The belief has long been a
superstition in parts of Great Britain, descending to America,
and even exists at the present day. Sir Francis Bacon has written
on this subject, the substance of his argument being that certain
loving husbands so sympathize with their pregnant wives that they
suffer morning-sickness in their own person. No less an authority
than S. Weir Mitchell called attention to the interesting subject
of sympathetic vomiting in the husband in his lectures on nervous
maladies some years ago. He also quotes the following case
associated with pseudocyesis:--
"A woman had given birth to two female children. Some years
passed and her desire for a boy was ungratified. Then she missed
her flow once, and had thrice after this, as always took place
with her when pregnant, a very small but regular loss. At the
second month morning-vomiting came on as usual with her.
Meanwhile she became very fat, and as the growth was largely, in
fact excessively, abdominal, she became easily sure of her
condition. She was not my patient, but her husband consulted me
as to his own morning-sickness, which came on with the first
occurrence of this sign in his wife, as had been the case twice
before in her former pregnancies.
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