rOL, LXV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS- 657 



aftbrds also an exception to a frequent remark among authors, " That brainless 

 children are always very brisk before they are born;"* for the mother has fre- 

 quently said, " That she felt no motion at all within her after the first birth ; 

 and that she had not the least suspicion of there being a 2d child till it was de- 

 livered." This circumstance may however perhaps be attributed to the medulla 

 spinalis being totally deficient, as well as the cerebrum and cerebellum. 



Physiologists and philosophers have spent a great deal of time in attempting 

 to investigate the causes of these extraordinary phenomena. With this view 

 many opinions have been started ; but most, if not all of them, as far as Dr. C. 

 was able to judge, being built on the tottering basis of conjecture only, afford, 

 on an attentive inspection, but little satisfaction to a dispassionate inquirer after 

 truth. The particular hypothesis, which has been almost universally adopted, 

 is, that monstrosity and marks in children depend on the imagination and longing 

 of the mother. Such a pernicious principle as this ought to have very rational 

 evidence, and the most striking facts to support it. But is it not directly the 

 contrary ? Indeed a great many ridiculous stories have been related to the 

 world,-|- which however on a little reflection either obviate themselves, or else 

 are contradicted by those facts that occur. May we not exemplify this observa- 

 tion by the case of twins now related ? One of the children was perfect, and is 

 still living ; the other proves to be remarkably defective. Does not the question 

 naturally arise here, how could one child be affected by the disturbed imagina- 

 tion of the mother, and the other not ? But the mother, on repeated examina- 

 tion, recollects no fright in particular while she was pregnant. Neither, if she 

 did, would it at all invalidate the force of our argument on this subject ; for she 

 could not possibly see any child without a head : and more especially, because 

 other parts, as the viscera and medulla spinalis, were equally defective, which 

 are entirely out of the reach of the eye or imagination of the mother to form 

 any idea about them. To elucidate this point still further, can any candid 

 person possibly suppose, that the casual agitation of mind of a pregnant woman, 

 should either produce or destroy a whole system of blood vessels, nerves, and 

 fibres, which are indispensable constituents of almost every part of the body ? 

 And may we not adduce one proof more, in support of our argument, from 

 what happens to animals and vegetjibles ? Among these also, such extraordinary 

 deviations from the general course of nature are by no means uncommon : yet 

 the former are possessed of a much less share of imagination than is generally 

 allotted to the human species ; and the latter have none at all. Reasoning in 



• Phil. Trans. iGji, No. 99, p. 6l57. Ibid. 1767, p. 18.— Orig. 



+ Mauriceau, p. 53, obs. 64. Ibid. p. 63, obs. 118. Smellie's Midwifrj, vol. 3, p. 402. 

 Phil. Trans., 1 684. N'' l60, p. 5.99. Ibid. 1739-40, N' 456, p. 303 and 306.— Orig. 

 VOL. XIII. 4 P 



