418 HSSTOM OF 



should be effected by the mother's imagination. We all know 

 what a strong effect the imagination has on these parts in parti- 

 eular, without being able to assign a cause how this effect is pro- 

 duced; and why the imagination may not produce the same ef- 

 fect in marking the child that it does in forming it, I see no 

 reason. Those persons whose employment it is to rear up 

 pigeons of different colours, can breed them, as their expression 

 is, to a feather. In fact, by properly pairing them, they can 

 give what colour they will to any feather, in any part of the 

 body. Were we to reason upon this fact, what could we say ? 

 Might it not be asserted, that the egg, being distinct from the 

 body of the female cannot be influenced by it ? Might it not 

 be plausibly said, that there is no similitude between any part 

 of the egg and any particular feather which we expect to propa- 

 gate ; and yet for all this the fact is known to be true, and 

 what no speculation can invalidate. In the same manner, a 

 thousand various instances assure us that the child in the womb 

 is sometimes marked by the strong affections of the mother : 

 how this is performed we know not; we only see the effect, 

 without any connection between it and the cause. The best 

 physicians have allowed it ; and have been satisfied to submit 

 to the experience of a number of ages ; but many disbelieve it, 

 because they expect a reason for every effect. This, however, 

 is very hard to be given, while it is very easy to appear v\ise by 

 pretending incredulity. 



Among the number of monsters, dwarfs and giants are 

 usually reckoned ; though not, perhaps, with the sUictest pro- 

 priety, since they are no way different from the rest of mankind, 

 except in stature. It is a dispute, however, about words ; and 

 therefore scarcely worth contending about. But there is a dis- 

 pute, of a more curious nature, on this subject ; namely, whether 

 there are races of people thus very dimiimtive, or vastly large •, 

 or whether they be merely accidental varieties, that now and 

 then are seen in a country, in a few persons, whose bodies some 

 external cause has contributed to lessen or enlarge. 



With regard to men of diminutive stature, all antiquity has 

 been unanimous in asserting their national existence. Homer 

 was the first who has given us an account of the pigmy nation 

 contending with the cranes ; and what poeticd license might bo 

 Bupjiosed to exiiggerate, Athenteus has attempted seriously to 



