330 



FCETUS. 



foetal motion is a matter of common observa- 

 tion, for, while some women suffer much and 

 almost constant annoyance from the excessive 

 restlessness of the child, others are hardly con- 

 scious of its movements.* That this is not 

 altogether dependent on a real difference in the 

 quality of the foetal motions, but in a great 

 degree the result of the greater or less nervous 

 irritability of the mother's system, must be ac- 

 knowledged; but, on the other hand, I think 

 we can hardly doubt that some of those pa- 

 roxysms of excessive turbulence are true con- 

 vulsions, and that the child sometimes thus 

 dies before birth, either under their influence 

 or by so entangling the cord as to compress 

 it, and put an end to the circulation through 

 it. The writer feels persuaded that he has met 

 with such cases, and he has read of others in 

 which, after a violent convulsive motion of this 

 kind, which had nearly caused the mother to 

 faint, all motion of the child has ceased to be 

 felt, and, after the lapse of a few days, delivery 

 has taken place, and the dead-born child has 

 exhibited appearances perfectly corresponding 

 with the belief of its having died at the time of 

 the convulsive struggle. In October 1834 the 

 writer attended a very nervous lady with her 

 second child, which, after about two hours of 

 easy labour, was born completely dead, al- 

 though full-sized and well thriven ; the cord 

 was twisted round the neck and also round one 

 of the arms. She told me that three days 

 before she was suddenly startled by the exces- 

 sive motion of the child "as if it was struggling 

 in convulsions;" this continued for a minute 

 or two, and was so violent and distressing as 

 to force her to exclaim, and nearly to produce 

 fainting ; from that moment she never felt the 

 child move.f 



Effects of mental impressions on the mother. 

 In the enumeration of the different causes 

 or sources of abnormal alterations in the foetus 

 we should not omit to include powerful im- 

 pressions made on the mind or nervous system 

 of the mother ; for although the writer would 

 be very far from wishing to advocate or coun- 

 tenance either the indiscriminate doctrine of 

 effects produced by the mother's imagination, 

 or the ridiculously absurd fabrications by which 

 it has been attempted to maintain it, he cannot 

 help thinking it quite consistent with reason 

 and the present state of our knowledge, to be- 

 lieve that such impressions may injuriously 

 affect the foetus, and it will at least be always 

 safe and prudent to act on such a presump- 

 tion; for " although," to use the words of 

 Morgagni,f " I do not approve these things, 



* See some observations on this subject in the 

 writer's Exposition of the Signs of Pregnancy, 

 chapter v. p. 87. 



t See Desormeaux, Diet, de Med. torn. xv. 

 p. 398. Duges, Diet, de Med. et de Chir. Pra- 

 tique, torn. viii. p. 295. A slight spasmodic sen- 

 sation communicated from the child to the mo- 

 ther, and sometimes repeated several times at 

 pretty regular intervals, like the efforts of hiccup, 

 has been by some attributed to the existence of 

 that affection in the child ; but with what degree 

 of reason the writer is not prepared to venture an 

 opinion. 



| Epist. xlviii. art. 54. 



(that is, the absurd stories,) there are cases 

 wherein it seems to me to be very hard to 

 depart totally and altogether from that opinion 

 which is common to the greatest men."* In a 

 case related by this celebrated writer, a mental 

 impression was quickly followed by the death of 

 the child ;f and if such an influence can thus 

 destroy its life, it is surely not unreasonable to 

 admit that it may have the power of modifying 

 organization.} An instance of this kind oc- 

 curred under my own observation about three 

 years ago, so remarkable that I trust I shall be 

 excused if I think it presents something more 

 than a mere though striking coincidence. 



A lady, pregnant for the first time, to whom 

 I recommended frequent exercise in the open 

 air, declined going out as often as was thought 

 necessary, assigning as her reason, that she was 

 afraid of seeing a man whose appearance had 

 greatly shocked and disgusted her ; he used to 

 crawl along the flag-way on his hands and 

 knees, with his feet turned up behind him, 

 which latter were malformed and imperfect, 

 appearing as if they had been cut off at the 

 instep, and he exhibited them thus and unco- 

 vered in order to excite commiseration. I af- 

 terwards attended this lady in her lying-in, and 

 her child, which was born a month before its 

 time, and lived but a few minutes, although in 

 every other respect perfect, had the feet mal- 

 formed and defective precisely in the same way 

 as those of the cripple who had alarmed her, 

 and whom I had often seen. Now here was an 

 obvious and recognized object making a pow- 

 erful impression of a disagreeable kind, com- 

 plained of at the time, and followed by an 

 effect in perfect correspondence with the pre- 

 vious cause, there being between the two a 

 similarity so perfect that, with the distinguished 

 author above referred to, I " will not easily 

 suppose that chance could have been so inge- 

 nious, if I may be allowed to speak thus, and 

 so exact an imitator ;" and though I must ac- 

 knowledge in the words of Van Swieten " that 

 I do not understand the connexion of the cause 

 acting upon the mother with the effect observed 

 in the foetus," || I also agree with him, that it 

 must not therefore be denied that such a thing 

 has really happened. For some other observa- 

 tions on this subject the writer begs to refer to 

 a workf of his recently published. 



Effects of inflammation, SfC. The foetus in 

 utero, even at early periods of its developement, 

 is liable to a large number of organic altera- 

 tions, and even to lose its life, in consequence 

 of inflammation attacking the uterus of the 

 mother, the foetal appendages, or its own sys- 

 tem. From such causes arise a variety of pa- 



* He refers to Boerhaave, Praelect. ad Instit. 

 694, and to Van Swieten. 



t Epist. xlviii. art. 18. 



t A celebrated writer of the present day, Es- 

 quirol, is led from observation and experience to 

 refer one of the species of congenital predisposi- 

 tion to insanity, to the impression of terror on the 

 mind of the mother while pregnant. 



Epist. xlviii. art. 54. Vide epist. Ixvii. art. 16. 



|| Commentaries, sect. 1075. 



^[ An Exposition of the Signs and Symptoms of 

 Pregnancy, chap. i. pp. 14 et seq. 



