In general it may be said for the clergyman's direction, that if women have, as is sometimes the case, a morbid sense of their guiltiness with regard to some maternal impression that has set a mark upon their child, such a state of feeling may very well be rendered less poignant by a frank statement of the present attitude of mind of most physicians with regard to the possible effects of maternal impressions. Scepticism is much more the rule than it used to be, and as time goes on fewer and fewer of the cases that used to be considered so inexplicable in the direct relationship that seemed to exist between maternal impression and deformity in the child are reported. Fifty years ago nearly all the authorities on this subject were agreed in considering that maternal impressions did play some part, though they could not explain just how, in the production of certain deformities. Now we venture to say that most of the thinking physicians who have occupied themselves with this subject would scarcely hesitate to say that they were utterly incredulous of any such effects being produced. The lack of any direct nervous or blood connection between mother and child is the basis for such disbelief, and is of itself the best argument against the old tradition. With regard to mental defects, as a rule, not so much is said as for bodily defects. Bodily deformities are noted at once after birth, and then the mother recalls some incident of the pregnancy to account for them. Mental defects are, however, noticed much later, and are not so likely to be considered as connected with incidents of the puerperal period. There is no doubt that if the mother has had to pass through a series of emotional strains, or has suffered from severe {64} shocks, children are likely to be born with diminished mental capacity. This is, however, not difficult to understand, since such incidents produce disturbances of the nervous system of the mother, and consequently also of her nutrition, and this is prone to be reflected in the child's condition, especially in that most delicate part of the child's organism, the brain. Hence it is that children born during the siege of Paris, or shortly after, were defective to such a marked degree that they were spoken of as "children of the siege," and this was considered to be quite sufficient explanation of nervous peculiarities later in life.