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.
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