occur likewise among the infe- 

 rior animals insects, testaceous animals, echinoder- 

 mata in which the development of psychical life is 

 very imperfect, and the oviparous generation of which 

 must preserve the young from the influence of disor- 

 dered maternal imagination." 



"In the case of twins, as the acephali specially 

 show, one child may be malformed and the other in 

 perfect condition, notwithstanding they were both 

 exposed to the same influence. 



" That more deeply-situated organs, the very ex- 

 istence of which may be unknown to the pregnant 



