80 HEREDITY 



child's birth — would be, did they occur, in no proper 

 sense instances of the transmission of acquirements. 

 No more would it be a transmission of an acquire- 

 ment for a mother to pierce her child's ear, her own 

 having already been pierced. 



Since we have quoted the belief in the influence 

 of maternal impressions, we may briefly dispose of it 

 here. The alleged instances are easily explained in 

 any of half-a-dozen different ways. Given a de- 

 formity in her child, no self-respecting mother can 

 fail to recall some accident of her pregnancy that 

 immediately explains it. There is no reason to sup- 

 pose that the few cases which read most strikingly 

 are not explicable in accordance with the laws of 

 chance. No obstetrician believes in the power of 

 maternal impressions, and his knowledge of the 

 relations of the embryo to its mother renders the 

 exercise of such power utterly inconceivable to him. 

 Finally, it is to be noted how ridiculous is the idea 

 that such transmission of maternal impressions would 

 have any bearing on the question of this chapter, 

 even were it demonstrated to exist. In the asserted 

 cases, the mother's acquirement is not a physical 

 deformity, but an impression of one ; the child, 

 however, does not inherit that impression, but a 

 deformity similar to that which impressed the 

 mother. Really the whole theory is too silly for 

 serious criticism ; but it is of interest as throwing 

 light upon the psychological processes of the in- 

 numerable mothers who believe in it. 



Here, most conveniently, we may also deal with 

 another fashion in which it is asserted that ac- 

 quirements may be transmitted. The influence of 



