Physical Damage to the Fetus

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Abstract
Direct evidence of damage due to fetus-environment interaction exists with respect to the chronic brain syndromes that originate in the perinatal period. The nature of the environmental agents that are productive of brain syndromes during the early months of pregnancy is to a large extent unknown, although there is indirect evidence that they exist and some rare toxic agents have been identified. Evidence that the functional disorders may be related to the prenatal damage is yet to be found. A great deal of survey work remains to be done in the field of congenital malformations to formulate hypothesis capable of being applicable to man. A vast amount of experimental work in this area has been of value from the point of view of biologic understanding but has not produced a single hypothesis capable of substantiation in human data. In the field of perinatal brain syndrome, the type of research most lacking appears to be the identification of the possible minor effects of lower exposures to agents whose major effects are well documented. Such studies must be large and well may be expensive but there is no alternative method of obtaining this information. In the area of mental retardation, a number of challenging hypothesis linking mental defect to general environment during early pregnancy await test.