How were the births of babies with cauls viewed in the past?
The 17th-century translation of The Secret Miracles of Nature described a popular belief that “children born with a caul over their faces, are born with an omen, or sign of good or bad luck”. This comment was a reference to babies born with membranes enveloping their heads, like a little helmet or a scarf, occasionally covering the shoulders, too. Cauls were sometimes preserved by laying them on paper or cloth and drying them out. These preserved cauls were often handed down through families, but as auspicious objects they could be sold for significant sums. Advertisements appeared in Victorian newspapers: in Charles Dickens’ 1850 novel, David Copperfield recounted that his caul was advertised for sale for 15 guineas. Seafarers were particularly interested in acquiring these artefacts, because babies born with cauls were believed to be immune from drowning. The idea was that, just as the caul had protected the foetus in the womb as it floated in the amniotic fluid, so anyone who carried one would be similarly safe. Cauls carried dark omens, too. It was believed that “he who is born to be hanged will never drown” – that anyone born with a caul was destined to leave the world in a hangman’s hood in place of the membrane “hood” with which they were born. The belief in cauls as omens persisted well into the 20th century. Many, including the 16th-century Dutch medic Levinus Lemnius, author of The Secret Miracles of Nature, remained sceptical of superstitious claims about preserved cauls. Comic writer Thomas Hood even ended his poem The Sea-Spell with a lament about a drowning sailor’s futile reliance on a charm for protection: “Heaven never heard his cry, nor did / The ocean heed his caul.”