With regard to the theories which have been advanced to account for such accidents as that which we have been considering, some, regard ing them as the effects of mental emotions in the mother, or of accidents encountered by her, have attempted to support their views by details which Haller truly designates as " adeo fabulosa ut fidcm auferant ;" those who attri buted this phenomenon to gangrene did so from theory, and have received no support for their opinions even from the facts which they have themselves recorded; for it is expressly mentioned that the parts which were the seat of the injury seemed otherwise healthy, were not discoloured, and at the point of division were either partially or entirely healed over. The explanation which facts fortunately enabled me to offer does not depend on conjectural reasoning or theoretical speculation for its support, but its proof may be" oculis subjects fidelibus" by the mere inspection of the parts, which are preserved in my museum ; and with regard to the nature of the process by which the solution of continuity is effected, and the foot, or other part amputated, it appeats to be strictly that of disjunctive atrophy, and in a great degree similar to that by which the sepa ration of the funis from the umbilicus is accom plished.
Convulsive affCctions.—Having alluded to convulsive movements of the child in another place as the occasional cause of certain phy sical injuries to it, such as fractures and dislo cations, a few words on the subject will hardly be misplaced here, although the affection itself may perhaps not come exactly within the scope of this article. The variety in the activity of fatal motion is a matter of common observa tion, for, while some women suffer much and almost constant annoyance from the excessive restlessness of the child, others are hardly con scious of its movements.* That this is not altogether dependent on a real difference in the quality of the fatal motions, but in a great degree the result of the greater or less nervous irritability of the mother's system, must be ac knowledged; but, on the other hand, I think we can hardly doubt that some of those pa roxysms of excessive turbulence are true con vulsions, and that the child sometimes thus dies before birth, either under their influence or by so entangling the cord as to compress it, and put an end to the circulation through it. The writer feels persuaded that he has met with such cases, and he has read of others in which, after a violent convulsive motion of this kind, which had nearly caused the mother to faint, all motion of the child has ceased to be felt, and, after the lapse of a few days, delivery has taken place, and the dead-born child has exhibited appearances perfectly corresponding with the belief of its having died at the time of the convulsive struggle. In October 1834 the writer attended a very nervous lady with her second child, which, after about two hours of easy labour, was born completely dead, al though full-sized and well thriven ; the cord was twisted round the neck and also round one of the arms. She told me that three days before she was suddenly startled by the exces sive motion of the child "as if it was struggling in convulsions;" this continued for a minute or two, and was so violent and distressing as to force her to exclaim, and nearly to produce fainting; from that moment she never felt the child move.-1
Effects of mental impressions on the mother. —In the enumeration of the different causes or sources of abnormal alterations in the foetus we should not omit to include powerful im pressions made on the mind or nervous system of the mother; for although the writer would be very far from wishing to advocate or coun tenance either the indiscriminate doctrine of effects produced by the mother's imagination, or the ridiculously absurd fabrications by which it has been attempted to maintain it, he cannot help thinking it quite consistent with reason and the present state of our knowledge, to be lieve that such impressions may injuriously affect the foetus, and it will at least be always safe and prudent to act on such a presump tion; for " although," to use the words of Morgagni,t " I do not approve these things, (that is, the absurd stories,) there are cases wherein it seems to me to be very hard to depart totally and altogether from that opinion which is common to the greatest men." In a case related by this celebrated writer, a mental impression was quickly followed by the death of the childj and if such an influence can thus destroy its life, it is surely not unreasonable to admit that it may have the power of modifying organization., An instance of this kind oc curred under my own observation about three years ago, so remarkable that I trust I shall be excused if I think it presents something more than a mere though striking coincidence.
A lady, pregnant for the first time, to whom I recommended frequent exercise in the open air, declined going out as often as was thought necessary, assigning as her reason, that she was afraid of seeing a man whose appearance had greatly shocked and disgusted her; lie used to crawl along the flag-way on his hands and knees, with his feet turned up behind him, which latter were malformed and imperfect, appearing as if they had been cut off at the instep, and lie exhibited them thus and unco vered in order to excite commiseration. I af terwards attended this lady in her lying-in, and her child, which was born a month before its time, and lived but a few minutes, although in every other respect perfect, had the feet mal formed and defective precisely in the same way as those of the cripple who had alarmed her, and whom I had often seen. Now here was an obvious and recognized object making a pow erful impression of a disagreeable kind, com plained of at the time, and followed by an effect in perfect correspondence with the pre vious cause, there being between the two a similarity so perfect that, with the distinguished author above referred to, I " will not easily suppose that chance could have been so inge nious, if I may be allowed to speak thus, and so exact an imitator;"§ and though I must ac knowledge in the words of Van Swieten " that I do not understand the connexion of the cause acting upon the mother with the effect observed in the foetus," I also agree with him, that it must not therefore be denied that such a thing has really happened. For some other observa tions on this subject the writer begs to refer to a workIr of his recently published.