ANIMALS. 101 



and take part in their sufferings. Experience tells 

 us, that if we look attentively on any person se- 

 verely beaten, or sorely wounded, the spirits im- 

 mediately 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 affect- 

 ed ; 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 altera- 

 tions. Hence, every stroke given to the criminal 

 forcibly struck the imagination of the woman; 

 and by a kind of counter stroke, the delicate ten- 

 der 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 mother, 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 man- 

 ner secluded, by a fluid in which it swims, from 



* Buffon, vol.iv. p.9. 



