252 A HISTORY OF 



inspire ; shuddered at every blow the criminal received, and almost 

 swooned at his cries. Upon returning from this scene of blood, she 

 continued for some days pensive, and her imagination still wrought 

 upon the spectacle she hud lately seen. After some time, however, 

 she seemed perfectly recovered from her fright, and had almost for- 

 gotten her former uneasiness. When the time of her delivery ap- 

 proacned, she seemed no ways mindful of her former terrors, nor were 

 her pains in labour more than usual in such circumstances. But what 

 was the amazement of her friends and assistants when the child came 

 into the world ! It was found that every limb in its body was broken 

 like those of the malefactor, and just in the same place. This poor 

 infant had suffered the pains of life, even before its coming into the 

 world: it did not die, but lived in a hospital in Paris for twenty years 

 after, a wretched instance of the supposed powers of imagination in 

 the mother, of altering and distorting the infant in the womb. The 

 manner in which Malbranche reasons upon this fact, is as follows : 

 the Creator has established such a sympathy between the several parts 

 of nature, that we are led not only to imitate each other, but also to 

 partake in the same affections and desires. The animal spirits are 

 thus carried to the respective parts of the body, to perform the same 

 actions which we see others perform, to receive in some measure their 

 wounds, and take part in their sufferings. Experience tells us, that 

 if we look attentively on any person, severely beaten, or sorely 

 wounded, the spirits immediately flow into those parts of the body, 

 which correspond to those we see in pain. The more delicate the 

 constitution, the more it is thus affected ; the spirits making a stronger 

 impression on the fibres of a weakly habit than of a robust one. Strong 

 vigorous men see an execution without much concern, while women 

 of nicer texture are struck with horror and concern. This sensibility 

 in them must, of consequence, be communicated to all parts of their 

 body ; and, as the fibres of the child in the womb are incomparably 

 finer than those of the mother, the course of the animal spirits must 

 consequently produce greater alterations. Hence, every stroke given 

 to the criminal, forcibly struck the imagination of the woman ; and, 

 by a kind of counter-stroke, the delicate tender frame of the child. 



Such is the reasoning of an ingenious man upon a fact, the veracity 

 of which many since have called in question.* They have allowed, 

 indeed, that such a child might have been produced, but have denied 

 the cause of its deformity. " How could the imagination of the mo- 

 ther," say they, " produce such dreadful effects upon her child ? She 

 has no communication with the infant; she scarcely touches it in any 

 part ; quite unaffected with her concerns, it sleeps in security, in a 

 mariner secluded by a fluid in which it swims, from her that bears it 

 With what a variety of deformities," say they, " would all mankind 

 be marked, if all the vain and capricious desires of the mother were 

 thus readily written upon the body of" the child?" Yet, notwith- 

 standing this plausible way of reasoning, I cannot avoid giving some 

 credit to the variety of instances I have either read or seen upru this 

 subject If it be a prejudice, it is as old as the days of Aristotle, >d 



* Buffon. vol. iv. j>. 



