620 OF REPRODUCTION. 



768. The mode in which the chief organs of the Human embryo originate 

 having been thus described, and sufficient particulars in regard to their subse- 

 quent development having been already given under distinct heads, it is un- 

 necessary here to add more on this very interesting but complex subject ; 

 because for practical purposes there is little or no advantage to be gained 

 from the most perfect acquaintance with it. The most important of all the 

 facts that have come under our review, is that which has been stated as in the 

 highest degree probable, if not yet absolutely proved, in regard to the relative 

 offices of the Male and Female in this hitherto mysterious process. Accord- 

 ing to the view here given, the Male furnishes the germ ; and the Female 

 supplies it with Nutriment, during the whole period of its early development. 

 There is no difficulty in reconciling such a doctrine with the well-known fact, 

 that the offspring commonly bears a resemblance to both parents (of which 

 the production of a hybrid between distinct species is the most striking ex- 

 ample) ; since numerous phenomena prove that, in this earliest and simplest 

 condition of the organism, the form it will ultimately assume very much de- 

 pends upon circumstances external to it ; among which circumstances, the 

 kind of nutriment supplied will be one of the most important.* Upon the 

 same principle we may account for the influence of the mental condition of 

 the Mother upon her Offspring during a later period of pregnancy. That 

 such influence may occur, there can be no reasonable doubt. " We have 

 demonstrative evidence," says Dr. A. Combe,t " that a fit of passion in a 

 nurse vitiates the quality of the milk to such a degree, as to cause colic and 

 indigestion [or even death] in the suckling infant. If, in the child already 

 born, and in so far independent of its parent, the relation between the two is 

 thus strong, is it unreasonable to suppose that it should be yet stronger, when 

 the infant lies in its mother's womb, is nourished indirectly by its mother's 

 blood, and is, to all intents and purposes, a part of her own body ? ft a sud- 

 den and powerful emotion of her own mind exerts such an influence upon her 

 stomach as to excite immediate vomiting, and upon her heart as almost to 

 arrest its motion and induce fainting, can we believe that it will have no effect 

 on her womb and the fragile being contained within it ? Facts and reasons, 

 then, alike demonstrate the reality of the influence ; and much practical ad- 

 vantage would result to both parent and child, were the conditions and extent 

 of its operations better understood." Among facts of this class, there is, per- 

 haps, none more striking than that quoted by the same Author from Baron 

 Percy, as having occurred after the siege of Landau, in 1793. In addition to 

 a violent cannonading, which kept the women for some time in a constant 

 state of alarm, the arsenal blew up with a terrific explosion, which few could 

 hear with unshaken nerves. Out of 92 children born in that district within 

 a few months afterwards, Baron Percy states that 16 died at the instant of 

 birth ; 33 languished for from 8 to 10 months, and then died ; 8 became idio- 

 tic, and died before the age of 5 years ; and 2 came into the world with 

 numerous fractures of the bones of the limbs, caused by the cannonading and 

 explosion. Here, then, is a total of 59 children out of 92, or within a trifle of 

 2 out of every 3, actually killed through the medium of the Mother's alarm 

 and the natural consequences upon her own organization, an experiment, 

 (for such it is to the physiologist) upon too large a scale for its results to be 

 set down as mere "coincidences." No soundly-judging Physiologist of the 

 present day is likely to fall into the popular error, of supposing that marks 

 upon the Infant are to be referred to some transient though strong impression 

 upon the imagination of the Mother ; but there appear to be a sufficient num- 



* See Principles of General and Comparative Physiology, 665. 

 t On the Management oflnfancy, p. 76. 



