when the form of the child is complete and it is
merely growing. It must be remembered also that there is neither
nervous nor vascular connection between the child in the uterus and
the mother, the child being from the period of conception an
independent entity to which the mother gives nutriment merely. Of
course, as has been said, the mother may transmit to the child
substances which are injurious, and in certain cases parasites may
pass from the mother to the foetus. The same types of malformations
which occur in man are also seen in birds, and it would require a more
vigorous imagination than is usual to believe that a brooding hen
could transmit an impression to an egg and that a headless chick could
result from witnessing the sacrifice of an associate. The idea of the
importance of maternal impressions in influencing the character of the
offspring is a very old one, a well-known instance being the sharp
practice of Jacob's using peeled wands to influence the color of his
cattle. In regard to coincidences the great number of cases in which
strong impressions made on the mind of the pregnant mother without
result on the offspring are forgotten. The belief has been productive
of great anxiety and even unhappiness during a period which is
necessarily a trying one, and should be dismissed as being both
theoretically impossible and unsupported by fact.

The malformations are divided anatomically into those characterized,
first, by excess formation, second, by deficient formation, third, by
abnormal displacement of parts. They are due to intrinsic causes which
are in the germ, and which may be due to some unusual conditions in
either the male or female germ cell or an imperfect commingling of the
germinal material, and to extrinsic causes which physically, as in the
nature of a shock or chemically as by the action of a poison, may
affect the embryo through the mother. Malformations are made more
numerous in chickens by shaking the eggs before brooding. A number of
malformations are produced by accidental conditions arising in the
environment; for instance, the vascular cord connecting mother and
child may become wound around parts constricting them or even cutting
them off, and the membrane around the child may become adherent to
certain parts and prevent the development of these. The extrinsic
causes are more operative the more unfavorable is the environment of
the mother. Malformations are more common in illegitimate