explanation of all cases. Thus it is said that the craving is
the expression of a natural instinct, the system of the pregnant woman
really requiring the food she longs for. It is quite probable that this is
so in many cases, but it is obviously not so in the majority of cases,
even when we confine ourselves to the longings for fairly natural foods,
while we know so little of the special needs of the organism during
pregnancy that the theory in any case is insusceptible of clear
demonstration.

Allied to this theory is the explanation that the longings are for things
that counteract the tendency to nausea and sickness. Giles, however, in
his valuable statistical study of the longings of a series of 300 pregnant
women, has shown that the percentage of women with longings is exactly the
same (33 per cent.) among women who had suffered at some time during
pregnancy from sickness as among the women who had not so suffered.
Moreover, Giles found that the period of sickness frequently bore no
relation to the time when there were cravings, and the patient often had
cravings after the sickness had ceased.

According to another theory these longings are mainly a matter of
auto-suggestion. The pregnant woman has received the tradition of such
longings, persuades herself that she has such a longing, and then becomes
convinced that, according to a popular belief, it will be bad for the
child if the longing is not gratified. Giles considers that this process
of auto-suggestion takes place "in a certain number, perhaps even in the
majority of cases."[184]

The Duchess d'Abrantes, the wife of Marshal Junot, in her
_Memoires_ gives an amusing account of how in her first pregnancy
a longing was apparently imposed upon her by the anxious
solicitude of her own and her husband's relations. Though
suffering from constant nausea and sickness, she had no longings.
One day at dinner after the pregnancy had gone on for some months
her mother suddenly put down her fork, exclaiming: "I have never
asked you what longing you have!" She replied with truth that she
had none, her days and her nights being occupied with suffering.
"No _envie!_" said the mother, "such a thing was never heard of.
I must speak to your mother-in-law." The two old ladies consulted
anxiously and explained to the young mother how an unsatisfied
longing might produce a monstrous child, and the husband also now
began to