The Relationship of Maternal and Sexual Emotion--Conception and Loss of
Virginity--The Anciently Accepted Signs of This Condition--The Pervading
Effects of Pregnancy on the Organism--Pigmentation--The Blood and
Circulation--The Thyroid--Changes in the Nervous System--The Vomiting of
Pregnancy--The Longings of Pregnant Women--Maternal Impressions--Evidence
for and Against Their Validity--The Question Still Open--Imperfection of
Our Knowledge--The Significance of Pregnancy.
In analyzing the sexual impulse I have so far deliberately kept out of
view the maternal instinct. This is necessary, for the maternal instinct
is specific and distinct; it is directed to an aim which, however
intimately associated it may be with that of the sexual impulse proper,
can by no means be confounded with it. Yet the emotion of love, as it has
finally developed in the world, is not purely of sexual origin; it is
partly sexual, but it is also partly parental.[169]
In so far as it is parental it is certainly mainly maternal. There is a
drawing by Bronzino in the Louvre of a woman's head gazing tenderly down
at some invisible object; is it her child or her lover? Doubtless her
child, yet the expression is equally adequate to the emotion evoked by a
lover. If we were here specifically dealing with the emotion of love as a
complex whole, and not with the psychology of the sexual impulse, it would
certainly be necessary to discuss the maternal instinct and its associated
emotions. In any case it seems desirable to touch on the psychic state of
pregnancy, for we are here concerned not only with emotions very closely
connected with the sexual emotions in the narrower sense, but we here at
last approach that state which it is the object of the whole sexual
process to achieve.
In civilized life a period of weeks, months, even years, may elapse
between the establishment of sexual relations and the occurrence of
conception. Under primitive conditions the loss of the virginal condition
practically involves the pregnant condition, so that under primitive
conditions very little allowance is made for the state, so common among
civilized peoples, of the woman who is no longer a virgin, yet not about
to become a mother.
There is some interest in noting the signs of loss of virginity
chiefly relied upon by ancient authors. In doing this it is
convenient to follow mainly the full summary of authorities given
by Schurig in his _Barthenologia_ early in the eighteenth
century. The ancient custom, known in classic times, of measuring
the neck the day after marriage was frequently practiced to
ascertain if a girl was or was not a virgin. There were various
ways of doing this. One was to measure with a thread the
circumference of the bride's neck before she went to bed on the
bridal night. If in the morning the same thread would not go
around her neck it was a sure sign that she had lost her
virginity during the night; if not, she was still a virgin or had
been deflowered at an earlier period. Catullus alluded to this
custom, which still exists, or existed until lately, in the south
of France. It is perfectly sound, for it rests on the intimate
response by congestion of the thyroid gland to sexual excitement.
(_Parthenologia_, p. 283; Biérent, _La Puberté_, p. 150; Havelock
Ellis, _Man and Woman_, fourth edition, p. 267.)
Some say, Schurig tells us, that the voice, which in the virgin
is shrill, becomes rougher and deeper after the first coitus. He
quotes Riolan's statement that it is certain that the voice of
those who indulge in venery is changed. On that account the
ancients bound down the penis of their singers, and Martial said
that those who wish to preserve their voices should avoid coitus.
Democritus who one day had greeted a girl as "maiden" on the
following day addressed her as "woman," while in the same way it
is said that Albertus Magnus, observing from his study a girl
going for wine for her master, knew that she had had sexual
intercourse by the way because on her return her voice had become
deeper. Here, again, the ancient belief has a solid basis, for
the voice and the larynx are really affected by sexual
conditions. (_Parthenologia_, p. 286; Marro, _La Puberté_, p.
303; Havelock Ellis, op. cit., pp. 271, 289.)
Others, again, Schurig proceeds, have judged that the goaty smell
given out in the armpits during the venereal act is also no
uncertain sign of defloration, such odor being perceptible in
those who use much venery, and not seldom in harlots and the
newly married, while, as Hippocrates said, it is not perceived in
boys and girls. (_Parthenologia_, p. 286; cf. the previous volume
of these _Studies_, "Sexual Selection in Man," p. 64.)
In virgins, Schurig remarks, the pubic hair is said to be long
and not twisted, while in women accustomed to coitus it is
crisper. But it is only after long and repeated coitus, some
authors add, that the pubic hairs become crisp. Some recent
observers, it may be remarked, have noted a connection between
sexual excitation and the condition of the pubic hair in women.
(Cf. the present volume, _ante_ p. 127.)
A sign to which the old authors often attached much importance
was furnished by the urinary stream. In the _De Secretis
Mulierum_, wrongly attributed to Albertus Magnus, it is laid down
that "the virgin urinates higher than the woman." Riolan, in his
_Anthropographia_, discussing the ability of virgins to ejaculate
urine to a height, states that Scaliger had observed women who
were virgins emit urine in a high jet against a wall, but that
married women could seldom do this. Bouaciolus also stated that
the urine of virgins is emitted in a small stream to a distance
with an acute hissing sound. (_Parthenologia_, p. 281.) A
folk-lore belief in the reality of this influence is evidenced by
the Picardy _conte_ referred to already (_ante_, p. 53), "La
Princesse qui pisse au dessus les Meules." There is no doubt a
tendency for the various stresses of sexual life to produce an
influence in this direction, though they act far too slowly and
uncertainly to be a reliable index to the presence or the absence
of virginity.
Another common ancient test of virginity by urination rests on a
psychic basis, and appears in a variety of forms which are really
all reducible to the same principle. Thus we are told in _De
Secretis Mulierum_ that to ascertain if a girl is seduced she
should be given to eat of powdered crocus flowers, and if she has
been seduced she immediately urinates. We are here concerned with
auto-suggestion, and it may well be believed that with nervous
and credulous girls this test often revealed the truth.
A further test of virginity discussed by Schurig is the presence
of modesty of countenance. If a woman blushes her virtue is safe.
In this way girls who have themselves had experience of the
marriage bed are said to detect the virgin. The virgin's eyes are
cast down and almost motionless, while she who has known a man
has eyes that are bright and quick. But this sign is equivocal,
says Schurig, for girls are different, and can simulate the
modesty they do not feel. Yet this indication also rests on a
fundamentally sound psychological basis. (See "The Evolution of
Modesty," in the first volume of these _Studies_.)
In his _Syllepsilogia_ (Section V, cap. I-II), published in 1731,
Schurig discusses further the anciently recognized signs of
pregnancy. The real or imaginary signs of pregnancy sought by
various primitive peoples of the past and present are brought
together by Ploss and Bartels, _Das Weib_, bd. i, Chapter XXVII.
Both physically and psychically the occurrence of pregnancy is, however, a
distinct event. It marks the beginning of a continuous physical process,
which cannot fail to manifest psychic reactions. A great center of vital
activity--practically a new center, for only the germinal form of it in
menstruation had previously existed--has appeared and affects the whole
organism. "From the moment that the embryo takes possession of the woman,"
Robert Barnes puts it, "every drop of blood, every fiber, every organ, is
affected."[170]
A woman artist once observed to Dr. Stratz, that as the final aim of a
woman is to become a mother and pregnancy is thus her blossoming time, a
beautiful woman ought to be most beautiful when she is pregnant. That is
so, Stratz replied, if her moment of greatest physical perfection
corresponds with the early months of pregnancy, for with the beginning of
pregnancy metabolism is increased, the color of the skin becomes more
lively and delicate, the breasts firmer.[171] Pregnancy may, indeed, often
become visible soon after conception by the brighter eye, the livelier
glance, resulting from greater vascular activity, though later, with the
increase of strain, the face may tend to become somewhat thin and
distorted. The hair, Barnes states, assumes a new vigor, even though it
may have been falling out before. The temperature rises; the weight
increases, even apart from the growth of the foetus. The efflorescence of
pregnancy shows itself, as in the blossoming and fecundated flower, by
increased pigmentation.[172] The nipples with their areolæ, and the
mid-line of the belly, become darker; brown flecks (lentigo) tend to
appear on the forehead, neck, arms, and body; while striæ--at first
blue-red, then a brilliant white--appear on the belly and thighs, though
these are scarcely normal, for they are not seen in women with very
elastic skins and are rare among peasants and savages.[173] The whole
carriage of the woman tends to become changed with the development of the
mighty seed of man planted within her; it simulates the carriage of pride
with the arched back and protruded abdomen.[174] The pregnant woman has
been lifted above the level of ordinary humanity to become the casket of
an inestimable jewel.
It is in the blood and the circulation that the earliest of the most
prominent symptoms of pregnancy are to be found. The ever increasing
development of this new focus of vascular activity involves an increased
vascular activity in the whole organism. This activity is present almost
from the first--a few days after the impregnation of the ovum--in the
breasts, and quickly becomes obvious to inspection and palpation. Before a
quite passive organ, the breast now rapidly increases in activity of
circulation and in size, while certain characteristic changes begin to
take place around the nipples.[175] As a result of the additional work
imposed upon it the heart tends to become slightly hypertrophied in order
to meet the additional strain; there may be some dilatation also.[176]
The recent investigations of Stengel and Stanton tend to show
that the increase of the heart's work during pregnancy is less
considerable than has generally been supposed, and that beyond
some enlargement and dilatation of the right ventricle there is
not usually any hypertrophy of the heart.
The total quantity of blood is raised. While increased in quantity, the
blood appears on the whole to be somewhat depreciated in quality, though
on this point there are considerable differences of opinion. Thus, as
regards hæmoglobin, some investigators have found that the old idea as to
the poverty of hæmoglobin in pregnancy is quite unfounded; a few have even
found that the hæmoglobin is increased. Most authorities have found the
red cells diminished, though some only slightly, while the white cells,
and also the fibrin, are increased. But toward the end of pregnancy there
is a tendency, perhaps due to the establishment of compensation, for the
blood to revert to the normal condition.[177]
It would appear probable, however, that the vascular phenomena of
pregnancy are not altogether so simple as the above statement would imply.
The activity of various glands at this time--well illustrated by the
marked salivation which sometimes occurs--indicates that other modifying
forces are at work, and it has been suggested that the changes in the
maternal circulation during pregnancy may best be explained by the theory
that there are two opposing kinds of secretion poured into the blood in
unusual degree during pregnancy: one contracting the vessels, the other
dilating them, one or the other sometimes gaining the upper hand.
Suprarenal extract, when administered, has a vaso-constricting influence,
and thyroid extract a vasodilating influence; it may be surmised that
within the body these glands perform similar functions.[178]
The important part played by the thyroid gland is indicated by its marked
activity at the very beginning of pregnancy. We may probably associate the
general tendency to vasodilatation during early pregnancy with the
tendency to goitre; Freund found an increase of the thyroid in 45 per
cent. of 50 cases. The thyroid belongs to the same class of ductless
glands as the ovary, and, as Bland Sutton and others have insisted, the
analogies between the thyroid and the ovary are very numerous and
significant. It may be added that in recent years Armand Gautier has noted
the importance of the thyroid in elaborating nucleo-proteids containing
arsenic and iodine, which are poured into the circulation during
menstruation and pregnancy. The whole metabolism of the body is indeed
affected, and during the latter part of pregnancy study of the ingesta and
egesta has shown that a storage of nitrogen and even of water is taking
place.[179] The woman, as Pinard puts it, forms the child out of her own
flesh, not merely out of her food; the individual is being sacrificed to
the species.
The changes in the nervous system of the pregnant woman correspond to
those in the vascular system. There is the same increase of activity, a
heightening of tension. Bruno Wolff, from experiments on bitches,
concluded that the central nervous system in women is probably more easily
excited in the pregnant than in the non-pregnant state, though he was not
prepared to call this cerebral excitability "specific."[180] Direct
observations on pregnant women have shown, without doubt, a heightened
nervous irritability. Reflex action generally is increased. Neumann
investigated the knee-jerk in 500 women during pregnancy, labor, and the
puerperium, and in a large number found that there was a progressive
exaggeration with the advance of pregnancy, little or no change being
observed in the early months; sometimes when no change was observed during
pregnancy the knee-jerk still increased during labor, reaching its maximum
at the moment of the expulsion of the foetus; the return to the normal
condition took place gradually during the puerperium. Tridandani found in
pregnant women that though the superficial reflexes, with the exception of
the abdominal, were diminished, the deep and tendon reflexes were markedly
increased, especially that of the knee, these changes being more marked in
primiparæ than in multiparæ, and more pronounced as pregnancy advanced,
the normal condition returning with ten days after labor. Electrical
excitability was sensibly diminished.[181]
One of the first signs of high nervous tension is vomiting. As is well
known, this phenomenon commonly appears early in pregnancy, and it is by
many considered entirely physiological. Barnes regards it as a kind of
safety valve, a regulating function, letting off excessive tension and
maintaining equilibrium.[182] Vomiting is, however, a convulsion, and is
thus the simplest form of a kind of manifestation--to which the heightened
nervous tension of pregnancy easily lends itself--that finds its extreme
pathological form in eclampsia. In this connection it is of interest to
point out that the pregnant woman here manifests in the highest degree a
tendency which is marked in women generally, for the female sex, apart
altogether from pregnancy, is specially liable to convulsive
phenomena.[183]
There is some slight difference of opinion among authorities as
to the precise nature and causation of the sickness of pregnancy.
Barnes, Horrocks and others regard it as physiological; but many
consider it pathological; this is, for instance, the opinion of
Giles. Graily Hewitt attributed it to flexion of the gravid
uterus, Kaltenbach to hysteria, and Zaborsky terms it a neurosis.
Whitridge Williams considers that it may be (1) reflex, or (2)
neurotic (when it is allied to hysteria and amenable to
suggestion), or (3) toxæmic. It really appears to lie on the
borderland between healthy and diseased manifestations. It is
said to be unknown to farmers and veterinary surgeons. It appears
to be little known among savages; it is comparatively infrequent
among women of the lower social classes, and, as Giles has found,
women who habitually menstruate in a painless and normal manner
suffer comparatively little from the sickness of pregnancy.
We owe a valuable study of the sickness of pregnancy to Giles,
who analyzed the records of 300 cases. He concluded that about
one-third of the pregnant women were free from sickness
throughout pregnancy, 45 per cent. were free during the first
three months. When sickness occurred it began in 70 per cent. of
cases in the first month, and was most frequent during the second
month. The duration varied from a few days to all through.
Between the ages of 20 and 25 sickness was least frequent, and
there was less sickness in the third than in any other pregnancy.
(This corresponds with the conclusion of Matthews Duncan that 25
is the most favorable age for pregnancy.) To some extent in
agreement with Guéniot, Giles believes that the vomiting of
pregnancy is "one form of manifestation of the high nervous
irritability of pregnancy." This high nervous tension may
overflow into other channels, into the vascular and excretory
system, causing eclampsia; into the muscular system, causing
chorea, or, expending itself in the brain, give rise to hysteria
when mild or insanity when severe. But the vagi form a very ready
channel for such overflow, and hence the frequency of sickness in
pregnancy. There are thus three main factors in the causation of
this phenomenon: (1) An increased nervous irritability; (2) a
local source of irritation; (3) a ready efferent channel for
nervous energy. (Arthur Giles, "Observations on the Etiology of
the Sickness of Pregnancy," _Transactions Obstetrical Society of
London_, vol. xxv, 1894.)
Martin, who regards the phenomenon as normal, points out that
when nausea and vomiting are absent or suddenly cease there is
often reason to suspect something wrong, especially the death of
the embryo. He also remarks that women who suffer from large
varicose veins are seldom troubled by the nausea of pregnancy.
(J.M.H. Martin, "The Vomiting of Pregnancy," _British Medical
Journal_, December 10, 1904.) These observations may be connected
with those of Evans (_American Gynæcological and Obstetrical
Journal_, January, 1900), who attributes primary importance to
the undoubtedly active factor of the irritation set up by the
uterus, more especially the rhythmic uterine contractions;
stimulation of the breasts produces active uterine contractions,
and Evans found that examination of the breasts sufficed to bring
on a severe attack of vomiting, while on another occasion this
was produced by a vaginal examination. Evans believes that the
purpose of these contractions is to facilitate the circulation of
the blood through the large venous sinuses, the surcharging of
the relatively stagnant pools with effete blood producing the
irritation which leads to rhythmic contractions.
It is on the basis of the increased vascular and glandular activity and
the heightened nervous tension that the special psychic phenomena of
pregnancy develop. The best known, and perhaps the most characteristic of
these manifestations, is that known as "longings." By this term is meant
more or less irresistible desires for some special food or drink, which
may be digestible or indigestible, sometimes a substance which the woman
ordinarily likes, such as fruit, and occasionally one which, under
ordinary circumstances, she dislikes, as in one case known to me of a
young country woman who, when bearing her child, was always longing for
tobacco and never happy except when she could get a pipe to smoke,
although under ordinary circumstances, like other young women of her
class, she was without any desire to smoke. Occasionally the longings lead
to actions which are more unscrupulous than is common in the case of the
same person at other times; thus in one case known to me a young woman,
pregnant with her first child, insisted to her sister's horror on entering
a strawberry field and eating a quantity of fruit. These "longings" in
their extreme form may properly be considered as neurasthenic obsessions,
but in their simple and less pronounced forms they may well be normal and
healthy.
The old medical authors abound in narratives describing the
longings of pregnant women for natural and unnatural foods. This
affection was commonly called _pica_, sometimes _citra_ or
_malatia_. Schurig, whose works are a comprehensive treasure
house of ancient medical lore, devotes a long chapter (cap. II)
of his _Chylologia_, published in 1725, to pica as manifested
mainly, though not exclusively, in pregnant women. Some women, he
tells us, have been compelled to eat all sorts of earthy
substances, of which sand seems the most common, and one Italian
woman when pregnant ate several pounds of sand with much
satisfaction, following it up with a draught of her own urine.
Lime, mud, chalk, charcoal, cinders, pitch are also the desired
substances in other cases detailed. One pregnant woman must eat
bread fresh from the oven in very large quantities, and a certain
noble matron ate 140 sweet cakes in one day and night. Wheat and
various kinds of corn as well as of vegetables were the foods
desired by many longing women. One woman was responsible for 20
pounds of pepper, another ate ginger in large quantities, a third
kept mace under her pillow; cinnamon, salt, emulsion of almonds,
treacle, mushrooms were desired by others. Cherries were longed
for by one, and another ate 30 or 40 lemons in one night. Various
kinds of fish--mullet, oysters, crabs, live eels, etc.--are
mentioned, while other women have found delectation in lizards,
frogs, spiders and flies, even scorpions, lice and fleas. A
pregnant woman, aged 33, of sanguine temperament, ate a live fowl
completely with intense satisfaction. Skin, wool, cotton, thread,
linen, blotting paper have been desired, as well as more
repulsive substances, such as nasal mucus and feces (eaten with
bread). Vinegar, ice, and snow occur in other cases. One woman
stilled a desire for human flesh by biting the nates of children
or the arms of men. Metals are also swallowed, such as iron,
silver, etc. One pregnant woman wished to throw eggs in her
husband's face, and another to have her husband throw eggs in her
face.
In the next chapter of the same work Schurig describes cases of
acute antipathy which may arise under the same circumstances
(cap. III, "De Nausea seu Antipathia certorum ciborum"). The list
includes bread, meat, fowls, fish, eels (a very common
repulsion), crabs, milk, butter (very often), cheese (often),
honey, sugar, salt, eggs, caviar, sulphur, apples (especially
their odor), strawberries, mulberries, cinnamon, mace, capers,
pepper, onions, mustard, beetroot, rice, mint, absinthe, roses
(many pages are devoted to this antipathy), lilies, elder
flowers, musk (which sometimes caused vomiting), amber, coffee,
opiates, olive oil, vinegar, cats, frogs, spiders, wasps, swords.
More recently Gould and Pyle (_Anomalies and Curiosities of
Medicine_, p. 80) have briefly summarized some of the ancient and
modern records concerning the longings of pregnant women.
Various theories are put forward concerning the causation of the longings
of pregnant women, but none of these seems to furnish by itself a complete
and adequate explanation of all cases. Thus it is said that the craving is
the expression of a natural instinct, the system of the pregnant woman
really requiring the food she longs for. It is quite probable that this is
so in many cases, but it is obviously not so in the majority of cases,
even when we confine ourselves to the longings for fairly natural foods,
while we know so little of the special needs of the organism during
pregnancy that the theory in any case is insusceptible of clear
demonstration.
Allied to this theory is the explanation that the longings are for things
that counteract the tendency to nausea and sickness. Giles, however, in
his valuable statistical study of the longings of a series of 300 pregnant
women, has shown that the percentage of women with longings is exactly the
same (33 per cent.) among women who had suffered at some time during
pregnancy from sickness as among the women who had not so suffered.
Moreover, Giles found that the period of sickness frequently bore no
relation to the time when there were cravings, and the patient often had
cravings after the sickness had ceased.
According to another theory these longings are mainly a matter of
auto-suggestion. The pregnant woman has received the tradition of such
longings, persuades herself that she has such a longing, and then becomes
convinced that, according to a popular belief, it will be bad for the
child if the longing is not gratified. Giles considers that this process
of auto-suggestion takes place "in a certain number, perhaps even in the
majority of cases."[184]
The Duchess d'Abrantès, the wife of Marshal Junot, in her
_Mémoires_ gives an amusing account of how in her first pregnancy
a longing was apparently imposed upon her by the anxious
solicitude of her own and her husband's relations. Though
suffering from constant nausea and sickness, she had no longings.
One day at dinner after the pregnancy had gone on for some months
her mother suddenly put down her fork, exclaiming: "I have never
asked you what longing you have!" She replied with truth that she
had none, her days and her nights being occupied with suffering.
"No _envie!_" said the mother, "such a thing was never heard of.
I must speak to your mother-in-law." The two old ladies consulted
anxiously and explained to the young mother how an unsatisfied
longing might produce a monstrous child, and the husband also now
began to ask her every day what she longed for. Her
sister-in-law, moreover, brought her all sorts of stories of
children born with appalling mother's marks due to this cause.
She became frightened and began to wonder what she most wanted,
but could think of nothing. At last, when eating a pastille
flavored with pineapple, it occurred to her that pineapple is an
excellent fruit, and one, moreover, which she had never seen, for
at that time it was extremely rare. Thereupon she began to long
for pineapple, and all the more when she was told that at that
season they could not be obtained. She now began to feel that she
must have pineapple or die, and her husband ran all over Paris,
vainly offering twenty louis for a pineapple. At last he
succeeded in obtaining one through the kindness of Mme.
Bonaparte, and drove home furiously just as his wife, always
talking of pineapples, had gone to bed. He entered the room with
the pineapple, to the great satisfaction of the Duchess's mother.
(In one of her own pregnancies, it appears, she longed in vain
for cherries in January, and the child was born with a mark on
her body resembling a cherry--in scientific terminology, a
_nævus_.) The Duchess effusively thanked her husband and wished
to eat of the fruit immediately, but her husband stopped her and
said that Corvisart, the famous physician, had told him that she
must on no account touch it at night, as it was extremely
indigestible. She promised not to do so, and spent the night in
caressing the pineapple. In the morning the husband came and cut
up the fruit, presenting it to her in a porcelain bowl. Suddenly,
however, there was a revulsion of feeling; she felt that she
could not possibly eat pineapple; persuasion was useless; the
fruit had to be taken away and the windows opened, for the very
smell of it had become odious. The Duchess adds that henceforth,
throughout her life, though still liking the flavor, she was only
able to eat pineapple by doing a sort of violence to herself.
(_Mémories de la Duchesse d'Abrantès_, vol. iii, Chapter VIII.)
It should be added that, in old age, the Duchess d'Abrantès
appears to have become insane.
The influence of suggestion must certainly be accepted as, at all events,
increasing and emphasizing the tendency to longings. It can scarcely,
however, be regarded as a radical and adequate explanation of the
phenomenon generally. If it is a matter of auto-suggestion due to a
tradition, then we should expect to find longings most frequent and most
pronounced in multiparous women, who are best acquainted with the
tradition and best able to experience all that is expected of a pregnant
woman. But, as a matter of fact, the women who have borne most children
are precisely those who are least likely to be affected by the longings
which tradition demands they should manifest. Giles has shown that
longings occur much more frequently in the first than in any subsequent
pregnancy; there is a regular decrease with the increase in number of
pregnancies until in women with ten or more children the longings scarcely
occur at all.
We must probably regard longings as based on a physiological and psychic
tendency which is of universal extension and almost or quite normal. They
are known throughout Europe and were known to the medical writers of
antiquity. Old Indian as well as old Jewish physicians recognized them.
They have been noted among many savage races to-day: among the Indians of
North and South America, among the peoples of the Nile and the Soudan, in
the Malay archipelago.[185] In Europe they are most common among the
women of the people, living simple and natural lives.[186]
The true normal relationship of the longings of pregnancy is with the
impulsive and often irresistible longings for food delicacies which are
apt to overcome children, and in girls often persist or revive through
adolescence and even beyond. Such sudden fits of greediness belong to
those kind of normal psychic manifestations which are on the verge of the
abnormal into which they occasionally pass. They may occur, however, in
healthy, well-bred, and well-behaved children who, under the stress of the
sudden craving, will, without compunction and apparently without
reflection, steal the food they long for or even steal from their parents
the money to buy it. The food thus seized by a well-nigh irresistible
craving is nearly always a fruit. Fruit is usually doled out to children
in small quantities as a luxury, but we are descended from primitive human
peoples and still more remote ape-like ancestors, by whom fruit was in its
season eaten copiously, and it is not surprising that when that season
comes round the child, more sensitive than the adult to primitive
influences, should sometimes experience the impulse of its ancestors with
overwhelming intensity, all the more so if, as is probable, the craving is
to some extent the expression of a physiological need.
Sanford Bell, who has investigated the food impulses of children
in America, finds that girls have a greater number of likes and
dislikes in foods than boys of the same age, though at the same
time they have less dislikes to some foods than boys. The
proclivity for sweets and fruits shows itself as soon as a child
begins to eat solids. The chief fruits liked are oranges,
bananas, apples, peaches, and pears. This strong preference for
fruits lasts till the age of 13 or 14, though relatively weaker
from 10 to 13. In girls, however, Bell notes the significant fact
from our present point of view that at mid-adolescence there is a
revived taste for sweets and fruits. He believes that the growth
of children in taste in foods recapitulates the experience of the
race. (S. Bell, "An Introductory Study of the Psychology of
Foods." _Pedagogical Seminary_, March, 1904.)
The heightened nervous impressionability of pregnancy would appear to
arouse into activity those primitive impulses which are liable to occur in
childhood and in the unmarried girl continue to the nubile age. It is a
significant fact that the longings of pregnant women are mainly for fruit,
and notably for so wholesome a fruit as the apple, which may very well
have a beneficial effect on the system of the pregnant woman. Giles, in
his tabulation of the foods longed for by 300 pregnant women, found that
the fruit group was by far the largest, furnishing 79 cases; apples were
far away at the head, occurring in 34 cases out of the 99 who had
longings, while oranges followed at a distance (with 13 cases), and in the
vegetable group tomatoes came first (with 6 cases). Several women declared
"I could have lived on apples," "I was eating apples all day," "I used to
sit up in bed eating apples."[187] Pregnant women appear seldom to long
for the possession of objects outside the edible class, and it seems
doubtful whether they have any special tendency to kleptomania. Pinard has
pointed out that neither Lasègue nor Lunier, in their studies of
kleptomania, have mentioned a single shop robbery committed by a pregnant
woman.[188] Brouardel has indeed found such cases, but the object stolen
was usually a food.
A further significant fact connecting the longings of pregnant women with
the longings of children is to be found in the fact that they occur mainly
in young women. We have, indeed, no tabulation of the ages of pregnant
women who have manifested longings, but Giles has clearly shown that these
chiefly occur in primiparæ, and steadily and rapidly decrease in each
successive pregnancy. This fact, otherwise somewhat difficult of
explanation, is natural if we look upon the longings of pregnancy as a
revival of those of childhood. It certainly indicates also that we can by
no means regard these longings as exclusively the expression of a
physiological craving, for in that case they would be liable to occur in
any pregnancy unless, indeed, it is argued that with each successive
pregnancy the woman becomes less sensitive to her own physiological state.
There has been a frequent tendency, more especially among
primitive peoples, to regard a pregnant woman's longings as
something sacred and to be indulged, all the more, no doubt, as
they are usually of a simple and harmless character. In the Black
Forest, according to Ploss and Bartels, a pregnant woman may go
freely into other people's gardens and take fruit, provided she
eats it on the spot, and very similar privileges are accorded to
her elsewhere. Old English opinion, as reflected, for instance,
in Ben Jonson's plays (as Dr. Harriet C.B. Alexander has pointed
out), regards the pregnant woman as not responsible for her
longings, and Kiernan remarks ("Kleptomania and Collectivism,"
_Alienist and Neurologist_, November, 1902) that this is in "a
most natural and just view." In France at the Revolution a law of
the 28th Germinal, in the year III, to some extent admitted the
irresponsibility of the pregnant woman generally,--following the
classic precedent, by which a woman could not be brought before a
court of justice so long as she was pregnant,--but the Napoleonic
code, never tender to women, abrogated this. Pinard does not
consider that the longings of pregnant women are irresistible,
and, consequently, regards the pregnant woman as responsible.
This is probably the view most widely held. In any case these
longings seldom come up for medico-legal consideration.
The phenomena of the longings of pregnancy are linked to the much more
obscure and dubious phenomena of the influence of maternal impressions on
the child within the womb. It is true, indeed, that there is no real
connection whatever between these two groups of manifestations, but they
have been so widely and for so long closely associated in the popular mind
that it is convenient to pass directly from one to the other. The same
name is sometimes given to the two manifestations; thus in France a
pregnant longing is an _envie_, while a mother's mark on the child is also
called an _envie_, because it is supposed to be due to the mother's
unsatisfied longing.
The conception of a "maternal impression" (the German _Versehen_) rests on
the belief that a powerful mental influence working on the mother's mind
may produce an impression, either general or definite, on the child she is
carrying. It makes a great deal of difference whether the effect of the
impression on the child is general, or definite and circumscribed. It is
not difficult to believe that a general effect--even, as Sir Arthur
Mitchell first gave good reason for believing, idiocy--may be produced on
the child by strong and prolonged emotional influence working on the
mother, because such general influence may be transmitted through a
deteriorated blood-stream. But it is impossible at present to understand
how a definite and limited influence working on the mother could produce a
definite and limited effect on the child, for there are no channels of
nervous communications for the passage of such influences. Our difficulty
in conceiving of the process must, however, be put aside if the fact
itself can be demonstrated by convincing evidence.
In order to illustrate the nature of maternal impressions, I will
summarize a few cases which I have collected from the best
medical periodical literature during the past fifteen years. I
have exercised no selection and in no way guarantee the
authenticity of the alleged facts or the alleged explanation.
They are merely examples to illustrate a class of cases published
from time to time by medical observers in medical journals of
high repute.
Early in pregnancy a woman found her pet rabbit killed by a cat
which had gnawed off the two forepaws, leaving ragged stumps; she
was for a long time constantly thinking of this. Her child was
born with deformed feet, one foot with only two toes, the other
three, the os calcis in both feet being either absent or little
developed. (G.B. Beale, Tottenham, _Lancet_, May 4, 1889).
Three months and a half before birth of the child the father, a
glazier, fell through the roof of a hothouse, severely cutting
his right arm, so that he was lying in the infirmary for a long
time, and it was doubtful whether the hand could be saved. The
child was healthy, but on the flexor surface of the radial side
of the right forearm just above the wrist--the same spot as the
father's injury--there was a nævus the size of a sixpence. (W.
Russell, Paisley, _Lancet_, May 11, 1889.)
At the beginning of pregnancy a woman was greatly scared by being
kicked over by a frightened cow she was milking; she hung on to
the animal's teats, but thought she would be trampled to death,
and was ill and nervous for weeks afterwards. The child was a
monster, with a fleshy substance--seeming to be prolonged from
the spinal cord and to represent the brain--projecting from the
floor of the skull. Both doctor and nurse were struck by the
resemblance to a cow's teats before they knew the woman's story,
and this was told by the woman immediately after delivery and
before she knew to what she had given birth. (A. Ross Paterson,
Reversby, Lincolnshire, _Lancet_, September 29, 1889.)
During the second month of pregnancy the mother was terrified by
a bullock as she was returning from market. The child reached
full term and was a well-developed male, stillborn. Its head
"exactly resembled a miniature cow's head;" the occipital bone
was absent, the parietals only slightly developed, the eyes were
placed at the top of the frontal bone, which was quite flat, with
each of its superior angles twisted into a rudimentary horn.
(J.T. Hislop, Tavistock, Devon, _Lancet_, November 1, 1890.)
When four months pregnant the mother, a multipara of 30, was
startled by a black and white collie dog suddenly pushing against
her and rushing out when she opened the door. This preyed on her
mind, and she felt sure her child would be marked. The whole of
the child's right thigh was encircled by a shining black mole,
studded with white hairs; there was another mole on the spine of
the left scapula. (C.F. Williamson, Horley, Surrey, _Lancet_,
October 11, 1890.)
A lady in comfortable circumstances, aged 24, not markedly
emotional, with one child, in all respects healthy, early in her
pregnancy saw a man begging whose arms and legs were "all doubled
up." This gave her a shock, but she hoped no ill effects would
follow. The child was an encephalous monster, with the
extremities rigidly flexed and the fingers clenched, the feet
almost sole to sole. In the next pregnancy she frequently passed
a man who was a partial cripple, but she was not unduly
depressed; the child was a counterpart of the last, except that
the head was normal. The next child was strong and well formed.
(C.W. Chapman, London, _Lancet_, October 18, 1890.)
When the pregnant mother was working in a hayfield her husband
threw at her a young hare he had found in the hay; it struck her
on the cheek and neck. Her daughter has on the left cheek an
oblong patch of soft dark hair, in color and character clearly
resembling the fur of a very young hare. (A. Mackay, Port Appin,
N.B., _Lancet_, December 19, 1891. The writer records also four
other cases which have happened in his experience.)
When the mother was pregnant her husband had to attend to a sow
who could not give birth to her pigs; he bled her freely, cutting
a notch out of both ears. His wife insisted on seeing the sow.
The helix of each ear of her child at birth was gone, for nearly
or quite half an inch, as if cut purposely. (R.P. Roons, _Medical
World_, 1894.)
A lady when pregnant was much interested in a story in which one
of the characters had a supernumerary digit, and this often
recurred to her mind. Her baby had a supernumerary digit on one
hand. (J. Jenkyns, Aberdeen, _British Medical Journal_, March 2,
1895. The writer also records another case.)
When pregnant the mother saw in the forest a new-born fawn which
was a double monstrosity. Her child was a similar double
monstrosity (_cephalothora copagus_). (Hartmann, _Münchener
Medicinisches Wochenschrift_, No. 9, 1895.)
A well developed woman of 30, who had ten children in twelve
years, in the third month of her tenth pregnancy saw a child run
over by a street car, which crushed the upper and back part of
its head. Her own child was anencephalic and acranial, with
entire absence of vault of skull. (F.A. Stahl, _American Journal
of Obstetrics_, April, 1896.)
A healthy woman with no skin blemish had during her third
pregnancy a violent appetite for sunfish. During or after the
fourth month her husband, as a surprise, brought her some sunfish
alive, placing them in a pail of water in the porch. She stumbled
against the pail and the shock caused the fish to flap over the
pail and come in violent contact with her leg. The cold wriggling
fish produced a nervous shock, but she attached no importance to
this. The child (a girl) had at birth a mark of bronze pigment
resembling a fish with the head uppermost (photograph given) on
the corresponding part of the same leg. Daughter's health good;
throughout life she has had a strong craving for sunfish, which
she has sometimes eaten till she has vomited from repletion.
(C.F. Gardiner, Colorado Springs, _American Journal Obstetrics_,
February, 1898.)
The next case occurred in a bitch. A thoroughbred fox terrier
bitch strayed and was discovered a day or two later with her
right foreleg broken. The limb was set under chloroform with the
help of Röntgen rays, and the dog made a good recovery. Several
weeks later she gave birth to a puppy with a right foreleg that
was ill-developed and minus the paw. (J. Booth, Cork, _British
Medical Journal_, September 16, 1899.)
Four months before the birth of her child a woman with four
healthy children and no history of deformity in the family fell
and cut her left wrist severely against a broken bowl; she had a
great fright and shock. Her child, otherwise perfect, was born
without left hand and wrist, the stump of arm terminating at
lower end of radius and ulna. (G. Ainslie Johnston, Ambleside,
_British Medical Journal_, April 18, 1903.)
The belief in the reality of the transference of strong mental or physical
impressions on the mother into physical changes in the child she is
bearing is very ancient and widespread. Most writers on the subject begin
with the book of Genesis and the astute device of Jacob in influencing the
color of his lambs by mental impressions on his ewes. But the belief
exists among even more primitive people than the early Hebrews, and in all
parts of the world.[189] Among the Greeks there is a trace of the belief
in Hippocrates, the first of the world's great physicians, while Soranus,
the most famous of ancient gynæcologists, states the matter in the most
precise manner, with instances in proof. The belief continued to persist
unquestioned throughout the Middle Ages. The first author who denied the
influence of maternal impressions altogether appears to have been the
famous anatomist, Realdus Columbus, who was a professor at Padua, Pisa,
and Rome at the beginning of the sixteenth century. In the same century,
however, another and not less famous Neapolitan, Della Porta, for the
first time formulated a definite theory of maternal impressions. A little
later, early in the seventeenth century, a philosophic physician at Padua,
Fortunatus Licetus, took up an intermediate position which still finds,
perhaps reasonably, a great many adherents. He recognized that a very
frequent cause of malformation in the child is to be found in morbid
antenatal conditions, but at the same time was not prepared to deny
absolutely and in every case the influence of maternal impression on such
conditions. Malebranche, the Platonic philosopher, allowed the greatest
extension to the power of the maternal imagination. In the eighteenth
century, however, the new spirit of free inquiry, of radical criticism,
and unfettered logic, led to a sceptical attitude toward this ancient
belief then flourishing vigorously.[190] In 1727, a few years after
Malebranche's death, James Blondel, a physician of extreme acuteness, who
had been born in Paris, was educated at Leyden, and practiced in London,
published the first methodical and thorough attack on the doctrine of
maternal impressions, _The Strength of Imagination of Pregnant Women
Examined_, and exercised his great ability in ridiculing it. Haller,
Roederer, and Sömmering followed in the steps of Blondel, and were either
sceptical or hostile to the ancient belief. Blumenbach, however, admitted
the influence of maternal impressions. Erasmus Darwin, as well as Goethe
in his _Wahlverwandtschaften_, even accepted the influence of paternal
impressions on the child. By the beginning of the nineteenth century the
majority of physicians were inclined to relegate maternal impressions to
the region of superstition. Yet the exceptions were of notable importance.
Burdach, when all deductions were made, still found it necessary to retain
the belief in maternal impressions, and Von Baer, the founder of
embryology, also accepted it, supported by a case, occurring in his own
sister, which he was able to investigate before the child's birth. L.W.T.
Bischoff, also, while submitting the doctrine to acute criticism, found it
impossible to reject maternal impressions absolutely, and he remarked that
the number of adherents to the doctrine was showing a tendency to increase
rather than diminish. Johannes Müller, the founder of modern physiology in
Germany, declared himself against it, and his influence long prevailed;
Valentin, Rudolf Wagner, and Emil du Bois-Reymond were on the same side.
On the other hand various eminent gynæcologists--Litzmann, Roth, Hennig,
etc.--have argued in favor of the reality of maternal impressions.[191]
The long conflict of opinion which has taken place over this opinion has
still left the matter unsettled. The acutest critics of the ancient
belief constantly conclude the discussion with an expression of doubt and
uncertainty. Even if the majority of authorities are inclined to reject
maternal impressions, the scientific eminence of those who accept them
makes a decisive opinion difficult. The arguments against such influence
are perfectly sound: (1) it is a primitive belief of unscientific origin;
(2) it is impossible to conceive how such influence can operate since
there is no nervous connection between mother and child; (3) comparatively
few cases have been submitted to severe critical investigation; (4) it is
absurd to ascribe developmental defects to influences which arise long
after the foetus had assumed its definite shape[192]; (5) in any case the
phenomenon must be rare, for William Hunter could not find a coincidence
between maternal impressions and foetal marks through a period of several
years, and Bischoff found no case in 11,000 deliveries. These statements
embody the whole of the argument against maternal impressions, yet it is
clear that they do not settle the matter. Edgar, in a manual of obstetrics
which is widely regarded as a standard work, states that this is "yet a
mooted question."[193] Ballantyne, again, in a discussion of this
influence at the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society, summarizing the result of
a year's inquiry, concluded that it is still "_sub judice_."[194] In a
subsequent discussion of the question he has somewhat modified his
opinion, and is inclined to deny that definite impressions on the pregnant
woman's mind can cause similar defects in the foetus; they are "accidental
coincidences," but he adds that a few of the cases are difficult to
explain away. At the same time he fully believes that prolonged and
strongly marked mental states of the mother may affect the development of
the foetus in her uterus, causing vascular and nutritive disturbances,
irregularities of development, and idiocy.[195]
Whether and in how far mental impressions on the mother can
produce definite mental and emotional disposition in the child is
a special aspect of the question to which scarcely any inquiry
has been devoted. So distinguished a biologist as Mr. A.W.
Wallace has, however, called attention to this point, bringing
forward evidence on the question and emphasizing the need of
further investigation. "Such transmission of mental influence,"
he remarks, "will hardly be held to be impossible or even very
improbable," (A.W. Wallace, "Prenatal Influences on Character,"
_Nature_, August 24, 1893.)
It has already been pointed out that a large number of cases of foetal
deformities, supposed to be due to maternal impressions, cannot possibly
be so caused because the impression took place at a period when the
development of the foetus must already have been decided. In this
connection, however, it must be noted that Dabney has observed a
relationship between the time of supposed mental impressions and the
nature of the actual defect which is of considerable significance as an
argument in favor of the influence of mental impressions. He tabulated 90
carefully reported cases from recent medical literature, and found that 21
of them were concerned with defects of structure of the lips and palate.
In all but 2 of these 21 the defect was referred to an impression
occurring within the first three months of pregnancy. This is an important
point as showing that the assigned cause really falls within a period when
a defect of development actually could produce the observed result,
although the person reporting the cases was in many instances manifestly
ignorant of the details of embryology and teratology. There was no such
preponderance of early impressions among the defects of skin and hair
which might well, so far as development is concerned, have been caused at
a later period; here, in 7 out of 15 cases, it was distinctly stated that
the impression was made later than the fourth month.[196]
It would seem, on the whole, that while the influence of maternal
impressions in producing definite effects on the child within the womb has
by no means been positively demonstrated, we are not entitled to reject it
with any positive assurance. Even if we accept it, however, it must
remain, for the present, an inexplicable fact; the _modus operandi_ we can
scarcely even guess at. General influences from the mother on the child we
can easily conceive of as conveyed by the mother's blood; we can even
suppose that the modified blood might act specifically on one particular
kind of tissue. We can, again, as suggested by Féré, very well believe
that the maternal emotions act upon the womb and produce various kinds and
degrees of pressure on the child within, so that the apparently active
movements of the foetus may be really consecutive on unconscious maternal
excitations.[197] We may also believe that, as suggested by John Thomson,
there are slight incoördinations _in utero_, a kind of developmental
neurosis, produced by some slight lack of harmony of whatever origin, and
leading to the production of malformations.[198] We know, finally, that,
as Féré and others have repeatedly demonstrated during recent years by
experiments on chickens, etc., very subtle agents, even odors, may
profoundly affect embryonic development and produce deformity. But how the
mother's psychic disposition can, apart from heredity, affect specifically
the physical conformation or even the psychic disposition of the child
within her womb must remain for the present an insoluble mystery, even if
we feel disposed to conclude that in some cases such action seems to be
indicated.
In comprehending such a connection, however at present
undemonstrated, it may well be borne in mind that the
relationship of the mother to the child within her womb is of a
uniquely intimate character. It is of interest in this
connection to quote some remarks by an able psychologist, Dr.
Henry Rutgers Marshall; the remarks are not less interesting for
being brought forward without any connection with the question of
maternal impressions: "It is true that, so far as we know, the
nervous system of the embryo never has a direct connection with
the nervous system of the mother: nevertheless, as there is a
reciprocity of reaction between the physical body of the mother
and its embryonic parasite, the relation of the embryonic nervous
system to the nervous system of the mother is not very far
removed from the relation of the pre-eminent part of the nervous
system of a man to some minor nervous system within his body
which is to a marked extent dissociated from the whole neural
mass.
"Correspondingly, then, and within the consciousness of the
mother, there develops a new little minor consciousness which,
although but lightly integrated with the mass of her
consciousness, nevertheless has its part in her consciousness
taken as a whole, much as the psychic correspondents of the
action of the nerve which govern the secretions of the glands of
the body have their part in her consciousness taken as a whole.
"It is very much as if the optic ganglia developed fully in
themselves, without any closer connection with the rest of the
brain than existed at their first appearance. They would form a
little complex nervous system almost but not quite apart from the
brain system; and it would be difficult to deny them a
consciousness of their own; which would indeed form part of the
whole consciousness of the individual, but which would be in a
manner self-dependent." It must, if this is so, be said that
before birth, on the psychic side, the embryo's activities "form
part of a complex consciousness which is that of the mother and
embryo together." "Without subscribing to the strange stories of
telepathy, of the solemn apparition of a person somewhere at the
moment of his death a thousand miles away, of the unquiet ghost
haunting the scenes of its bygone hopes and endeavors, one may
ask" (with the author of the address in medicine at the Leicester
gathering of the British Medical Association, _British Medical
Journal_, July 29, 1905) "whether two brains cannot be so tuned
in sympathy as to transmit and receive a subtile transfusion of
mind without mediation of sense. Considering what is implied by
the human brain with its countless millions of cells, its
complexities of minute structure, its innumerable chemical
compositions, and the condensed forces in its microscopic and
ultramicroscopic elements--the whole a sort of microcosm of
cosmic forces to which no conceivable compound of electric
batteries is comparable; considering, again, that from an
electric station waves of energy radiate through the viewless air
to be caught up by a fit receiver a thousand miles distant, it is
not inconceivable that the human brain may send off still more
subtile waves to be accepted and interpreted by the fitly tuned
receiving brain. Is it, after all, mere fancy that a mental
atmosphere or effluence emanates from one person to affect
another, either soothing sympathetically or irritating
antipathically?" These remarks (like Dr. Marshall's) were made
without reference to maternal impressions, but it may be pointed
out that under no conceivable circumstance could we find a brain
in so virginal and receptive a state as is the child's in the
womb.
On the whole we see that pregnancy induces a psychic state which is at
once, in healthy persons, one of full development and vigor, and at the
same time one which, especially in individuals who are slightly abnormal,
is apt to involve a state of strained or overstrained nervous tension and
to evoke various manifestations which are in many respects still
imperfectly understood. Even the specifically sexual emotions tend to be
heightened, more especially during the earlier period of pregnancy. In 24
cases of pregnancy in which the point was investigated by Harry Campbell,
sexual feeling was decidedly increased in 8, in one case (of a woman aged
31 who had had four children) being indeed only present during pregnancy,
when it was considerable; in only 7 cases was there diminution or
disappearance of sexual feeling.[199] Pregnancy may produce mental
depression;[200] but on the other hand it frequently leads to a change of
the most favorable character in the mental and general well-being. Some
women indeed are only well during pregnancy. It is remarkable that some
women who habitually suffer from various nervous troubles--neuralgias,
gastralgia, headache, insomnia--are only free from them at this moment.
This "paradox of gestation," as Vinay has termed it, is specially marked
in the hysterical and those suffering from slight nervous disorders, but
it is by no means universal, so that although it is possible, Vinay
states, to confirm the opinion of the ancients as to the beneficial
action of marriage on hysteria, that is only true of slight cases and
scarcely enables us to counsel marriage in hysteria.[201] Even a woman's
intelligence is sometimes heightened by pregnancy, and Tarnier, as quoted
by Vinay, knew many women whose intelligence, habitually somewhat obtuse,
has only risen to the normal level during pregnancy.[202] The pregnant
woman has reached the climax of womanhood; she has attained to that state
toward which the periodically recurring menstrual wave has been drifting
her at regular intervals throughout her sexual life[203]; she has achieved
that function for which her body has been constructed, and her mental and
emotional disposition adapted, through countless ages.
And yet, as we have seen, our ignorance of the changes effected by the
occurrence of this supremely important event--even on the physical
side--still remains profound. Pregnancy, even for us, the critical and
unprejudiced children of a civilized age, still remains, as for the
children of more primitive ages, a mystery. Conception itself is a mystery
for the primitive man, and may be produced by all sorts of subtle ways
apart from sexual connection, even by smelling a flower.[204] The pregnant
woman was surrounded by ceremonies, by reverence and fear, often shut up
in a place apart.[205] Her presence, her exhalations, were of extreme
potency; even in some parts of Europe to-day, as in the Walloon districts
of Belgium, a pregnant woman must not kiss a child for her breath is
dangerous, or urinate on plants for she will kill them.[206] The mystery
has somewhat changed its form; it still remains. The future of the race is
bound up with our efforts to fathom the mystery of pregnancy. "The early
days of human life," it has been truly said, "are entirely one with the
mother. On her manner of life--eating, drinking, sleeping, and
thinking--what greatness may not hang?"[207] Schopenhauer observed, with
misapplied horror, that there is nothing a woman is less modest about than
the state of pregnancy, while Weininger exclaims: "Never yet has a
pregnant woman given expression in any form--poem, memoirs, or
gynæcological monograph--to her sensations or feelings."[208] Yet when we
contemplate the mystery of pregnancy and all that it involves, how trivial
all such considerations become! We are here lifted into a region where our
highest intelligence can only lead us to adoration, for we are gazing at a
process in which the operations of Nature become one with the divine task
of Creation.