INTRA-UTERINE INFLUENCES. 289 



woman, may be malformed, as for instance the heart, 

 the intestinal tube, etc." ' 



In most cases of malformation the mental impres- 

 sion that is assigned as a cause is not presumed to 

 have been injurious until the malformation is ob- 

 served, while the violent shocks that give rise to 

 apprehensions of injury are usually found to have 

 made no impression upon the development of the 

 foetus. 



The anatomical relations of the embryo and its 

 uterine envelopes likewise render it improbable that 

 any mental impressions of the mother can be trans- 

 mitted to any particular part of the foetus, to exert a 

 specific influence in its development. 



There are many considerations that seem to indi- 

 cate that malformations of the embryo are determined 

 by fixed organic laws that preclude the intervention 

 of paroxysmal causes. 



""We never see in malformed births dissimilar 

 parts fused or united with each other, such as the 

 intestinal tube with the aorta, the arteries with the 

 nerves, etc. Each part, therefore, retains to a certain 

 degree its own independence. ... The gullet some- 

 times coalesces with the larynx, and the bladder with 

 the rectum ; but these parts are not originally dissimi- 

 lar, being developed from a common mass. 



" The malformed parts are restricted to their de- 

 terminate place, according to what Fleischmann de- 

 nominates lex topicorum, 



" No malformed organ loses entirely its own char- 



1 W. Vrolik, " Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology," article 

 " Teratology," vol. iv., p. 943. 



