MECHANISM OF FECUNDATION. 



895 



This history was accompanied by an excellent photograph of the mother and the two- 

 children, a copy of which is given in Fig. 286. One of the children has the color and all 

 characteristics of the negro, and the other looks like a white child. " The mother and 

 children were inmates of Howard Grove Hospital near this city (Richmond), where the 

 picture was taken, and I saw them frequently. Both children are now dead. The black 

 one died first, teething, the other was killed by a tobacco-plaster applied to its abdomen T 

 it is supposed by its mother. 



FIG. 280). Mulatto mother with twins, one white and tlie other black. From a photograph. 



u The only negro feature in the white child was its nose. There, its resemblance to 

 its mother was perfect. Its hair was long, light, and silky. Complexion brilliant.'" 



We have already referred to the curious fact that, when a cow gives birth to twins, 

 one male and the other female, the female, which is called the free-martin, is sterile and 

 presents an imperfect development of the internal organs of generation. This has led to 

 the idea that possibly the same law may apply to the human subject, in cases of twins, 

 one male and the other female ; but numerous observations are recorded in gynaecologi- 

 cal works, showing the incorrectness of this view, to which we may add the following : 

 The author of the report on Rinderpest to the New York State Agricultural Society, 

 1867, stated that his father was one of twins, male and female, and that his father's twin 

 sister had borne several children. 



It has long been a question whether impressions made upon the nervous system of the 

 mother can exert an influence upon the foetus in utero. While many authors admit that 

 violent emotions experienced by the mother may affect the nutrition and the general 

 development of the foetus, some writers of high authority deny that the imagination can 

 have any influence in producing deformities. It must be admitted that many of the 



