Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5: Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in PregnancyEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5: Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in Pregnancy
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
At the beginning of pregnancy a woman was greatly scared by being
kicked over by a frightened cow she was milking; she hung on to
the animal's teats, but thought she would be trampled to death,
and was ill and nervous for weeks afterwards. The child was a
monster, with a fleshy substance--seeming to be prolonged from
the spinal cord and to represent the brain--projecting from the
floor of the skull. Both doctor and nurse were struck by the
resemblance to a cow's teats before they knew the woman's story,
and this was told by the woman immediately after delivery and
before she knew to what she had given birth. (A. Ross Paterson,
Reversby, Lincolnshire, _Lancet_, September 29, 1889.)
During the second month of pregnancy the mother was terrified by
a bullock as she was returning from market. The child reached
full term and was a well-developed male, stillborn. Its head
"exactly resembled a miniature cow's head;" the occipital bone
was absent, the parietals only slightly developed, the eyes were
placed at the top of the frontal bone, which was quite flat, with
each of its superior angles twisted into a rudimentary horn.
(J.T. Hislop, Tavistock, Devon, _Lancet_, November 1, 1890.)
When four months pregnant the mother, a multipara of 30, was
startled by a black and white collie dog suddenly pushing against
her and rushing out when she opened the door. This preyed on her
mind, and she felt sure her child would be marked. The whole of
the child's right thigh was encircled by a shining black mole,
studded with white hairs; there was another mole on the spine of
the left scapula. (C.F. Williamson, Horley, Surrey, _Lancet_,
October 11, 1890.)
A lady in comfortable circumstances, aged 24, not markedly
emotional, with one child, in all respects healthy, early in her
pregnancy saw a man begging whose arms and legs were "all doubled
up." This gave her a shock, but she hoped no ill effects would
follow. The child was an encephalous monster, with the
extremities rigidly flexed and the fingers clenched, the feet
almost sole to sole. In the next pregnancy she frequently passed
a man who was a partial cripple, but she was not unduly
depressed; the child was a counterpart of the last, except that
the head was normal. The next child was strong and well formed.
(C.W. Chapman, London, _Lancet_, October 18, 1890.)
When the pregnant mother was working in a hayfield her husband
threw at her a young hare he had found in the hay; it struck her
on the cheek and neck. Her daughter has on the left cheek an
oblong patch of soft dark hair, in color and character clearly
resembling the fur of a very young hare. (A. Mackay, Port Appin,
N.B., _Lancet_, December 19, 1891. The writer records also four
other cases which have happened in his experience.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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