XXVIII On a Calf with Hydrocephalus

Abstract

In every kind of animals, any image firmly imprinted in the brain of the mother is sufficient to alter the course of the process which delineates the parts of the foetus. Sometimes, however, this alteration which is attributed to the imagination of the mother results from a peculiar disease of the foetus. It is certainly very difficult (not to say quite impossible) to find out which of these two is the true cause of the monstrosity, particularly if we must assess it from the outer parts without opening the inner parts in a foetus whose deformity is of an appearance normal for another species. The similarity suggests an effect stemming from a similar cause and there can be no reason to suspect a disease when all the parts appear healthy to us.