A most peculiar case is stated by Clerc as occurring
in the experience of Kuss of Strasburg. A woman had a negro
paramour in America with whom she had had sexual intercourse
several times. She was put in a convent on the Continent, where
she stayed two years. On leaving the convent she married a white
man, and nine months after she gave birth to a dark-skinned
child. The supposition was that during her abode in the convent
and the nine months subsequently she had the image of her black
paramour constantly before her. Loin speaks of a woman who was
greatly impressed by the actions of a clown at a circus, and who
brought into the world a child that resembled the fantastic
features of the clown in a most striking manner.
Mackay describes five cases in which fright produced distinct
marks on the fetus. There is a case mentioned in which a pregnant
woman was informed that an intimate friend had been thrown from
his horse; the immediate cause of death was fracture of the
skull, produced by the corner of a dray against which the rider
was thrown. The mother was profoundly impressed by the
circumstance, which was minutely described to her by an
eye-witness. Her child at birth presented a red and sensitive
area upon the scalp corresponding in location with the fatal
injury in the rider.
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