102 
Philippine Journal of Science 
1920 
Etiology . — Concerning the etiology of monstrosities many 
theories have been advanced, the oldest being that of maternal 
impression, which is still regarded by the laity as the true cause 
of monsters. In the case under discussion the mother in ex- 
plaining the causation of the malformation believes, as she stated 
to Doctor Guidote, that she could only attribute such defects to 
maternal impression ; for she remembered that during the early 
part of her pregnancy she had experienced a peculiar feeling 
of curiosity in observing a deformed doll made of clothes. 
Curiously enough this old-time superstition of maternal im- 
pression, which has been so universally adhered to through the 
centuries, had gained supporters, even among scientists, up to 
the end of the nineteenth century. Fordyce Barker ® was one 
of those who were credited with demonstrating the correctness 
of the theory of maternal impressions. In a paper, read in 
1886 before the American Gynecologists, he established the doc- 
trine that — 
When in the early weeks structural development is proceeding at no 
tardy rate an interference to nutrition in the mother cannot but impress 
the fetus detrimentally, and the organ interfered with would be that one 
in the condition of the most active development, or that which could less 
easily bear arrest, however transient, with impunity. Then too, although 
no nervous connection has been demonstrated to exist between the mother 
and the fetus, yet the latter possesses nerves; and alteration of the nutri- 
ent power of the mother cannot but act on the nerves that are governing, 
though it may be only to a slight extent, the growth of the fetus itself. 
Against this theory several arguments have been raised ; among 
others that, though intense emotions and apprehensions are ex- 
perienced by gestating mothers, yet abnormal births are ex- 
tremely rare. The impressions may come when the anlage or 
anlagen of structures claimed to be affected have already been 
formed. 
Norman Bridge ^ in a paper written a few decades ago, strongly 
refuting the theory of maternal impression, says among other 
things: “To endow the blood with such a weird intelligence as 
this would require, is too great a load for our credulity.” 
Probably this popular belief of cause and effect of marks and 
defects is largely due to accidental coincidence ; although an ex- 
ceptionally profound emotion, because of the complexity of the 
human organism, might in some yet unknown way influence the 
growth and development of the fetus. 
’American Text-Book of Obstetrics (1907) 306. 
’ Op. cit. 307. 
