Self Knowledge and Guide to Sex Instruction: Vital Facts of Life for All Ages

by Thomas W. Shannon

Drs. Fowler and Cowan.—Fowler says, “All existing parental states are stamped on the offspring.” Dr. John Cowan says, “The fundamental principles of genius in reproduction are that through the rightly directed wills of the father and mother, preceding and during antenatal life, the child’s form of body, character of mind and purity of soul are formed and established. In its plastic state during antenatal life, like clay in the hands of the potter, it can be molded absolutely into any form of body and soul the parents may knowingly desire.”

An example.—The origin of the Setter, Pointer, Hound or Shepherd dog will illustrate the transmission of acquired characteristics. The peculiar characteristics of all these dogs were once acquired. For example, some hunter observed that his dog would “set” or “point” when game was located by the sense of smell. This hunter encouraged his dog in the practice of this characteristic. He knew that some of the offspring of this dog would tend to do the same thing. By breeding with a view of developing a variety of dogs with this characteristic we have the Pointer dog.

The father should co-operate.—While the father’s direct hereditary influence over his child ceases at conception, his responsibility for what the child receives up to its birth is fully equal to the mother’s responsibility. He can help or hinder the mother in her work of prenatal culture. Where the husband fails to supply his wife with all that is necessary to her health, strength, mental and moral activity, and happiness, he becomes largely responsible for the bad effects on the child.

The order of training.—The prenatal culture received by a child grows out of the physical, mental and moral states and activities of the mother during gestation. The physical organism of the child forms first. The brain, in which the mental and moral natures are to reside, develops last. This would indicate the periods when greatest stress should be placed upon the physical, mental and moral training of the child. The physical outlines of the body first become organized during the first four or five months, then the brains and nervous system.

The mother’s preparation.—The physical condition of the child at birth, well formed or deformed, healthy or unhealthy, strong or weak, will in no small way be determined by the mother’s being provided with plenty of nutritious food, pure air and water, pleasant exercise, and such clothing as will give the body perfect freedom and comfort. The mental and moral tendencies and capacities of the child will depend much on the mother’s continuing the advice given in the chapter on Parental Preparation.

Inventive genius.—During a lecture course in a western city, a young machinist called me into his shop and showed me three inventions he had patented and a most intricate piece of machinery that he was then working on. He was only twenty-two years old. He and his parents had often wondered why he was the only member of the family, on either side, as far back as they could trace, with an inventive turn of mind. Under my lectures the parents had solved the mystery. Ten or twelve months prior to the birth of this young man, the father had worked on a prospect or invention for several weeks with all the enthusiasm of anticipated success. He laid the matter aside and the very fact of his once being interested in an invention had seemed to fade from his memory. The father’s intense mental interest during those weeks so influenced his life-giving blood that he was able to transmit the hereditary gift of inventive genius to his son.

Two girls.—I am intimately and personally acquainted with a family where there are two girls. Prior to the birth of the first the mother kept house, did light work, read the best literature and was systematic in her devotion. In case of the second girl, the professional life of the father had changed and this made it necessary for the mother to be guest and hostess of many social functions. The parents had made a study of the laws of heredity and in both cases tried to apply these laws. The children are now thirteen and fifteen. They are obedient, intelligent, and religious, but the different environments of the mother are fully registered in the children. The first has strong business tendencies, is an all-round student, but limited in her social gifts; the second one takes to art, elocution, music, has a fine memory which enables her to advance well in all her studies, and she can entertain anything from a baby to an old man or woman.

Golden hair.—In a Missouri town a mother invited me into her husband’s store and gave me her experience. From her early teens she had entertained a wish that should she ever become a mother, her child might have golden hair. When she discovered that she was to be a mother she asked her husband to get her two pictures—one to be the picture of a perfect boy, the other, the picture of a perfect girl, each to have golden hair. While in St. Louis purchasing a stock of goods, he secured the pictures desired. She placed them in her room where she could frequently see and admire them. She called my attention to the dark hair of her husband and self, then, proudly, to the golden hair of a five-year-old son.

Testimony of a doctor.—At D——, Mo., an old physician told me of a family in his practice where the wife had been married twice. She and her second husband have black hair. The first child born to the second marriage had red hair. The doctor had a way of accounting for the red hair of the child to me that was not satisfactory. I said, “Doctor, which of the two husbands was the superior?” “Oh,” he said, “there was no comparison, the contrast was so great. The first husband was in every sense a very superior man and the second one was very inferior.” Then I replied, “Prior to the birth of the red-haired child the mental pictures of the two men were constantly in the stream of mental consciousness. The mental picture most conspicuous and most admirable was the first husband.”

The effects of a mother’s dishonesty.—I have studied a number of kleptomaniacs. In almost all cases, where facts could be obtained, dishonesty was found in one or both of the parents. I studied a case in a Kentucky town. The mother would sit up until her husband had retired. Then she would slip a small amount of change from his pockets. This was continued during gestation. When the girl, born under these conditions, was eighteen years old, she could not keep from stealing money, jewelry, and other things she desired. She was never arrested. The parents would pay for or return what she had stolen.