Word: deformities
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...germ plasm for generations, like an infinitesimal time bomb, waiting to combine with a similar gene in a cell of the opposite sex. Then, reinforced, it makes its influence felt. Theoretically, a mutation may be beneficial, but most of them are not. Some mutations kill the developing embryo. Some deform or otherwise handicap the young organism...
...There is no nerve connection between mother and fetus, hence no known avenue on which the mother's shocks may travel to deform the child. Some deformities (webbed feet, cleft palate, harelip) result from arrested development in the second month of fetal existence, caused by disease or by physical injury to the mother's abdomen; others (birthmarks, extra fingers or toes) result from excessive development, may be hereditary. Zenith of prenatal impression stories is reached by one of paternal shock. A Mr. K.'s first wife had both legs cut off by a train, died...