VII] DISPUTED QUESTIONS 99 



conclusive evidence for it would have been obtained 

 in the numerous breeding experiments recorded in 

 recent years. 



Another idea very widely held, but apparently 

 resting on no better evidence, is the belief in maternal 

 impressions, especially in the case of mankind. By 

 maternal impression is meant the influencing of the 

 child by events affecting the mother during pregnancy. 

 It is commonly believed that if a pregnant woman 

 is injured in any part, or even sees an injury to 

 another person so as to excite her imagination, the 

 corresponding part in the child may be abnormally 

 developed, or may bear some mark, caused, it is 

 supposed, by an impression conveyed from the 

 mother. More general still is the belief that the 

 temperament of the child is influenced by the mother's 

 mental condition during pregnancy. This latter belief 

 is scarcely susceptible of accurate investigation, but 

 the belief in bodily marks or malformations being 

 due to corresponding injury to the mother, or to her 

 attention being strongly attracted to that part, is 

 almost certainly based on coincidence. A large 

 number of children are born with some abnormality, 

 and a very large proportion have some mark on the 

 skin. Many mothers during pregnancy undergo some 

 slight accident or see some deformed person, and thus 

 it must happen that a mark on the child will often 



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