PRENATAL INFLUENCES. 157 



should proceed generation." Oliver Wendell 

 Holmes used to say, "The training of a child 

 should begin 200 years before its birth." Im- 

 practicable as this wise remark may seem, the 

 training of every child does begin much further 

 back than this. 



Mr. Grant Allen remarks: "To prepare our- 

 selves for the duties of maternity and paternity, 

 by making ourselves as vigorous and healthful' arenta 

 as we can be, is a duty that we owe to all our 

 children unborn and to one another." 



Herbert Spencer declares : "The question of 



acquired characters being transmissible is the 



. , r r Prenatal 



most important question before the scientific influences too 



world." Society has too long ignored the power Long Ignored. 

 of prenatal influences. Millions who might have 

 been well born by proper antenatal training com- 

 bine in their natures the worst elements of their 

 parents. Holmes has aptly said : "Society finds 

 that it is easier to hang a troublesome fellow, con- 

 sign a soul to perdition, or save it by saying 

 mass, than to blame itself, or take the proper 

 effort for improvement." 



The importance of prenatal training is gener- 

 ally conceded. The necessity of intelligent pro- 

 cedure, system and order must be apparent to all 

 thoughtful persons. Nature does nothing by 

 chance. Throughout the whole realm of the uni- Blind'cLmc 

 verse all is order, system and law. Surely, an 

 act so important, so vast, so far reaching, as 

 the creation of a new life, should not be left to 

 ignorance, chance or accident. Dr. John Cow- 

 an says: "Why is it that there is so much of 

 plain, mediocre of mankind in the world? Why 



