The strength of imagination in pregnant women examin'd: and the opinion that marks and deformities in children arise from thence, demonstrated to be a vulgar error / By a member of the College of Physicians, London.

Blondel, James Augustus, approximately 1666-1734

Date:: 1727

Credit: The strength of imagination in pregnant women examin'd: and the opinion that marks and deformities in children arise from thence, demonstrated to be a vulgar error / By a member of the College of Physicians, London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$man having been frighted with the firing of a Gun, was deliver'd of a Child with a Wound in the Back , #/* the fame Shape, as if it had been done with a Mufi ket Shot. ——-—- A Cooper's Wife having been prefent at the killing of a Hog, was brought to Bed of a Child\ who fie Entrails hanged out of the Abdomen. But two great Difficulties prefent them* felves, which make good Dr. Hornicteus, who is for Imagination, Sweat, and which indeed are unanfwerable. 1. How are thefe Wounds made ? Let Imagination be never fo much arbitrary and tyrannical, yet it muft make ufe of fome Means to execute its Will and Pleafure, and of fome bodily Force upon the Flefli of the Child. Let the Blood and Spirits be in never fo great a Hurry, they can’t do the Office of a Musket-Ball, of a Hammer, or of a Knife: And what Neceffity is there to alledge chi* merical Caufes, when there are Fingers, and Nails, or other Tools near at hand ? 2. The fecond Difficulty is, When were thefe Wounds made ? If you fay, in the Birth, inTartuf is what I plead for, and it was the Opinion of many in Hildanus's Time. If you fay in Articulo Terrorise in the very i Infant i$