HOMICIDE AND SUICIDE. 287 



she almost raved with anger, threatened the hus- 

 band's life, drove him from the house with a 

 butcher knife, and did her best to destroy the 

 unwelcome child, but was unsuccessful. 



Four years later she bore another child under 

 similar conditions. Both of these children were 

 vicious and criminally inclined from birth. The 

 first died at the end of a rope in the hands of a 

 mob on Haymarket Square, Chicago, for mur- 

 der, the other was sentenced to state's prison for 

 life. 



Anyone who doubts the possibility of a moth- 

 er's criminal attempts to destroy the foetus af- 

 - - , , ., . , . Attempted Abor- 



f ectmg the character of the child, needs but to tions Produce 



investigate to be convinced. To be sure, atavism, Criminals, 

 or an unfavorable combination, may produce a 

 morbid tendency in offspring even where there 

 are no bad maternal impressions, but criminal 

 tendencies arising from these sources where both 

 parents are normal, moral and temperate are com- 

 paratively rare. I have had under my personal 

 observation a great number of children born from 



good parents who were melancholy or vicious _ 



" . _ ! r Prenatal History 



from birth. In every instance a true history of O f Vicious 



the period of gestation has revealed a morbid Children. 

 condition of the mother's mind and indicated that 

 the child's vicious tendencies were largely, or 

 wholly, due to bad maternal impressions. A few 

 of these cases, every one of which I know to 

 be substantially as here given, will serve to em- 

 phasize the facts in question and to indicate the 

 potency of morbid impressions. 



Mrs. Young, of A , Ind., was very much dis- 

 turbed during gestation, cried most of the time, 



