Essays upon heredity and kindred biological problems / by August Weismann ; authorized translation edited by Edward B. Poulton, Selmar Schönland and Arthur E. Shipley.

  • August Weismann
Date:
1889
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essays upon heredity and kindred biological problems / by August Weismann ; authorized translation edited by Edward B. Poulton, Selmar Schönland and Arthur E. Shipley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    during pregnancy, a belief which was universally maintained up to the middle of the present century. Many of those ' proofs' were simply old wives' fables, and were based upon all kinds of subsequent inventions and alterations. But it cannot be denied that there are a few undoubtedly genuine observations upon cases in which some character in the child reminds us in a striking manner of a deep psychical impression by which the mother was strongly affected during pregnancy. Thus a trustworthy person told me of the following ease. A well- known medical authority cut his leg above the ankle with a knife: his wife was present at the time and was much frightened. She was then in the third month of pregnancy: the child when born was found to have an unusual mark upon the same place above the ankle. People almost forget nowadays the tenacity with which the idea of maternal impressions was kept up until the middle of this century; but it is only necessary to read the received German text- book on physiology of fifty years ago, viz. that of Burdach, in order to be convinced of the accm'acy of this statement. Not only does Burdach give a number of ' conclusive' cases in man and even in animals (cows and deer), but he also attempts to construct a theoretical explanation of the supposed process. This is undertaken in the fol- lowing manner,—' Imagination influences the function of organs ;' but the function of the embryo is the' tendency towards development, and hence the influence [of maternal imagination] can make itself felt only as variations in the mode of development.' Thus by ex- changing the conception of function for that of the development of organs, Burdach comes to the conclusion that' homologous organs of the mother and the embryo are in such connexion' that when the former are disturbed a corresponding ' change in the formation of the latter may arise.' It seems to be not without value for the appreciation of the questions with which we are dealing to remember that the idea of' maternal impressions' was only comparatively recently believed to be a scientific theory, and that the proofs in support of it were brought forward in form and language as scientific proofs. In Burdach's book we even meet with detailed ' proofs' that violent mental shocks produced by maternal impressions may not only exercise their influence upon one but even upon several children born successively, although with diminishing strength. ' A young