THE IMAGINATION.
Women are sometimes troubled about certain matters in pregnancy, which, if they had a proper knowledge on the subject, would cause them no mental disquietude whatever. Thus it is believed that the marks which sometimes appear on children, and continue through life, are to be attributed entirely to the workings of the mother’s imagination during this period, and that even the color of the offspring may be determined by this circumstance alone.
The origin of this belief is, indeed, coeval with the history of the race. But antiquity alone is not a sufficient argument for any doctrine, no matter how old or how venerable a theory, if we know it to be disproved by the actual facts. If we were to take the antiquity of a doctrine or belief as the rule, and not have regard to reason and experience there would be no end to error, and no improvement.
In the earliest period of medicine this delusion prevailed; and Hippocrates, honest and learned as he was, yet believed it, and aided in its propagation. Through his influence kings and nobles acted upon the principle, which, in some cases, at least, was made the cloak of wickedness and deception. Thus Hippocrates saved a noblewoman—and honestly, without doubt, though ignorantly—from the severity of the law, when she had given birth to a colored child, herself and husband both being white. He alleged that the darkness of its color was the effect of a picture of an Ethiopian that hung upon the wall in her chamber, and which was often the object of her contemplation. Galen was also of the opinion that a picture was sufficient, if contemplated with interest, to give a corresponding appearance to the fetus in utero; and Soranus declares that the tyrant Dionysius, who was deformed and ill-favored himself, employed the aid of beautiful pictures, with the hope that his wife might have comely issue. Cælius Rhodius also mentions that Fabius Quintillian saved a woman from suspicion, after she had brought forth a negro child, by asserting that the circumstance arose from the fact of her taking great pleasure in viewing the picture of a black man in her apartment. From the prevalence of this belief it was, likewise, that Heliodorus formed the first, and, as is said, one of the most beautiful novels in the world, called the “Loves of Theagenes and Carachlea,” the latter having been born white from black parents, but the queen, her mother, had often viewed, during her pregnancy, the picture of Andromeda, who was painted with a white face; and the sages attributed the white color of the child to the force of the mother’s imagination.
This superstition—for it does not deserve a better name—has probably always been believed in the world, and for a long time will continue to be by many, but not to that extent which it anciently was. We cannot believe, if cases like these, occurring in the time of Hippocrates and Quintillian, were to occur in our own day, and were now to be presented for judicial decision, that any judge or jury could be found so ignorant as to decide that the color of a child can be changed by force of the mother’s imagination alone; but things scarcely less ridiculous and absurd are believed by almost every member of society who has any belief whatever on the subject. Thus it is now a matter of common belief, that the imagination of the mother may impose upon the skin certain resemblances to things upon which the fancy has been much employed, such as fruit, articles of food and drink, animals, insects, etc., or by the destruction of certain parts of the body, such as the head, arms or legs, lips, etc., or by the production of an additional part, as the fingers, toes, head, etc.
In order to settle this question satisfactorily, and beyond the possibility of mistake or doubt, it is well for us to look at the facts of nature as they exist everywhere about us, or, in other words, to the anatomy and physiology of the human body as it really is.
In regard to the anatomical connection between the mother and fetus, it is to be observed that it is altogether indirect, and is carried on only through the medium of the circulation. There is no nervous connection between mother and child; that is, no nervous filament, however small, has ever been detected passing from one to the other. “From this wise and all-important arrangement,” observes Dr. Dewees, “it follows that the fetus is not subject to the various and fluctuating condition of the sanguiferous, or to the never-ending changes of the nervous system of the mother; since no direct communication exists between her blood-vessels or nerves and those of the fetus, to impose upon it any alteration that may take place in her system, or to render the child liable, through the medium of nervous connection, to her affections.” If the indirect connection that exists between the mother and child were better understood, and more justly appreciated, we should, doubtless, hear much less of the influence of the imagination of the mother upon the body of her infant, and thus one of the greatest of the attendant evils of pregnancy would be removed.
It is not to be denied that cases do occur in which there seems to be a hereditary predisposition to the perpetuation of supernumerary parts, marks, etc., in certain families; such as an additional thumb, finger, toe, or double teeth, in place of single; but such cases are not the result of any mental emotion, but are merely the effect of hereditary predisposition, the truth of which is admitted on all hands, and is a very different thing from that which we are now considering.
It has not been attempted, on the part of any, to determine at what precise period during pregnancy the imagination begins or ceases to have an influence upon the body of the child, but, according to the accounts given, every period is liable to the accidents or anomalies in question. The imagination, it is supposed, has the power, not only of causing the creation of a new part, but also of destroying one or more of the members of the body. Now, suppose a leg, an arm, or a toe, to be cast off, must it not be expelled from the womb? And who has ever detected such an occurrence? Besides, too, is it to be supposed that nature would arrest the flow of blood after the part has been separated from the body of the fetus? There can be no doubt as to what is the truth in this matter.
Dr. Dewees mentions the case of a child that was born with but the stump of an arm, which, at the time of birth, was perfectly healed, or, rather, presented no evidence of ever having had a wound upon it at all. The mother declared that she had been frightened at the sixth month of pregnancy by a beggar. But what became of the lopped-off arm? and what arrested the bleeding? The child was born healthy and vigorous, and neither scar, wound, or blood could be discovered. In this case, as in all others of this kind, the “freak of nature” commenced at the first of gestation, the imagination of the mother having nothing to do with it.
The most learned and experienced medical men are all agreed on this subject. Dr. William Hunter, it is said, used to declare in his lectures, that he experimented in a lying-in-hospital upon two thousand cases of labor, to ascertain this point. His method was as follows: As soon as a woman was delivered, he inquired of her whether she had been disappointed in any object of her longing, and what that object was? If her answer were Yes, whether she had been surprised by any circumstance that had given her an unusual shock, and of what that consisted? Whether she had been alarmed by any object of an unsightly kind, and what was that object? Then, after making a note of each of the declarations of the woman, either in the affirmative or negative, he carefully examined the child; and he assured his class that he never, in a single instance of the two thousand, met with a coincidence. He met with blemishes when no cause was acknowledged, and found none when it had been insisted on.
Dr. Hunter, however, confessed that he met with one case in his private practice that puzzled him; and he told his pupils he would merely relate the facts, and leave them to draw their own conclusions. A lady had been married several years without proving pregnant, but at last she had the satisfaction to announce to her husband that she was in that situation. The joy of the husband was excessive, nay, unbounded, and he immediately set about to qualify himself for the all-important duty of educating his long wished-for offspring. He read much, and had studied Martimus Scribelerus with great patience and supposed advantage, and had become a complete convert to the supposed influence of the imagination upon the fetus in utero. He accordingly acted upon this principle. He guarded his wife, as far as in him lay, against any contingency that might affect the child she carried. He therefore gratified all her longings most scrupulously; he never permitted her to exercise but in a close carriage, and carefully removed from her view all unsightly objects.
The term of gestation was at length completed, and the lady was safely delivered, by the skill of Dr. Hunter, of a living and healthy child; it had, however, one imperfection—it was a confirmed mulatto. On this discovery being made, the father was at first inexorable, and was only appeased by his dutiful and sympathizing wife calling to his recollection the huge, ugly negro that stood near the carriage door the last time she took an airing, and at whom she was severely frightened!
Dr. Dewees, whose experience in matters connected with the birth of children was probably as great as that of any other individual, tells us that he commenced practice with the popular belief concerning the effect of the mother’s imagination upon the physical condition of the child. But he had watched these things attentively for many years, and for the want of facts to substantiate the truth of the common belief, he was obliged to abandon it. He came to the conclusion that the imagination of the mother has no influence whatever upon the form or complexion of the fetus.
Fortunately, these absurd notions have long since been rejected by all sensible, observant, and intelligent physicians; and the fact that multitudes of those who are, or are to become mothers, do yet believe them, is the only reason for attempting a refutation of them. If we can but convince mothers of the fallacy of the belief we have been combating, we shall save them a great amount of anxiety and alarm. With many, who are not by any means to be classed among the “weak, ignorant, and superstitious” of females, every sudden or unexpected occurrence that happens to strike them with fear, or produces any strong mental emotion or excitement, is apt to impress them with alarming apprehensions as to the effects it may have on the development and conformation of the child in the womb. These ridiculous illusions, moreover, are often much increased by the strange stories respecting marks and malformations, occasioned, as is asserted, by the imagination of the mother; and these narratives always find their way among the credulous in society; for ignorant nurses, and gossiping idlers among the old women, are everywhere to be found, and all of them are well stocked with extraordinary examples of the pretended influence of which we are speaking. If a child is born with any spot or blemish upon its body, or with any malformation whatever, forthwith the mother is questioned as to the whole circumstances of the matter. If, at any time during pregnancy, any thing has attracted her attention, or strongly impressed the mind, which bears any resemblance or similitude to the mark, spot, blemish, or malformation of the child, it is at once put down as the certain cause of the defect. In this way these absurd apprehensions are often made to take so deep a hold upon the mind of pregnant females, that no expostulation or ridicule of the physician, or other friend, can entirely subdue them; and in some instances these apprehensions become so fixed as to cause a great degree of anxiety and distress of mind, and not unfrequently cause a great amount of physical suffering and ill health.