On the fœtus in utero as inoculating the maternal with the peculariarities of the paternal organism, and on mental stakes in either parent as influencing the nutrition and development of the offspring / by Alexander Harvey.

  • Harvey, Alexander, 1811-1889.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the fœtus in utero as inoculating the maternal with the peculariarities of the paternal organism, and on mental stakes in either parent as influencing the nutrition and development of the offspring / by Alexander Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    coitus, may variously influence the nutrition and development of the foetus, has long been matter of popular belief; and, setting a goodly number of recorded instances to the account of old wives9 fables, this belief may be allowed to have a stable foundation in facts.1 It is not my intention, however, to enter on the general subject farther than as it bears on Mr M‘Gillivray’s theory, refer¬ ring merely to such facts as serve to show, that mental causes may so influence the growth of the foetus as to produce results analogous to those ascribed to inoculation by a former foetus, and therefore to exhibit a source of fallacy in the reference of these to such inocula¬ tion as their cause. (1.) Of the cases of this kind now to be noticed, some involve changes both in the configuration and the colour of the progeny,— others, so far as appears, changes in the colour only or chiefly. In Daniel’s u Rural Sports 99 the following details are given respecting the setter-bitch and cur-dog formerly referred to :— “ As the late Dr Hugh Smith was travelling from Midliurst into Hampshire, the dogs, as usual in country places, ran out barking as he was passing through the village, and amongst them he observed a little ugly cur, that was particu¬ larly eager to ingratiate himself with a setter-bitch that accompanied him. Whilst stopping to water his horse, the doctor remarked how amorous the cur was, and how courteous the setter seemed to her admirer. Provoked to see a creature of Dido's high blood so obsequious to such mean addresses, the doctor drew one of his pistols, and shot the cur. He then had the bitch carried on horseback for several miles. From that day the setter lost her appetite, ate little or nothing, had no inclination to go abroad with her master, or to attend his call ; but seemed to pine like a creature in love, and express sensible con¬ cern at the loss of her gallant. Partridge season came, but Dido had no nose. Sometime after, she was coupled with a setter of great excellence, which, with no small difficulty, had been procured to have a breed from, and all the cau¬ tion that even the doctor himself could take was strongly exerted, that the whelps might be pure and unmixed. Yet not a puppy did Dido bring forth but was the exact picture and colour of the cur that had so many months before been destroyed. The doctor fumed, and, had he not personally paid such attention to preserve the intercourse uncontaminated, would have sus¬ pected that some negligence had occasioned his disappointment; but his views were in many subsequent litters also defeated, for Dido never produced a whelp which was not exactly similar to the unfortunate cur, who was her first and murdered lover.”2 In Mr Blaine’s u Encyclopedia of Rural Sports 99 this other case is given :— “ The late Lord Rivers [says Mr Blaine] was famed for a breed of black-and- white spaniels, one of which, having more than the usual quantity of white, he presented to us. We had, at the same time, a pug-bitch of great beauty. The attachment of this bitch to the spaniel was singularly strong. When it 1 Any one curious in cases of this kind may advantageously consult Dr Allen Thomson’s article on “ Generation,” in the Cyc. of Anat. and Physiology; and also an article in the Ed. Med. and Surg. Journal, vol. xxv., p. 134. 2 Daniel’s Rural Sports, vol. iii., pp. 333, 334.—A case very similar to the above, occurring in a bitch belonging to him, has been mentioned to me by Mr Walker, Portlethen, in Kincardineshire.