On the fœtus in utero, as inoculating the maternal with the peculiarities of the paternal organism : and on mental stakes in either parent, as influencing the nutrition and development of the offspring / by Alexander Harvey.

  • Harvey, Alexander, 1811-1889.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the fœtus in utero, as inoculating the maternal with the peculiarities of the paternal organism : and on mental stakes in either parent, as influencing the nutrition and development of the offspring / by Alexander Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    In a paper published last year in the Edinburgh Monthly Jour- nal of Medical Science, I brought together a considerable number of instances, which serve clearly to show, that the pecu- liarities of a male animal that has once had fruitful intercourse with a female, can sometimes be more or less distinctly recognised in the offspring of subsequent connections of that female with other males. I therein stated, that of this singular phenomenon two explanations used formerly to be offered,—one class of physio- logists referring it to a permanent impression made somehow by the semen of the first male on the ova of the female,—another class ascribing it to an abiding influence exerted by that male on the imagination of the female, and recurring to, and operat- ing on, her mind at the time of her connection, subsequently, with other males. At the same time, I expressed an opinion, that neither of these explanations could be regarded as satisfactory; and I endeavoured to show that an explanation offered by Mr M'Gillivray of Huntly, is the true one,—viz. that while, as all allow, a portion of the mother's blood is continually passing by absorption (and assimi- lation) into the body of the foetus, in order to its nutrition and deve- lopment, a portion of the blood of the foetus is as constantly passing, in Hke manner, into the body of the mother ;—that as this commingles there with the general mass of the mother's own blood, it inoculates her system with the constitutional qualities of the foetus ;—and that, as these qualities are in part derived to the foetus from its male progenitor, the peculiarities of the latter are thereby so engrafted on the system of the female, as to be communicable by her to any off- spring she may subsequently have by other males. Since the publication of that paper, I have learnt nothing to shake, but much to support, the notion of inoculation therein suggested; and A