484 PEOr. B. C. A. WINDLB ON TEEATOLOGIOAL EVIDENCE 



tension in all pregnant women. Friglit, anxiety, a sudden impres- 

 sion made upon tlie mind or body, may not only initiate uterine 

 contraction at any period of pregnancy, but there is every reason 

 to believe that a sudden mental shock may at once kill the early 

 embryo or more mature child even if it be retained some time 

 afterwards. Eepeatedly it has occurred to me, as to others in 

 practice, to have patients dating the exact time of their child's 

 death in utero to some alarm of shocking occurrence which has 

 profoundly affected the whole nervous system. The immediate 

 effect described was first violent perturbation and undue active 

 movement of the child for a brief interval, followed by cessation 

 of foetal movement, and absolute quiescence in the future. In a 

 few rare instances the woman has been mistaken in supposing her 

 child to be dead after a shock or fright she has experienced, but in 

 a large number of cases the relation between the cause and the 

 effect has been too clear to be accounted for by mere coincidence, 

 and the child has sooner or later been expelled dead, possibly 

 both dead and putrid. It is no uncommon thing for a woman in 

 early pregnancy, on the receipt of bad news, which much per- 

 turbs her, to be seized with uterine haemorrhage, ending in 

 abortion. Condemned women prior to execution have been 

 known to abort beforehand, and, under the influence of terror 

 and pain, martyred women in former days are said to have 

 aborted at the stake. So potent is mental influence on the 

 stability of pregnancy, that I have had reason to believe the 

 mere dread of miscarriage has in some women been an import- 

 ant factor in bringing it about; and I have known pregnant 

 women who have previously miscarried, get into such violent 

 mental agitation as the time approached at which they had aborted 

 before, that the event they feared was precipitated, and preg- 

 nancy was brought to a premature conclusion." 



It is not difiicult to understand how, by undue oxygenation 

 of the blood leading to foetal asphyxia, or by some chemical 

 alteration in its constitution, at present unrecognized, the death 

 of the embryo might be caused, but it does not appear how its 

 mal- development can be accounted for by similar causes. 



(4) Malformations, and those of a similar nature to those met 

 wdth among human beings, occur amongst lower animals, where 

 the eftect of an " impression " can scarcely be postulated. 



(5) One of a pair of twins may be malformed, whilst the other 

 escapes. 



