WELL BORN.—Mark Henry Woodward, age seven months; weight eighteen pounds; clings on to a horizontal bar for a full minute; food, breast-fed; health, never sick.WELL BORN.—Mark Henry Woodward, age seven months; weight eighteen pounds; clings on to a horizontal bar for a full minute; food, breast-fed; health, never sick.
Why few children are well-born.—Where married people have been falsely educated in the idea that marriage means unrestricted indulgence, and under this delusion have created unnatural demand, a horde of evils will follow. If this unfortunate class care only for a selfish pleasure, the children will follow each other closely and will receive a poor heredity.If they use preventive means to restrict the size of the family, the few children born into the homes will be far more unfortunately born. Excess in the marriage relation impoverishes the body, mind and soul and unfits for true parentage those who practice such excess. Every device used to prevent conception or to destroy unborn life will work untold injury to the parents, and the occasional, accidental and unwelcome child will receive a most unfortunate heredity. The mental and moral states, as well as the physical condition, of the parents, for months before and at the initial moment and during gestation must necessarily become a part of the child.
Whatever is received into our physical, mental and moral life becomes an essential part of ourselves and is transmissible to our offspring. Prospective parents should not at any time engage in anything that would be undesirable if reproduced in their children.
Intelligent preparation.—A knowledge of the laws of heredity will enable parents largely to overcome in their children any undesirable qualities possessed by themselves or their parents and to transmit to their children desirable qualities in a larger degree than that possessed by themselves.
In planning for a child, the parents should carefully study each other’s good and bad qualities, weak and strong points, their active and latent talents with aview to an intelligent cultivation of their good qualities and the restraining of the bad, strengthening their weak points and calling into activity every valuable latent capacity. In this way they may transmit only the best to the child. Both parents should ardently desire a child. Both should begin the preparation months before the initial of the new life and both should continue the preparations until the child is born. While the father’s direct hereditary influence upon the child ceases with the inception of life, his continued training will encourage and inspire his wife to continue her training until the birth of the child.
Physical preparation.—Both husband and wife should be in a perfectly healthy condition while planning for a child. The intelligent stock breeder appreciates this statement. He knows that the offspring will be defective if either of the parents is in a low state of vitality. Systematic treatment and feeding will be followed until the animal is brought to a normal condition before the initial of reproduction is allowed. The healthy or unhealthy condition of the blood determines the health of the body. The blood is the creative source of new life. Every new life is affected by the physical condition of its parents’ blood. It is a sin and a crime for parents knowingly to inflict physical weakness upon their children. Is it not strange that men will take every precaution to havetheir stock well-born and yet utterly ignore these essential precautions in relation to their children? There are some married people who have physical ailments that render them permanently unfit for parentage. Such should be wise enough to refrain from becoming parents.
An invalid mother.—When a mere boy I overheard a man say, “This is our twelfth child in a little over fourteen years and my wife has not been out of the bed since the birth of the first child.” I think there were two other children born into this home. Only one of these children lived to reach middle life. There is not an intelligent stock raiser in the world that would allow propagation among his swine under these conditions. This man was not brutal to his family. He was a kind husband and a loving father, but he was ignorant and thoughtless. He was controlled by the false teachings of “Physical necessity,” and “the wife’s body belongs to the husband.” We must recognize that the unborn have absolute and inalienable rights which we must not violate. No man has a right to engage in the creative act when he or his wife is in a physical, mental or moral condition that would, if transmitted, be undesirable in the possible offspring.
Morbid conditions transmissible.—Since incompetency, thievishness, drunkenness, tuberculosis, venereal poison, idiocy, insanity and criminal degeneracymay all be transmitted from parents to children, and to children’s children; young people before marriage should ascertain whether any of these conditions exist in the families of the prospective union. The father who spends his time lounging on street corners and telling questionable anecdotes cannot parent an industrious child. No thoughtful girl will marry an idle young man.
The society mother.—Mothers who lead in the dissipation of modern social life, such as balls, card parties, theaters, wine suppers, seldom have children that are well-born either physically, mentally or morally. Their children are strongly inclined to the same dissipations.
The need of rest.—Both parents should be well rested in body for several days before the initial of a new life takes place. If the vitality in their blood has been much exhausted by overwork, the creative cells will be lacking in vitality and the offspring will be weakened in its constitution.
Thoughtfully decide upon an ideal child in body, mind and character and try to embody this ideal in your daily life and in this way you will transmit these ideal conditions to your child.
“Like begets like” is an invariable law. At the conception of life an immortal being is started with a heritage of possibilities obtained from its parents.It is bone of their bone, flesh of their flesh, mind of their mind, soul of their soul. It cannot be otherwise than like the parents were at the time of the conception.
Practical dietetics.—The increase in population among the very poor is far greater than among the more prosperous classes. Their vitality is often very low, due to lack of proper nourishment. If the charity workers in our churches would look after this class of prospective mothers and see that they are supplied during gestation and lactation with wholesome and nutritious food, they would be engaged in the highest form of Christian service, and many of these mothers would give to their country better citizens than those which come from the homes of wealth. The time will come when the governments will declare for international peace and will appropriate a few hundred millions each year for the prospective mothers whose income is not sufficient to meet their needs, instead of appropriating their surplus funds to old soldiers. It is important that every mother be supplied during these periods with the best quality of nutritious food.
Effects of narcotics.—If the father is addicted to the use of tobacco or alcoholic drinks, he should abandon the habit, if for no other reason, because of its evil effects upon his offspring. One has only to study the children of a few men who are heavy drinkers ortobacco users to see the unmistakable effects of the narcotic habits of parents upon their children. In France there are annually twenty thousand more deaths than births. Eminent French doctors attribute part of this to the inveterate tobacco users. They claim that this class of men are often sterile, or their children die prematurely.
Suppressing evil tendencies.—“Like begets like.” Parents cannot transmit to their children what they themselves do not possess in a latent or active state. By awakening a slumbering talent and exercising it with zeal it may be reproduced in an intensified form in the child. By refraining from a bad habit, or ceasing to use an undesirable trait and by cultivating a mental opposition to it, the parents may be able to prevent, partly or wholly, its reappearance in the child. This law will apply to any case where tobacco or whisky habit, dishonesty, bad temper, idleness, licentiousness or any other bad trait has existed in the parents or their immediate ancestors.
Effects of culture.—Prospective parents should read the best literature, attend lecture courses, outline a course of study and follow it, and try to think beyond their usual meditations. Their affection for each other should be strong and pure. In relation to society, they should pay especial attention to honesty, charity, friendliness and love. Their æsthetic naturesshould be developed by the study and admiration of nature and art. Bible reading, singing and prayer, good works and spiritual devotion should form a part of their daily programme. It will do no good to practice these things in a half-hearted way. They must be made a part of our life if they are to influence favorably the future child.
Primal purpose of marriage.—The primary purpose of marriage is parentage. No greater early obligation rests upon married people than grows out of the function of parentage. No greater early honor, reward, or happiness comes to the married than when this God-honored duty is faithfully performed. No greater service can be rendered our children, society and God, than when we parent children whose bodies are sound and healthy, minds vigorous and bright, dispositions sweet, lives grand, noble and Christlike.
One-half trained before birth.—This chapter will be devoted to the training of children before they are born. It is believed by some students of eugenics that heredity is fully as potent as environment and that a child often receives one-half its training before it is born. Oliver Wendell Holmes often said, “A child’s training should begin with his grand-parents.” The proverb, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it,” to be proven to be absolutely true, must include both prenatal and postnatal training of a child. In other chapters reference is made to what children may inherit from their grand-parents and parents. In this we shall refer to the influence of parental conditions at the creative moment, and the mental and moral influence of the mother during gestation.
Transmission of acquired characteristics possible.—The transmission of fixed characteristics is accepted by all. The transmission of acquired characteristics is quite generally accepted. The materialisticstudent does not accept it, claiming that the only relation between the mother and the child is that of nutrition. We admit that the nervous system of the mother is not connected with the nervous system of the child, but we insist that “the blood is the life.” The mother’s physical, mental and moral life is in her blood. Through her blood the mother furnishes the child not only with air, water and food, but with life. In the chapter, Reproduction and Heredity, we explained how the blood is affected by the transient mental states. Love and anger, joy and fear, grief and jealousy all change the character of the blood and influence the vital energy. The new psychology is rapidly demonstrating that one mind may influence another independent of physical communication. By one or both of these methods, acquired characteristics of the father and mother are transmitted to their children.
Drs. Fowler and Cowan.—Fowler says, “All existing parental states are stamped on the offspring.” Dr. John Cowan says, “The fundamental principles of genius in reproduction are that through the rightly directed wills of the father and mother, preceding and during antenatal life, the child’s form of body, character of mind and purity of soul are formed and established. In its plastic state during antenatal life, like clay in the hands of the potter, it can be moldedabsolutely into any form of body and soul the parents may knowingly desire.”
An example.—The origin of the Setter, Pointer, Hound or Shepherd dog will illustrate the transmission of acquired characteristics. The peculiar characteristics of all these dogs were once acquired. For example, some hunter observed that his dog would “set” or “point” when game was located by the sense of smell. This hunter encouraged his dog in the practice of this characteristic. He knew that some of the offspring of this dog would tend to do the same thing. By breeding with a view of developing a variety of dogs with this characteristic we have the Pointer dog.
The father should co-operate.—While the father’s direct hereditary influence over his child ceases at conception, his responsibility for what the child receives up to its birth is fully equal to the mother’s responsibility. He can help or hinder the mother in her work of prenatal culture. Where the husband fails to supply his wife with all that is necessary to her health, strength, mental and moral activity, and happiness, he becomes largely responsible for the bad effects on the child.
The order of training.—The prenatal culture received by a child grows out of the physical, mental and moral states and activities of the mother during gestation.The physical organism of the child forms first. The brain, in which the mental and moral natures are to reside, develops last. This would indicate the periods when greatest stress should be placed upon the physical, mental and moral training of the child. The physical outlines of the body first become organized during the first four or five months, then the brains and nervous system.
The mother’s preparation.—The physical condition of the child at birth, well formed or deformed, healthy or unhealthy, strong or weak, will in no small way be determined by the mother’s being provided with plenty of nutritious food, pure air and water, pleasant exercise, and such clothing as will give the body perfect freedom and comfort. The mental and moral tendencies and capacities of the child will depend much on the mother’s continuing the advice given in the chapter on Parental Preparation.
Inventive genius.—During a lecture course in a western city, a young machinist called me into his shop and showed me three inventions he had patented and a most intricate piece of machinery that he was then working on. He was only twenty-two years old. He and his parents had often wondered why he was the only member of the family, on either side, as far back as they could trace, with an inventive turn of mind. Under my lectures the parents had solved the mystery.Ten or twelve months prior to the birth of this young man, the father had worked on a prospect or invention for several weeks with all the enthusiasm of anticipated success. He laid the matter aside and the very fact of his once being interested in an invention had seemed to fade from his memory. The father’s intense mental interest during those weeks so influenced his life-giving blood that he was able to transmit the hereditary gift of inventive genius to his son.
Two girls.—I am intimately and personally acquainted with a family where there are two girls. Prior to the birth of the first the mother kept house, did light work, read the best literature and was systematic in her devotion. In case of the second girl, the professional life of the father had changed and this made it necessary for the mother to be guest and hostess of many social functions. The parents had made a study of the laws of heredity and in both cases tried to apply these laws. The children are now thirteen and fifteen. They are obedient, intelligent, and religious, but the different environments of the mother are fully registered in the children. The first has strong business tendencies, is an all-round student, but limited in her social gifts; the second one takes to art, elocution, music, has a fine memory which enables her to advance well in all her studies, and she can entertain anything from a baby to an old man or woman.
Golden hair.—In a Missouri town a mother invited me into her husband’s store and gave me her experience. From her early teens she had entertained a wish that should she ever become a mother, her child might have golden hair. When she discovered that she was to be a mother she asked her husband to get her two pictures—one to be the picture of a perfect boy, the other, the picture of a perfect girl, each to have golden hair. While in St. Louis purchasing a stock of goods, he secured the pictures desired. She placed them in her room where she could frequently see and admire them. She called my attention to the dark hair of her husband and self, then, proudly, to the golden hair of a five-year-old son.
Testimony of a doctor.—At D——, Mo., an old physician told me of a family in his practice where the wife had been married twice. She and her second husband have black hair. The first child born to the second marriage had red hair. The doctor had a way of accounting for the red hair of the child to me that was not satisfactory. I said, “Doctor, which of the two husbands was the superior?” “Oh,” he said, “there was no comparison, the contrast was so great. The first husband was in every sense a very superior man and the second one was very inferior.” Then I replied, “Prior to the birth of the red-haired child the mental pictures of the two men were constantly in thestream of mental consciousness. The mental picture most conspicuous and most admirable was the first husband.”
The effects of a mother’s dishonesty.—I have studied a number of kleptomaniacs. In almost all cases, where facts could be obtained, dishonesty was found in one or both of the parents. I studied a case in a Kentucky town. The mother would sit up until her husband had retired. Then she would slip a small amount of change from his pockets. This was continued during gestation. When the girl, born under these conditions, was eighteen years old, she could not keep from stealing money, jewelry, and other things she desired. She was never arrested. The parents would pay for or return what she had stolen.
The effects of a mother’s anger.—While preparing this book for the printers, I am in a Missouri city, where I have become personally acquainted with the following incidents: A wife, thinking she had passed the “change of life,” was much surprised and greatly disappointed when she found she was again to become a mother. Her love for her husband turned to hate. The period of gestation was one of regret, unpleasantness and anger. From birth her child was uncontrollable. Teachers could not manage him. He was a source of danger on the playground. Neighbors would not allow their children to visit him. When hewas fourteen he tried to kill his mother with a butcher knife. A year later he assaulted a visiting pastor. When he was angry he would froth at the mouth and scream as a madman.
A born criminal.—At the close of a lecture on heredity, a reliable and aged doctor told me the following incident: “When I was a young doctor, a father came for me to call to see a sick member of his family. His little girl met us at the front gate, threw her arms about her father’s legs and looked wistfully into his face. He picked her up in his arms, carried her into the room and while I looked after the patient she caressed and kissed her papa. The brother, some two years older, had found his sister’s paper dolls and was tearing off their heads with a vengeance. Looking up, he noticed the pet cat entering the room. Leaving the mutilated and scattered dolls and seizing a long splinter from the wood box, he caught the cat, and holding it to the floor with his left hand, he tried to cut the cat’s head off with the splinter. Soon the dog entered; releasing the cat, he stood by the side of the cringing dog and was trying to cut his head off. When my services were finished, the father followed me out to the front gate and asked me whether I had noticed the difference in the children. I told him I had. Then he explained that the little girl was wanted in the home and the boy was not. I lived tosee that boy sentenced for a term of years in the penitentiary for a crime he had committed.” Many suicidal and homicidal tendencies are received in this way.
Lasciviousness transmissible.—No morbid conditions are so fully and generally transmitted as are the results of uncontrolled sexual desire among married people. Most children are the result of uncontrolled desire and their prenatal rights are not respected. This explains much of precocious sex awakening in childhood, the stormy period of adolescence and the fearful wreckage of virtue in youth and middle life. We have inherited from our ancestors and are transmitting sensual tendencies to our children. We can never solve the problems of social vice until the initial of childhood is intelligently planned for, prenatal rights are respected and the child given proper sex instruction.
We are slow to learn.—“Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Even the wisest and best of the human family are slow to learn this truth, and were it not for the consequences of long practiced errors, we should perhaps never learn some truths. We are learning slowly that sexually exhausted fathers and mothers do not parent superior children. This is causing thousands of thinking people and conscientious parents to inquire for the truth that will bring freedom from sensual slavery.
Sexuality and sensuality.—Sexuality, or the sexual instinct, is one thing, and sensuality, or sexual perversion, is another. One is God-given and God-honored; the other is a human product resulting from bad heredity, a false education and a misuse of the sexual function. The first is to be appreciated, the second to be suppressed, and, as far as possible, eradicated.
Vitality determines results.—Man has a three-fold nature; physical, mental and moral. In this life these natures are related and dependent. The sexual instinct has its seat in the physical nature, but in its functions it is closely related to the mental and moral. Whenever the sexual life is misdirected the mental and moral natures suffer. The sexual nature produces life—physical, mental and moral. It is by restraining this life force, this psychic force, this vital energy, within the body, and learning to direct it properly, that physical health and strength are attained and maintained; that intellectual vigor and brilliancy are realized; and that our emotional nature is developed in its expressions of tender feelings, purest love, truest sympathy, and passionate interest in the welfare of our fellow men. No one can have intellectual and moral development or enjoy a high degree of intellectual and spiritual life, if the sex function is abused. Parents with strong, healthy sexual natures parent the most perfect children.
Young married people should understand sexology.—Thousands of young married people have never received any instruction from books, parents or doctors regarding correct sexual relations in the married life. Many of these have learned from sad experience that marriage does not mean unrestricted sexual liberty. Many who have sought the needed information from friends and books have been confused by conflicting opinions.
The husband and wife who desire to be anything, physically, mentally or morally, must retain in their bodies as much as possible their sexual energy. In this is found the elasticity and strength of the muscles, versatility of the mind, strength and vigor of the constitution, which lend an indefinable charm to the masculine and feminine graces.
All sorts of drugs and contrivances have been used by many married people to dodge the natural consequences of the sexual relations. Every attempt of this kind has resulted in some form of physical, mental or moral injury to those who have tried it, and it has strewn their pathway with a horde of physical weaklings and moral degenerates. All preventive and abortive methods, drugs and contrivances cannot be too severely condemned. Legitimate indulgence in the marital relation is allowable only when the act can be made a complete one; when, should conceptionoccur, it would be a welcome result. An occasional union between husband and wife, if prompted by pure love, is not necessarily injurious or morally wrong. But when indulged in, it creates an unnatural desire and substitutes lust for love.
G. Campbell Morgansays, “Animalism has been for ages the curse of the marriage relation.” Seventy-five physicians of New York City signed the following statement: “In view of the widespread suffering from physical diseases and moral deterioration inseparable from unchaste living, the undersigned members of New York and vicinity unite in declaring it as our opinion that chastity, a pure and continent life for both sexes, is consistent with the best conditions of mental, physical and moral health.”
The Wesleyan Methodistsays, “The open and absolute assertion that every wife has the absolute right to determine her relationship to motherhood may make trouble, but it is the kind of trouble which must come in some homes before wifehood becomes anything more than a form of the basest kind of slavery.”
Dr. Winfield Scott Hall, in Reproduction and Sexual Hygiene, says, “There is another sacrifice, if it be so called, which the husband is called upon to make during the pregnancy of his wife; namely, to abstain absolutely from sexual intercourse. All other animals observe this period of continence. Naturedemands that man observe it. The author submits this question to all fair-minded men; is it not due the wife that she be not asked to satisfy the recurring sexual desires of the husband during the period when her life and its energies are so sacred to the race, to society and to the family? The author submits this question because some men are known to transgress this law of nature.”
Prof. N. N. Riddellsays, “The present ethics of marriage licenses that which degrades the affections and destroys the possibilities of harmony. The abuse of the generative function is the chief cause of domestic inharmony, divorce and shame, inherited lascivious tendencies and the vices and crime which follow. Three-fourths of the race have their origin in uncontrolled desire, while less than one-half of the remainder are as well-born as they might have been.”
A suggestion.—The author would suggest that the reader pause one moment before he criticises or rejects the opinions of the great and godly men. What right has a married man to preach, teach and demand continence among young people, his sons and daughters, if he cannot practice self-restraint on a level with the savage and the lower animals? The violations of the laws of sex are the chief causes of human degeneracy. Where married people have been falsely educated in the idea that marriage means unrestrictedindulgence and under this delusion have created unnatural demand, a horde of evils will follow. If this unfortunate class care only for a selfish pleasure, the children will follow each other closely and will receive a poor heredity. If they use preventive means to restrict the size of the family, the few children born into the home will receive an unfortunate heredity. Excess in marriage impoverishes the body, mind and soul and unfits for true parentage. Every device used to prevent conception or to destroy unwelcome life will injure the parents and the occasional accidental and unwelcome child will receive a most unfortunate heredity.
The mental and moral states, as well as the physical condition of the parents, for months before and at the initial moment and during gestation, must necessarily become a part of the child.
Purity, a nation’s strength.—The strength and perpetuity of a nation consist not in its standing army, mighty navy, millions of population, strong fortifications, inexhaustible resources of wealth, but in the purity and strength of its manhood and womanhood. Babylon, Greece and Rome did not fall because of a shortage of men, weakness of fortifications, exhausted resources or lack of warships, but because of a degenerate manhood and womanhood.
The home threatened.—Are there agencies of degeneracy operating in our social fabric that threaten our nation’s strength and perpetuity? We shall see. The greatest social problems of the church and state must be solved in the home. Whatever agencies destroy the home will ultimately destroy society, the church and the nation.
The divorce problem.—That God-ordained and God-honored institution, the home—in its purity, strength, and influence, was never more in danger than now. The home is an organized institution, consisting of husband, wife and one or more children, boundby the most sacred vows, the purest love and harmony. The home, the basis of society, the church and the nation is in danger. Homes are being wrecked nearly as fast as they are being built. Divorce is on the increase; marriage and births are on the decrease. In 1870, we had one divorce to every thirty-eight marriages. In 1900, we had one divorce to every fourteen and one-quarter marriages. Now we are having one to every eleven marriages. Last year Canada had only seventeen divorces. An Ohio daily gave one county in that state the credit of one hundred and thirty-two divorces in twelve months. Canada has better social customs, better marriage and better divorce laws than we have. There, a girl rarely keeps company with a young man before she is eighteen and rarely gets married until after she is twenty. Here, she is often teased about sweethearts when she is five, taught to avoid being an old maid when she is seven, when ten she is making goo-goo eyes at the boys, when eleven she is passing notes to every Tom, Dick and Harry in the schoolroom, when twelve she is desperately in love, when thirteen she is engaged and goes buggy riding and roams the streets at late hours with boys, when fifteen she is in the divorce court, and six months later she has her second husband.
Social dangers.—A nation whose social customsencourage innocent, playful, fourteen-and fifteen-year-old girls to enter society and meet the temptations and dangers incident to matured womanhood need not be surprised when she finds that one-half of her 300,000 erring women fell before they were seventeen and that one-half of her divorces are among women who married before they were seventeen. Our social customs should be changed so as to safeguard the virtue of our boys and girls during the stormy period of early adolescence.
New marriage laws needed.—One of the best remedies for the present divorce evil would be a campaign of education and legislation on courtship and marriage. Marriage needs to be elevated in the public mind to a plane of dignity, honor and responsibility. To secure this we need uniform state laws requiring of all candidates for marriage a fair knowledge of heredity and prenatal culture, the duties and responsibilities of marriage and parentage and of marital rights. For this to be possible, all candidates for marriage should be required to register their proposed marriage with the county clerk two months before the license is issued, and their proposed marriage should be published in at least one paper during this time. This would prevent clandestine and bigamous marriages and would deprive the White Slave procurer of one of his chief methods of securing his victims. When a proposed marriage is registered, thestate should furnish each with a book presenting in simple language such information as is indicated above. They should be required to give evidence of having a fair knowledge of the facts contained in the book and to present a certificate of good physical and mental health before the license is finally issued.
How enforced.—These rules and laws should be taught, required and enforced in a spirit that would lead the public to see, and the candidates for marriage to feel, that these young people are assuming responsibilities and that the state is conferring an honor and trust upon them far greater than a governor-elect assumes and the state confers on him when he takes the oath of office. The home builder is a nation builder. Such education and legislation would not only promote domestic harmony, reduce the divorce evil, give to children a good heredity, but it would check the growth of all forms of human degeneracy and add to our nation’s strength and life and make for greater domestic happiness.
Effects of bad customs.—I would not censure those who have married in childhood. The mistake has been made. Bad customs have led many good people to make mistakes. The custom of thrusting little girls into society, resulting in immature marriages, should be checked.
Chief cause of homicide and suicide.—Thereare one and a half million children born in the United States annually. It is estimated that there are 250,000 abortions that come to medical attention. If this number require medical attention then there must be 100,000 who succeed without medical attention. One thousand prenatal murders a day. Then there must be 100,000 attempts to destroy unwelcome life which fail. Children born under these conditions cannot receive a good heredity. Many will be born with suicidal and homicidal tendencies. This is no doubt the chief cause of homicides and suicides. There were 172,000 illegal murders last year and nearly half that number of suicides. One homicide every thirty seconds and one suicide every seventy seconds is our criminal record. Crime has increased 300 per cent. above the normal increase of population in the last twenty years. Crime has increased two and one-half times faster among children than among adults. This last is due in part to a lack of moral training in the home and school, to the vivid and attractive portrayal of crime in the cheap shows, and at the same time it is largely due to the increase of abortion among mothers. The causes of crime among adults are as follows: fifteen per cent. of our foreign born population commit thirty-five per cent. of our crime, drunkenness, non-enforcement of law and criminal abortion. Some leading students of heredity believe that effortsto destroy unwelcome life is the principal cause of crime.
A doctor’s testimony.—At the close of a lecture in St. Louis, one of the doctors present told me of a lady in good standing in society and the church, who came to his office and requested his services in producing abortion. Her reason was that she had three children and her husband’s income was not sufficient to support four children. He suggested that if the presence of four children in the home would lead to the death of the whole family by starvation, that she return home and kill one of the three. She was horrified at the doctor’s suggestion that she murder one of the children. The doctor explained that if she followed his suggestion her health would be protected and there would be but one guilty of murder, while, if he followed her wish, her health would be injured and there would be two responsible for the murder of her unborn child. “But, doctor,” she replied, “that would not be murder, would it? I have not felt its movements.” The doctor explained to her how life began at the moment of conception, how the little embryo was as much a living human being as when it had become strong enough to make its movements known. The true mother-love triumphed and she returned home resolving to protect, love, welcome and toil for four instead of three.
Men as guilty as women.—Ignorance concerning sex, the rights of marriage and the double standard of marriage are responsible for this crime which exists in the church as well as on the outside. Men are fully as responsible for race suicide as women are.
Social and economic conditions are largely responsible for families shrinking from an average of eight children to two in less than a century. If these conditions were normal large families would be commendable. A large family of fourteen children will always be more honorable than an imitation consisting of a husband, wife and a poodle dog.
Sensible women are convinced that a family of from four to six children well born and well environed is wiser than double this number poorly born and poorly environed. They will, if necessary, prefer going through life childless to bearing defective children.
Two kinds of race suicide.—Criminal prevention and willful abortion. This is the only form of race suicide the public recognizes. This cannot be too severely condemned by the press, platform and pulpit. But there is another form of “race suicide,” equally great, but largely overlooked.
Defective children born of enslaved motherhood. Sensual men are largely responsible for this form. Which would be the greater crime, for a nation to pass out of existence because children are not born, or tohave a dense population of paupers, idiots, imbeciles, thieves, suicides and homicides—the children of drunken, feeble-minded, criminal and otherwise defective parents, born of stupid ignorance and blind chance? Multiple child-bearing produces invalid wives and kills many loving mothers and fills our penitentiaries and asylums with delinquents.
The rights of motherhood.—Let us instill into every heart a desire for pure, perfect parenthood. Let the wife who must bear and rear the children decide when she can perform this sacred duty perfectly. Let every child be well born and “race suicide” will become a thing of the past.
What shall be done?—What shall we do with the dependent classes? This is one of the great problems to be solved. Taxpayers, philanthropists, lawmakers, doctors and Christian workers are all deeply interested in a wise adjustment of this problem because of their interest in these classes and also because we have found our present methods inadequate. Paupers, idiots, imbeciles, the insane and criminals appeal to our pity, charity and love. A practical demonstration of this is found in the millions of dollars annually appropriated from our taxes and the gifts of charity, and from thousands of healthy, normal people whose lives are devoted to ministering to the needs of these social unfortunates.
Many degenerates are diseased.—The degenerate criminals, imbeciles and insane are now understood to be diseased. A very large per cent. have inherited this condition. Some were even foredoomed to their fate. Perhaps twenty per cent. of the inmates of our penal institutions are serving their second, third and fourth terms. Son, father and grandfather are to be found side by side in our prisons. The daily mail received by the inmates of the asylums, reform schools and penitentiaries, coming so largely from relatives in similar institutions, proves that these conditions run in families. There are nearly 350,000 imbeciles, insane and epileptic people in the United States. Our asylums are overflowing with inmates. Many states have doubled the capacity of these institutions in the last ten years and still they are unable to accommodate all the worthy applicants.
Two causes of degeneracy.—There are two chief agencies of degeneracy, strong drink and the violation of the laws of sex. In one state penitentiary I found seventy-two per cent. of the inmates had a drunken father, mother, or both. It was found in a certain reformatory for women that seventy-five per cent. had a drunken father, mother, or both. In one penitentiary I found that more than three out of four had venereal disease requiring medical attention when they were admitted. Limited investigation indicates thattwenty-two per cent. of the inmates of the asylums were conceived during a drunken debauch. Many of the inmates had the Hotchinson notched teeth, crowfoot tracks in the palate and throat, conclusive proof of a syphilitic ancestor.
Spitzkathe great neurologist of New York, says, “The birth-rate of the high grade and low grade imbecile is double that of the normal population.” Not only do these classes contribute more than double their proportion to the annual birth-rate, but they are a source of moral corruption to society, as many of their offspring become paupers, insane and criminals.
The solution.—With crime, imbecility and insanity increasing at the rate of 200 to 300 per cent. every twenty years, thinking people are beginning to see that the only reasonable solution to the problem that confronts us is to stop the production among all undesirable classes. This can be done by the application of laws of heredity, the enactment of adequate laws regulating the marriage of certain classes and depriving the hereditary degenerates of the creative function.
Protected, inspected, neglected.—Our government is not slow in the enactment of suitable laws favorable to the protection of the forests and the inspection of the hog, cow and horse, and in making splendid appropriations for the improvement of different breeds, but it has made no law to prevent the
NEGLECTED! The above chart illustrates the attitude of our government and the commercial spirit of our age toward forests, domestic animals, mothers and children. If our mothers and children could be given a commercial value, based on their beauty, perfection of form, health and character, rated in value on a par with a $2,600 chicken, a $4,600 hog, a $13,000 cow, or a $20,000 horse, the initial of every child would be intelligently planned for, its prenatal rights would be respected, its nativity warmly welcomed and its environments would be wisely safe-guarded.NEGLECTED!The above chart illustrates the attitude of our government and the commercial spirit of our age toward forests, domestic animals, mothers and children. If our mothers and children could be given a commercial value, based on their beauty, perfection of form, health and character, rated in value on a par with a $2,600 chicken, a $4,600 hog, a $13,000 cow, or a $20,000 horse, the initial of every child would be intelligently planned for, its prenatal rights would be respected, its nativity warmly welcomed and its environments would be wisely safe-guarded.
constantly increasing production of intellectual and moral degenerates. Millions are willingly appropriated to aid in the invention and purchase of deadly weapons with which the human family may be destroyed. Thousands of the healthiest young men are called to the army and the criminal and idiotic are left to keep up the work of propagation. All our states maintain a Health Board, the duty of which is to prevent the spread of smallpox, yellow fever, diphtheria, etc. We have state officers to inspect cattle and to use measures to prevent Texas fever. Our state fairs give large premiums to the fastest trotter, the best Durhams, Southdowns and Poland Chinas. Mothers and children are neglected.
Marriage of the feeble-minded.—Our laws are such that the county clerk must grant marriage license to criminals, paupers, drunkards, prostitutes and the feeble-minded, if they are of the proper age, or have their parents’ consent. Where a couple of this class have secured their legal right to marry, they hunt up a preacher who, standing before them with civil and ecclesiastical authority, says, “Whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder.” Such is a crime against society, an insult to the holy estate of marriage, a curse to future generations, and a libel on God. I don’t believe that God ever sanctions such unions. When the states make laws prohibiting suchmarriages they will hasten the millennium of marriage.
More dangerous than smallpox.—If I carelessly expose others to smallpox; if I refuse to remove filth from my premises, dangerous to the community’s health; if I knowingly sell diseased meat to my customers, I shall be arrested and punished. But a man may live a fast life, acquire a disease that will poison his wife, also his children to the third and fourth generations; in this way he can worse than murder his wife and children and go unwhipped and unpunished.
Effects of alcoholic fathers.—If statistics can be relied on, drunkards produce one hundred per cent. more of the alcoholics, criminals, and mental defectives than do the sober men. In justice to overtaxed citizens and the demands of the coming generation we should enact a law preventing the marriage of habitual drunkards. The periodic drunkard should be required to remain sober for a considerable time before his marriage and give reasonable evidence that his reformation is permanent.
Property qualification.—A property qualification, or its equivalent in an established remunerative calling, profession or occupation, should be required as a condition for marriage license. It is a known factthat pauper families furnish more than their proportion of criminals and other classes of dependents.
The victim of venereal disease.—Persons having a venereal disease, in a mild form, should be allowed to marry only when a competent health board, after careful examination, decides that they are entirely free from poison, then, and then only after a reasonable time has expired since being treated. If the applicant for marriage license has at one time had one of the worst forms of venereal disease, he should be forever debarred from the privilege of marriage. The need of these restrictive and prohibitory marriage laws will be better understood and appreciated by you when I give a few statements from the best obtainable authority. Eighty per cent, of the children born blind is due to gonorrhœal infection. (Education with Med. Prof.) This is nearly always due to the uncured condition of the father. Neiser tells us that there are over 30,000 blind persons in Germany whose blindness is due to gonorrhœal ophthalmia. Pinnard claims that sixty to seventy per cent. of hereditary syphilitics die at or before birth, and that those who survive are unfit to meet the battles of life; 20,000 children die every year in France from syphilitic conditions. Dr. Fournier states that in his practice seventy-five per cent. of the syphilis in married womencould be traced to their husbands. Dr. Morrow puts it at seventy per cent. A large per cent. of the surgical operations of a sexual nature among married women is due to venereal disease contracted from their husbands.
Sterilization a remedy.—To prevent unsuitable marriages, by law, would in a measure bring relief, yet, the degenerate, criminals and imbeciles would, to a considerable extent, continue their propagation. This class cares but little for marriage. The ablest physicians of this country, the leaders in the great purity movement, and many advanced thinkers in other professions, are rapidly committing themselves to the opinion that all the worst cases of hereditary degeneracy should be deprived of the creative function. In females this operation is attended by only one-sixth the fatalities of child-birth. In males it is attended by no danger to life. The results would be absolutely effectual. The feeble-minded class would be much more easily managed and the degenerate criminal would settle down to the life of a peaceable citizen.
At first, one naturally opposes this measure as a solution to the problem. Later, all opposition to it vanishes and it then appears to be a most kind, benevolent and philanthropic solution of this vital problem.
The drunkard’s home.—More of our delinquentand dependent children are traceable to hereditary alcoholism than any other one cause save lust. The conditions and environments of a drunkard’s home are very unfavorable to normal hereditary influences. Seventy per cent. more of the drunkard’s children are defective from birth than those from sober parents.
In the average drunkard’s home, the wife is deprived of much or all that would be conducive to the best maternal conditions, such as plenty of nutritious food, good associations, wholesome recreation, good reading matter, freedom, cheerfulness, and proper attention and courtesy on the part of her husband. Instead of these conditions, she is poorly fed, surrounded by rough associations, lives in a rented shack without flowers or pictures, is overworked, timid, depressed and discouraged, deprived of a thousand little comforts a maternal heart longs for, and often tyrannized over by a rum-embruted husband.
Defective offspring from alcoholics.—Children born under these conditions cannot receive a good heredity. The children of drunken parents nearly always receive a bad heredity. This is especially true when the initial of a life takes place during or immediately following a drunken debauch. If the wives of drunkards had better environments during periods of gestation, they could more largely overcome the bad influences of their husbands upon their children. But,environed as they are, they cannot prevent their own unfortunate influence over their children, much less that of their husbands.
Intemperance and crime, lust and idiocy.—The mental and moral states of the drunkard are not only expressed in a desire for more drink; but at one time he is exceedingly lustful; at another time he is quite silly, idiotic and foolish; at still another time he is angry, cruel and dangerous. We often find all these morbid conditions strongly marked in his children. Some inherit alcoholic, some lustful, some epileptic, feeble-minded or insane criminal tendencies. His blood, being saturated with alcohol, is in a low state of vitality. This is proven by the drunkard’s inability to resist disease. The low state of vitality in the blood of the drunkard accounts for the defectiveness of a large per cent. of his children. More of the children of drunkards die before they are two years old than of any other class except the venerealized. Authorities from all civilized nations estimate that from forty to eighty per cent. of all crime is traceable to the use of alcoholic drink, and many of these criminals received a bad heredity from drunken parents; twenty-two per cent. of all insanity and eighty per cent. of epilepsy is traceable to drunken parents; seventy per cent. of all immoral women had drunken parents.
Effects of personal liberty.—One day while campaigning a county in Missouri for local option, I called at a home to get directions to my next engagement to lecture. I rapped three times at the door. Three times a voice from within said, “Come in.” Finally, I opened the door and entered. A mother sat in a chair on the opposite side of the room holding in her arms a nine-year-old boy. I noticed that the boy was as helpless as a twenty-four-hour-old baby. While giving me directions she was feeding the boy with a spoon. I remarked, “Friend, I observe that you have in your arms an unfortunate child. I have studied many unfortunate cases, lectured a good deal on heredity and have written a book on heredity. If you do not object, I would like to ask you some questions about your child.” In tones of anguish, such as only a broken-hearted mother could utter, she said, “I guess that no poor mother has ever had to bear a greater burden than I have. This is my first child, on the bed is my fifth child, only six weeks old. When this boy was four years old, during a spell of whooping cough, he got into this condition. For five years I have cared for this boy as I would a helpless baby. During these five years I have become a mother three times and have buried three children who became as helpless as this one. The three that are dead were seemingly all right at birth, but becamehelpless during attacks of hives and teething. I don’t know whether we will be able to raise the baby or not.” No pen can portray, no tongue can tell, no imagination can conceive the heartaches of this unfortunate mother. I asked whether she and her husband were related by blood, or whether there had been intermarriage in the past on either side? She replied in the negative. I asked other questions and failed to locate the trouble. Finally, I asked, “Were there any drunkards on either side of your family?” “On my side of our family there were no drunkards; on the father’s side of my husband’s family one-half of the men were drunkards; on his mother’s side most of the men were drunkards,” was her reply. “Does your husband drink?” I enquired. With some embarrassment, she said, “He drinks, but never gets to where he can’t attend to business.” From other sources I found him to be a very heavy drinker. Such men often boast that they have a right to drink if they want to, get drunk if they want to, kill themselves if they want to. What right did that drunken father and his drunken ancestry have to inflame their minds and brutalize their passions and thereby burden that innocent woman with all that sacrifice, suffering and heartache and to bring these helpless little children into this world foredoomed to such defectiveness? I answer, they did not have the shadow of a right to indulgein a habit that would deprive their descendants from developing on the earth plane.
Two more examples.—In the town of M——, Illinois, is a young lady of twenty-six winters unbroken by a joyful spring or summer. The initial of her life took place during the drunken debauch of her worse than worthless drunken father. Many times a day and often several times an hour she has spells. I have witnessed her go through many of them. The approach of one of these spells would be first noticed by the enlarged eyes and the exposure of the white of the eye. Then the muscles in the eye, face, neck and body would contract and pull her face into her lap. After remaining in that tortuous position for some minutes, the muscles would relax and she would resume a normal one.
In that same town, just to the right of my tent, lived one of the wealthiest citizens. Three children had been born into his home. Each had died of epileptic fits before it was two years old. The family physician, who had made a life study of heredity, told me that to his own personal knowledge the initial of each child’s life took place during or immediately following a drunken debauch of the father.
A visit to an asylum.—Not as a means of punishment, but as a means of enlightenment and conviction, I wish every drinking man and every man whofavors the maintenance of the saloon could spend a few days in the insane asylums of this country. Let them be taken through the wards of the feeble-minded and the insane and at the close of the day listen for one hour to a discussion of the causes of insanity among the inmates. In this lecture, let them learn that twenty-two out of every one hundred cases of insanity are due to drunkenness. Let them spend the next day in the epileptic wards and witness from ten to twenty of those unfortunates have epileptic fits, which usually last from thirty minutes to one hour. At the close of this day have them attend a lecture given by an eminent authority on epilepsy. After such an experience, I will guarantee that every honest man, when he is convinced that twenty-two per cent. of the insane and eighty-eight per cent. of the epileptics are the results of drunkenness, would be converted to the prohibition of the liquor traffic. You had just as well put the balance of that crowd in a reform school or in some ward of the asylum without further delay or expense. They are helpless cases.
Personal liberty versus the rights of others.—I fully appreciate the value of personal liberty. One’s personal liberty to do right should never be infringed upon. One’s personal liberty is circumscribed by the welfare of others. His liberty to do as he pleases ends where the welfare of someone else begins. You canget mad at me if you wish, grit your teeth, clench your fist, swing your fist in a circle, vertically, horizontally and off at a tangent; anywhere you wish, just so you don’t strike my nose. But if you do, your personal liberty ends where my nose begins. You have the liberty to walk up and down these aisles, sidewalks, streets, public roads, up and down the railroad track, over these hills and hollows, put your old number “nines” down wherever you want to put them, but remember, when you put one of your number “nines” down on one of my corns, your personal liberty ends where my corn begins. Your personal liberty to drink, get drunk, inflame your mind, brutalize your passions ends right where the welfare of your unborn posterity begins. You have not the shadow of a right to indulge in any bad habit that will cause your children to receive from you some form of bad heredity. Your unborn descendants have the individual, inalienable, absolute right to inherit from you the best physical, mental and moral possibilities of manhood and womanhood. There is not a man but has the paternal instinct deeply impressed upon his very nature. God placed it there. It is to that principle of fatherhood, prospective or real, that I make my final appeal. Boys, men, don’t entertain thoughts, indulge in acts or form habits that you would not want to see reproduced in your offspring.
Owing to the prevalent use of tobacco among all classes, including doctors, teachers and ministers, many are inclined to doubt the hereditary influence of tobacco.
Dr. Pidduckin the LondonLancetsays, “In no instance is a sin of the fathers more strikingly visited on the children than in the sin of tobacco-smoking. The enervation, the hypochondriasis, the hysteria, the insanity, the suffering lives and early deaths of the children of inveterate tobacco-smokers bear ample testimony to the feebleness and unsoundness of the constitution transmitted by the victims of this pernicious habit.”
Effects of tobacco.—The most eminent physicians of France tell us that the rapid decline in the birth-rate of that nation is due, in part, to the inveterate tobacco users, as shown by such a large number of this class being at the head of childless homes.
Children of tobacco users.—Just as drunkenness may not always manifest itself in a desire for alcohol, but may manifest itself in the form of insanity, idiocy, epilepsy, lasciviousness or criminal tendencies; so, in the children of the inveterate tobacco users the evil effects are often shown in one or more morbid conditions. One has but to study the children of a few excessive users of the weed to be convinced that they do not possess the physical endurance and strength ofthe fathers. The children of this class of fathers are usually puny, weak and nervous. It is not an easy thing to convince a robust, healthy man that his habit is laying the foundation for constitutional degeneracy in his children and grandchildren.
Where both use tobacco.—Where the husband and wife both use tobacco the injurious effects on the immediate children are very noticeable. This is because the mother has more hereditary influence over the children than does the father.
Tobacco and degeneracy.—You cannot always judge of the hereditary effects of bad habits in one generation. In the first generation the effects may not be noticeable. If the bad habits are continued for a few generations the defective descendants multiply. Suppose that a husband and wife are both heavy users of tobacco; that all their children follow their examples and marry companions addicted to the use of tobacco; that their grandchildren all follow the example of their ancestors and marry companions who are inveterate users; and suppose this continued until the fourth generation, who can estimate the resulting degeneracy? It is probable that in many cases degeneracy would be complete and there would be no fifth generation.
Fathers transmit morbid tendencies more to their sons than to their daughters.—Objectors toacquired characteristics being transmitted often ask why girls as well as boys do not inherit appetites for tobacco and whisky. Many girls are just as conscious of an abnormal appetite for stimulants as their brothers are. More women are addicted to the use of wine and the cigarette than is generally supposed. But for the companionship and protection of mother and a social law that would discard them from society, more would form these habits than do.
It is a recognized fact that where one sex acquires a characteristic that becomes fixed by continued custom, that this characteristic will be transmitted mostly along the line of that sex. That relic of savagery, the “double standard of morals,” temperance for woman and intemperance for man, purity for woman and impurity for man, do right for woman and do as you please for man, has, after centuries of practice, become to a considerable extent constitutional in the two sexes. Hence, girls inherit less of lasciviousness, less of tendency toward the use of tobacco and strong drink. This double standard of morals originated among the savage races who owned their wives and daughters. They sold, swapped, exchanged their daughters on the marriage markets as they would dispose of other property. A daughter’s value was largely based on her virtue. If she had forfeited thispriceless gem of womanhood she was brutally stoned to death or forced into the most cruel servitude.
A heroic struggle.—There are thousands of brave, true men who advocate and live the white life. Thousands more are struggling heroically to win the laurels of a white life. Others are getting the vision and are falling into line. Gentle reader, if you are not one of us, we extend to you a warm welcome; if you are, we are glad of your fellowship.
Extent of birthmarks.—In other chapters I have discussed normal, prenatal influences. In this chapter, I will discuss abnormal mental influences of the mother, resulting in what are commonly called birthmarks. The best statistics available on the subject indicate that but one child in every 2,000 is marked. Personally, I am inclined to believe that birthmarks are about twice this frequent. The laity think that the per cent. is even larger, as each individual has seen or heard of several cases.
Only the nervous mothers.—Perhaps not one mother in twenty could mark her child. Only those mothers who are very susceptible to unusual mental impressions mark their children. Nervous, gloomy, despondent, excitable mothers are liable to do this. Practically nineteen-twentieths of the mothers need not have a moment’s fear of marking their child. If these facts are true, then it follows that there are many children who in their prenatal state possessed a temperament not susceptible to abnormal maternal impressions. Such a child, in all probability, could not bemarked, even if the mother had passed through mental states favorable to marking her child.
The materialist puzzled.—Birthmarks cannot be explained on a physiological or materialistic basis. Only as we recognize the supremacy of the mental nature of man over his body can we understand these hereditary influences. Almost all Christian doctors and scientists recognize the fact of birthmarks. Men of these professions, who are materialistic in their belief, treat the subject of birthmarks as a relic of superstition. Not being able to explain them, they relegate all birthmarks to the “unknowables,” calling them freaks or monstrosities.
A government pet.—After one of the doctors in a state insane asylum, appointed to this position by the governor for some political favor he had done and without any regard to his qualifications, had conducted me through all the wards, I said, “Doctor, what emphasis do you put upon heredity in your study and treatment of the inmates of this institution?” “Very little,” he replied. “Do you believe that mental and moral states of the mother have any influence over her child before it is born?” To this question he replied, “I believe nutrition and pelvic environment are the only prenatal relations between the child and its mother.” I then asked him to explain some of the following cases of birthmarks by his theory. He didnot believe in birthmarks at all, and stated that as he did not have the opportunity to investigate the pelvic conditions of the mothers, he should not be expected to explain the cases I gave him. I will leave the reader to judge whether that little political pet could have explained the following cases with his theory.
Explanation.—Birthmarks can be explained only by the influences of the mother’s mental states upon the forming child in her body. No single mentation could possibly mark her child in a very perceptible way. It is the constant repetition of the mental image in the mother’s mind that finally takes expression in the physical form of the child. To illustrate, the first conscious mentation, after an act of murder, does not give the criminal the facial expression of a murderer. But after days of thinking of his crime, even if there were no eye witnesses to his crime and he were not even suspected of guilt, yet his face gradually takes on the features of a criminal. He cannot remove that criminal look with soap and water, or by crying or laughing. That conscious thought of his crime oft repeated has finally taken expression in physical form. A genuine conversion to Christ alone can remove the criminal look. The same is true of all classes of criminals. Harmony of mental states between husband and wife finally establishes a decided resemblance.
Mother and child vitally one.—The physical organismof man is never more susceptible to mental impression than during its plastic state before birth. The mother and her child are in continuous vital communication with each other. In a very vital sense the mother is the architect of her child. If the mother keeps herself in a perfectly normal state, the child will most likely be normal. Any abnormal state the mother may pass through may have its abnormal influence upon her child.
The effect of a constant mental repetition.—The initial mentation, whether it be a scare, anger, sympathy, grief, desire or disgust locates and starts the birthmarks. If this unusual initial mental image were never repeated, the effect on the child would be hardly perceptible. If the murderer could prevent the return of the mental picture of his crime, the criminal look in his face would not become noticeable. It is the constant repetition of the first mental state that finally takes permanent form in the child’s body.
How to prevent marking a child.—How can susceptible mothers prevent marking their children? By refusing to repeat the mental image. They should keep their minds engaged in other matters. Banish the mental picture every time it occurs in the stream of consciousness. In this way birthmarks may be largely prevented.
The following cases are only a few that I havestudied personally and know to be true. I have had many friends tell me of cases known to them, many of which would be very interesting to you, but I refrain from the use of them in this lecture.
Frightened by a crawfish.—Rev. T. of ——, had a right thumb that was double to the first joint. He told me that his mother, while washing clothes at a stream, turned over a flat rock and a crawfish caught her by the thumb with one of its big claws. In her fright she flung the crawfish out on the bank. I studied another case that was very nearly a duplicate of this one. These are examples of fright.
Arkansas mother.—While I was filling an engagement in the town of ——, Ark., the pastor’s wife became the mother of a little girl whose fingers were quite long and the joints of the fingers, hands and arms, stiff. She was quite nervous and despondent during gestation. She told me that one day when she was alone at home and especially gloomy and nervous, she heard some one rap at the door and looking up she saw a man standing at the door with deformed hands.
Frightened at a mole.—I went out eleven miles from G. C., state of ——, to study a very sad case in the home of a cultured young couple. The child was two years old. Its hands were turned with the palms backwards and its arms were not over six inches long. It preferred to crawl rather than walk. On the floorit handled itself like a mole. The mother told me that in the early months of gestation she was greatly frightened at a mole.
Marked by anger.—While giving a course of lectures in the city of C., Missouri, one day while walking down a street I noticed a four-year-old white-headed boy with a big patch of jet-black hair on the right side of his head. The contrast between the black and the white was very striking. The father told me that he and his wife were undecided what one of two possible causes was responsible for the birthmark. He said, “One day, while my wife stood on the back porch, a negro stabbed a man and when he saw an officer approaching he leaped over our yard fence and ran across our back yard. Seeing that he was running into the arms of another officer, he threw down his knife in the deep grass. The next day he got out on bail and came to our home and asked for permission to look for his knife. The other possible cause was, my wife and her neighbor had fallen out. One day this lady called at our home and my wife considered her an intruder, the old trouble was renewed and my wife pulled her hair. This lady had very black hair. Now we do not know which of those occurrences is responsible for the patch of black hair on the boy.” I replied, “I know with almost absolute certainty.” He asked for my opinion and reason. My reply was,“Had it been caused by the negro, the patch of black hair would have been kinky. Nature is always true to itself. I once knew a case where a mother was frightened by an angry dog and on her child was a patch of canine hair. The fact that the hair in the mark on the child is straight black hair shows that it was due to your wife’s pulling the hair of her neighbor.” This is a case due to unusual anger.
Marked by disgust.—After giving a special lecture to ladies in the city of T——, Kan., an elderly lady, in company with a friend, sought an interview with me. She told me the following sad personal experience: “One summer, husband persuaded me to go with him and the children to our county fair. Being quite nervous and easily fatigued, I requested that I be permitted to spend the time in the carriage while he and the children enjoyed the fair. I had been sitting in the carriage but a short time when I noticed a crowd gathering around some object of attraction and I decided to go and see what it was. On a table stood a four-year-old boy wearing the false head of an old man. There was nothing grotesque or unnatural about the head. But the contrast produced in me a feeling of disgust. The thought was suggested to me, some one might be frightened at that boy and mark her child, but I will not, for I am disgusted. I wonderedthat others did not feel disgusted as I did. On returning to my carriage the feeling of disgust and the mental picture of the child remained with me. When husband and children came I related to them what I had seen. For weeks after this event the mental picture of the child with the head of an old man would appear in the stream of consciousness accompanied with a feeling of disgust. After two days of parturition, a seven-month child was removed from my body by an operation. Its head was abnormally large and had the appearance of an old man.” Here was a case due to disgust.