JOB LEWIS SMITH ON MATERNAL IMPRESSIONS AS A CAUSE OF CLEFT LIP AND PALATE (1890)

Abstract

Job Lewis Smith (1827-1897), a founder of the American Pediatric Society and who, with Abraham Jacobi, established pediatrics as a specialty in our country, was a firm believer that strong mental impressions during pregnancy might be a cause of congenital malformations. He gave the following explanation of the cause of cleft lip and palate in the seventh edition of his textbook, published in 1890.1 Mrs. D[unknown], Eighth avenue, New York, seven months before the birth of her child, when visiting at a distance, accidentally broke the plate of a full set of upper teeth. The line of fracture was antero-posterior and through the centre of the plate. Being away from home, she was much annoyed by the accident and retained the fragments of the plate in situ by pressure with the tongue. As she could not open her mouth without the plate falling out, except it was retained by pressure with the tongue, her mind was dwelling almost constantly on the accident during the few days of her visit. Her boy, born seven months subsequently, had a hare-lip and cleft palate. The mother stated that the deficiency in the lip and palate corresponded precisely to the location of the fracture in the plate.