[4] The word "puericulture" was invented by Dr. Caron in 1866 to signify the culture of children after birth. It was Pinard, the distinguished French obstetrician, who, in 1895, gave it a larger and truer significance by applying it to include the culture of children before birth. It is now defined as "the science which has for its end the search for the knowledge relative to the reproduction, the preservation, and the amelioration of the human race" (Péchin, _La Puériculture avant la Naissance_, Thèse de Paris, 1908). [5] In _La Grossesse_ (pp. 450 et seq.) Bouchacourt has discussed the problems of puericulture at some length. [6] The importance of antenatal puericulture was fully recognized in China a thousand years ago. Thus Madame Cheng wrote at that time concerning the education of the child: "Even before birth his education may begin; and, therefore, the prospective mother of old, when lying down, lay straight; when sitting down, sat upright; and when standing, stood erect. She would not taste strange flavors, nor have anything to do with spiritualism; if her food were not cut straight she would not eat it, and if her mat were not set straight, she would not sit upon it. She would not look at any objectionable sight, nor listen to any objectionable sound, nor utter any rude word, nor handle any impure thing. At night she studied some canonical work, by day she occupied herself with ceremonies and music. Therefore, her sons were upright and eminent for their talents and virtues; such was the result of antenatal training" (H.A. Giles, "Woman in Chinese Literature," _Nineteenth Century_, Nov., 1904). [7] Max Bartels, "Isländischer Brauch," etc., _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1900, p. 65. A summary of the customs of various peoples in regard to pregnancy is given by Ploss and Bartels, _Das Weib_, Sect. XXIX. [8] On the influence of alcohol during pregnancy on the embryo, see, e.g., G. Newman, _Infant Mortality_, pp. 72-77. W.C. Sullivan (_Alcoholism_, 1906, Ch. XI), summarizes the evidence showing that alcohol is a factor in human degeneration. [9] There is even reason to believe that the alcoholism of the mother's father may impair her ability as a mother. Bunge (_Die Zunehmende Unfähigkeit der Frauen ihre Kinder zu Stillen_, fifth edition, 1907), from an investigation extending over 2,000 families, finds that chronic alcoholic poisoning in the father is the chief cause of the daughter's inability to suckle, this inability not usually being recovered in subsequent generations. Bunge has, however, been opposed by Dr. Agnes Bluhm, "Die Stillungsnot," _Zeitschrift für Soziale Medizin_, 1908 (fully summarized by herself in _Sexual-Probleme_, Jan., 1909). [10] See, e.g., T. Arthur Helme, "The Unborn Child," _British Medical Journal_, Aug. 24, 1907. Nutrition should, of course, be adequate. Noel Paton has shown (_Lancet_, July 4, 1903) that defective nutrition of the pregnant woman diminishes the weight of the offspring.