406 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 



From the very imperfect organical connection which 

 thus prevails between the mother and the foetus, it must 

 appear surprising, that the latter should ever be influen- 

 ced in its form or markings by the mental emotions of the 

 former. Yet, in spite of the difficulty of accounting for the 

 manner in which the effects are produced, the instances are 

 too numerous and well authenticated to be disregarded, in 

 which the imagination of the mother, in the human species, 

 during pregnancy, has impressed upon the fcetus the marks 

 of its high excitements. There are a few well-authenticated 

 instances of the same kind among the inferior animals *. 



not unfrequently one or more of them are permanently imperfect. When 

 the cow produces twins, their sexual organs are frequently imperfect, and 

 they are incapable of procreation, particularly when the one happens to be a 

 male, and the other a female. Such examples are termed Free Martins 

 See HUNTER'S Account of the Free Martin, Phil. Trans, vol. Ixix. p. 279, 

 or " Observations on certain parts of the Animal Economy," p. 45. 



* In the Extracts from the Minute-book of the Linnean Society of Lon- 

 don, there is given " the following account from Mr GEORGE MILNE, F. L. S. 

 respecting the effect of the imagination of a female cat on the foetus in the 

 womb : One afternoon in the month of May (1806) last, while myself and 

 family were at tea, a young female cat, which, on account of extreme play- 

 fulness, had become a great favourite, was lying on the hearth. She was 

 pregnant for the second time, and had arrived, as nearly as I can recollect, 

 at the middle period of gestation. A servant handing the tea-kettle, or do- 

 ing some office which led her to pass between the fire and the table, trod 

 very heavily on the creature's tail. She screamed most frightfully, and ran 

 out of the room ; and from the nature of the noise which she emitted, it 

 was evident that a considerable degree of terror mingled with the sense of 

 injury. But from a circumstance so extremely common, no extraordinary 

 result was expected, and the poor cat's tail was no more thought of, until 

 the final period of gestation, when we were surprised with the phenomenon 

 which has given occasion to this communication. She dropped fi ve kittens ; 

 one, which exactly resembled herself, was apparently perfect; but the 

 other four had the tail most remarkably distorted. About one-third of the 

 length, reckoning from the base, there was a nodus equal in size to a very 

 large pea, or about twice us thick as the tail itself; the remaining portion 



