406 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 
From the very imperfect organical connection which 
thus prevails between the mother and the foetus, it must 
appear surprising, that the latter should ever be influen- 
ced in its form or markings by the mental emotions of the 
former. Yet, in spite of the difficulty of accounting for the 
manner in which the effects are produced, the instances are 
too numerous and well authenticated to be disregarded, in 
which the imagination of the mother, in the human species, 
during pregnancy, has impressed upon the foetus the marks 
of its high excitements. There are a few well-authenticated 
instances of the same kind among the inferior animals *. 

not unfrequently one or more of them are permanently imperfect. When 
the cow produces twins, their sexual organs are frequently imperfect, and 
they are incapable of procreation, particularly when the one happens to be a 
male, and the other a female. Such examples are termed Free Martins.— 
See Hunter’s Account of the Free Martin, Phil. Trans. vol. lxix. p. 279, 
or *¢ Observations on certain parts of the Animal Economy,” p. 45. 
* In the Extracts from the Minute-book of the Linnean Society of Lon- 
don, there is given “ the following account from Mr Grorce Mitye, F.L. S. 
respecting the effect of the imagination of a female cat on the foetus in the 
womb: One afternoon in the month of May (1806) last, while myself and 
family were at tea, a young female cat, which, on account of extreme play- 
fulness, had become a great favourite, was lying on the hearth. She was 
pregnant for the second time, and had arrived, as nearly as I can recollect, 
at the middle period of gestation. A servant handing the tea-kettle, or do- 
ing some office which led her to pass between the fire and the table, trod 
very heavily on the creature’s tail. She screamed most frightfully, and ran 
out of the room; and from the nature of the noise which she emitted, it 
was evident that a considerable degree of terror mingled with the sense of 
injury. But from a circumstance so extremely common, no extraordinary 
result was expected, and the poor cat’s tail was no more thought of, until 
the final period of gestation, when we were surprised with the phenomenon 
which has given occasion to this communication. She dropped five kittens ; 
one, which exactly resembled herself, was apparently perfect; but the — 
other four had the tail most remarkably distorted. About one-third of the 
length, reckoning from the base, there was a nodus equal in size to a very 
large pea, or about twice as thick as the tail itself; the remaining portion 
