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 naevus 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,