PRENATAL EDUCATION.

BY

FRANKLIN C. CLARK, A. M., M. D.,

FELLOW OF THE RHODE ISLAND MEDICAL SOCIETY, PROVIDENCE, R. I.

SYNOPSIS OF SUBJECT.

Development of race dependent upon Heredity and Education.

Discussion of the two forms of Heredity.

Province of Congenital Heredity-fixation of types.

Province of Acquired Heredity-alteration of types.
Healthy Heredity in its several aspects.

Unhealthy Heredity

Disease and Deformities.

Insanity and Idiocy.

Crime and Pauperism.

Application of the Law of Acquired Heredity.

Maternal influences.

Province of Prenatal Education.

Healthy Condition of Mother.

Healthy Condition of both parents.

Improper Marriages.

Ill-assorted Marriages.

Consanguineous Marriages.

Environment of Mother during Gestation.

PRE

PRENATAL EDUCATION.

In the introductory chapter to his work entitled Hereditary Genius Mr. Galton well says, "I conclude each generation has enormous power over the natural gifts of those that follow, and maintain that it is a duty we owe to humanity to investigate the range of that power, and to exercise it in a way that, without being unwise towards ourselves, shall be most advantageous to future inhabitants of the earth."

Racial improvement, or rather racial development, is the one great fundamental principle of civilization, the aim of the moralist and legislator, the problem of each successive age, the vital question which should concern every individual occupying never so lowly and obscure a position in society. Just as we reap the fruits of past ages, and suffer from the mistakes of older forms of civilization, just so surely will posterity be modified by the heirloom we give them, for better or for worse. Hence it must be sufficiently obvious, that the burden of progress rests upon present living generations; that the character of future civilization is determined by the tendency inherent in modern civilization; that the consideration of the best modes of present education and racial improvement obtains in every way to the advantage of those coming after.

THE LAW.

Heredity, which fixes and perpetuates the knowledge acquired through ages, and is a law which underlies all this racial development, is divisible into two factors, of equal importance, and mutually interdependent, namely, congenital and acquired. The first presents traits acquired in the ancestor, and prevents retrogression; the second assures further development. The one is congenital with ancestors, transmits qualities directly or indirectly to descendants, and is also congenital with descendants; the other is not congenital with ancestors, but only with descendants. It exhibits itself in those characters, psychological, moral and physical, which are due to the environment

to the influence of habits, tastes, desires, disease, mode of life, climate, education, or any character acquired by ancestors during their lifetime from external sources, and transmitted to posterity. The best form of heredity is the one only influenced by education, and through which civilization is rendered capable of improvement. It is thus the faculties made susceptible of development are fixed in descendants; the progress of the race assured. It is this constant repetition of impressions, generation after generation, through persistent education, that old tendencies are fixed, modified or eradicated, and new predispositions created. Thus by drawing out the dormant, innate faculties by the proper means, we establish the tendency, at least, in posterity, of further improvement. And as at no other period of its existence the offspring is more susceptible of receiving impressions than through the sympathetic nervous system of the mother during gestation, the subject of Pre-natal Education becomes of deep interest to educators-a subject closely, and, I may say, indissolubly connected with Heredity. In fine it is a part of the law itself.

But, since congenital heredity concerns us so largely, in that it fixes and makes permanent in the offspring what has been acquired by the parent, it seems proper to consider briefly the subject of Heredity in its two forms already mentioned.

1. Congenital Heredity. No one, at this late day, will deny the existence of the law of heredity: it has been so well attested that we have no need in the present instance to waste time in its demonstration.

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Congenital heredity manifests itself in two ways, either directly or indirectly. Characteristics and peculiarities of the most trivial sort may be transmitted from parent to child without a break, for generations; as instance the Austrian lip, a peculiar feature in the ruling family of Austria. Again, the inherited quality may be displayed only every other generation; as in the case of some of the famous Greek athletes, where grandfather and grandson appeared to be the distinguished members of the family. Here every second generation was passed over, or it but slightly exhibited the hereditary traits. This form of heredity has been otherwise termed heredity by alternate generation.

Another form of congenital heredity is illustrated by cases of Reversion, as they are termed. Here a trait of ancestors two or more generations removed may reappear, not in the line of direct descent, but in a distant collateral branch of the family. Thus a grandnephew may show characteristics belonging only to a great-uncle; and