But if, on the other hand, the preternatural craving is indulged, and the mind is left to prey upon itself, as it will without any suitable employment, the sensation will grow more and more persistent, and the fancy will be continually excited to produce new whims for its gratification, which, if answered, must necessarily be attended with detriment to both mother and child.
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.