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.
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