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 this priceless 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. CHAPTER XLIX ABNORMAL MATERNAL IMPRESSIONS, OR BIRTHMARKS =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 be marked, even if the mother had passed through mental states favorable to marking her child.