Baron Larrey, the distinguished French surgeon, made a report with regard to the children born after the siege of Landau in 1793. Of 92 children, 16 died at birth, 33 died within ten months, 8 showed marked signs of mental defects, most of them to the extent of idiocy, and two were born with several broken bones. In this case, however, it is well known that besides the shock of the danger consequent to the siege and the fear and distress of the women with regard to their husbands and relatives, there were added many privations and physical sufferings. The nutrition of the mothers was seriously disturbed by these, and it might well be expected that the children should suffer severely. The statistics of such events are not available in general, and when an effort is made to establish a cause for idiocy under other circumstances, none is usually found. Out of nearly five hundred cases of idiots whose histories were carefully traced in Scotland, in only six was there any question of maternal impressions having been the cause of the condition. Of course there are many very wonderful coincidences that seem to confirm the idea that impressions made upon the mother's mind are sometimes communicated to the child in her womb. That they are not more than coincidences, however, is rather easy to demonstrate in most cases, since, as a matter of fact, at the time when the incident occurred which is supposed to have caused the deformity in the foetus, the stage of development of the intrauterine child has passed long beyond the period when formative defects could occur. For instance, it sometimes happens that the child-bearing woman {65} sees an accident especially to the father of the child involving the loss of a limb. If, by chance the child should be born with a missing member, as sometimes happens, then there would seem almost to be no doubt of a direct connection between the accident witnessed, the effect produced upon the mother's mind, and the consequent deformity.