PRE-NATAL CULTURE.

White Ribbon, Volume 26, Issue 301, 19 July 1920, Page 4

PRE-NATAL CULTURE.

tßy Nurse A. K. Chappell.)

PARI SI-CON D

That this subject should have bon dormant for so long, if there is the great science in it which some believe, may seem strange to some. Vet the same may be said of “wireless telegraphy,” electricity, and many other things which science is revealing to us to-day. Dr. Brittan, who has given much studv to these problems of human life, gives the following very reasonable hypothesis as the law oi process of embryonic moulding: “I he singular effects produced on the unborn child by the sudden mental emotions of the mother aie remarkable examples of a kind of electro-typing on the sensitive forces of living forms. It is doubtless true that the mind s action in such cases may increase or diminish the molecular deposits in the several portions of the system. Ihe precise place which each separate paiticle assumes in the new organic structure may be determined by the influence of thought or feeling. If, tor example, there exists in the mother any unusual tendency of the vital forces to the brain at the critical period, there will be a similar cerebral development and activity in the offspring.” A. E. Newton says: “1 he clectrot\ ping consists in causing, by means of electrical agency, the deposit of line partie’es of metal, as gold, silver, or topper, dissolved in a powerful acid, upon the surface of any article, (.tiding, silver plating, and coppeifacing aie now executed to a large extent by this curious process. The coating of metal thus deposited heroines exceedingly compact and durable, and may be made of any desirable thickness, proportionate to the time occupied in the process. It is reasonable in suppose that by a somewhat similar process, affected by the vital forces «/ the mother, and to sore extent controlled by her mental operations and emotions, are deposited the molecules of matter which go to form the human embryo in all its various partfc.” Darwin had a theory that the cells of the body continually give off great numbers of gemmules, or in other words, the fruit from the cells. These

lie believed were thrown off into the olood, and by the blood deposited in tnc germ-cell of the organism. These gemmules are thus endowed with the power of producing a ceil of the same kind, each gemmele ret reducing a cell from which it was derived. 1 hus, tin- racial poisons, such as alcoholism and venereal diseases, must reproduce the diseased cells lroin which derived, be it in the btain or any othei part ot the body. 1 he taint will be in pro portion to the taint ;n the parent cell at the time Jt is thrown off. 1 hus, the unfolding of the germ-cell will un told the diseased conditions which were in the parents at the time those gemmules were thrown off. Science has demonstrated that when we think we use up cells in our brain, and thus attract more nourishment to make more cells Ip take the place oi those used up. The more intense and rapid is the thinking, the greater is the number of cells thus produced, with the correspondingly greater nuni ber ot gemmules to be finally deposit ed in the germ-cell, thus causing the basal mental capacity to be greater, though through, unfavourable circumstances they may not be utilised. This brings me to the thought which 1 am endeavouring to express, it the mother exercises specially am particular part of her brain from which arise certain qualities and lmc* of conduct, during the pre-natal period, according to the similar process of electro-typing which Dr. Brittan suggests, the deposits may be the gemmules which are carried by the blood and deposited in the germ-cell, as Darwin suggests; but is it not teasonable to suppose the different parts of the embryo take up the gemmules deposited in the blood and build them into its corresponding parts to the part from which they have come in the mother, seeing all the material for building its body are derived from the mother’s blood, and thus are manufactured in the mother’s body ; as the faculty to manufacture for its own use is immature and lying dormant until its life in uterio is finished. The mother makes the bricks for the building, as it were, and the bricks are debited in their right place by some process of nature which at pre sent is obscure to our limited ntelli gence. It may be that the direc ting intelligence nature uses lie in the two combined cells from which the new life started. The sc.entific fact that

the elements of all the future children are in the infant at birth, and that all the deed and thought life affects those elements prove there must be an intelligence in those elements which have- developed into the germ-cells, to () potential and subtle for us to unciei stand with our present limitatn ns. Our limitat'ons, in my opinion, are largely of our own making. Emmer* son says: “There is one mind common to all, and it is according to the inlet we allow of that mind into our'* that we shall be able to understand. “I am fearfully and wonderfully made; My frame was not hidden from thee, When 1 was made m secret, And curiously wrought in the lowest pa i ts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my imperfect sub stance. And in thy book are all my members written, Which \ by day weie fashioned, When as yet there was none of them.” If a gcmmulc produces a cell like the one from which it came itself, there will be mon material from that part of the brain w hit h has been most used during this pre-natal period, thu> seeming to point to the probability that the child will be specially gifted in that direction pre-natally, more than either parents or ancestors. I ndesirable qualities and characteristics can be swept away in one operation it seems to me —if this theory is true, by care being taken by the mother during this period to abstain from the undesirable traits, and to persistently exercise tin- contrary virtue. 1 bus the weakness of generations could be overcome. In my opinion, there would not be a throw back in that child’s children, unless the weakness of past generations were exercised and the contrary virtue not exercised, or in a small degree. Luther Burbank’s assertion back" up thi? belief: That “acquired charac teii"tics are transmitted to the children” In fact, what is evolution but a passing on of something better than one’s self exce|>t potentiality? While Dr. Brittan speaks the effect of sudden emotion of the mother pTO ducing >uch remarkable results on the unborn child, I am equally convinced that remarkable results are produced by the steady, persistent enideavour of the mother in any direction; even if she does not acquire proficiency' her self, yet it has given the capacity to

the ihi!d <>f acquiring in that direction with ease and pleasure. Mr. Chappie, once a memlH*r of New Zealand Parliament, gives a very interesting case of this description. A country storekeeper had an accident, which made him an invalid for some time. The manager the\ got for the utore was dishonest, and had to be dismissed. The next, incapable. The storekeeper worried so much it retarded hi> recoteiy. His wife, who was pregnant, poorly cdutated, began quietly to practice in figures, in the hope of relieving his anxiety. She plodded patiently and persistently on until she was able to take over the hooks herself. One of the earliest amusements of the < hild that was horn was to have a pencil and papei and work at figures. le carried all before him on those lines in the coun i r\ school, and later took sonic high degree in the world of figures, to the amazement of the neighbours, who knew how ordinary his parents were. The parents themselves could not un derstand until the mother was relating u, the Doctor the effort she made to keep the business together when her ho\ was coming, and he told them this was the cause of the boy’s talent in this same direction. Well may one writer say as follows: “As mother, my dignity is supreme, for l am sculptress of the race, the architect of humanity. My body is the temple, the holy of holies, wherein are fashioned into indelible shape, for weal or woe, the children who are to come. My part i- difficult, but 1 will not flinch. I must be as strong as the oak on the bleakest hill, and ten del and sweet and pure as the flower which blooms in the valley below. For freedom’s sake I must be free, for I am Sculptress, Architect of Humanity, its Citadel, its Oak, its Blossom. 1 am woman, mother, and moulder of the race.”