Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On harelip and cleft palate. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.
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![other] whilst in others the tendency distinctly increases, and a father or a mother with harelip will beget a family where three out of the four or five children will be similarly affected. By a proper selection of mates this deformity could probably be bred out, as well as bred up to. The so-called Maternal Impression is looked on, especially by the laity, as another common cause of these deformities. Medical men will usually receive histories of such with a smile of incredulity, and rightly so ; but some recorded cases, if true, are so definite that to condemn such an explanation too dog- matically seems scarcely to indicate a scientific spirit. The usual type of history given is that after the mother has seen the defect in the newly-born infant, she looks back over the preceding nine months to see if there were any apparent cause for the trouble, and seeking out particularly some shock or fright produced by seeing something resembling the defect in her infant often selects something trivial and irrelevant. The following authentic case is worthy of mention -J A child was born deformed by a left unilateral harelip. The mother immediately asked to see the infant, declaring she was afraid it was marked, and on seeing it manifested no surprise at the appearance of its lip, stating that when about four months pregnant she received a fright, from the shock of which she had not yet fully recovered. Startled by a boy running almost into her arms, from whose face blood was streaming, she had seen a cut in the left side of the upper lip, extending through its substance into the nostril, laying bare the gums and teeth. She turned faint with fright, and could not banish the thought even after reaching home. The lad was subsequently examined, and the scar of a cut was found in that position. In spite of such facts, however, one hesitates somewhat in accepting the antecedent alarm and the subsequent deformity ' 1 Mauley,' New York Med. Journ.,' Juue 15th, 1889.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21208980_0042.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
