FAMOUS BABIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 247, 18 October 1934, Page 7

FAMOUS BABIES.

Dafoe Hospital for Dionne Quintuplets. WORLD-WIDE INTEREST. TORONTO, October 3. Without the presence of those most directly concerned there was formally opened this month the Dafoe Hospital for the Dionno quintuplets —the five Canadian babies whose welfare is a matter of world-wide concern. Across the road from the little farm dwelling where Ovila Dionne and his wife have spent their married years there has been erected a modern brick building especially designed for the maintenance of the quintuplets. There they will have the most, expert care. Early in September the quintuplets passed their hundredth day since birth, and registered on that occasion an aggregate weight of N32 pounds 5i ounces. Yvonne was the heaviest, at 7 pounds XIJ ounces, and Mario the lightest at 5 pounds 41 ounces. They were making steady progress, all but the two smallest were out of their incubators, and there seemed no reason to doubt their survival. All summer there was a steady run of motor tourists along the narrow country road which leads from Callander, in Northern Ontario, to the Dionne place, but few of them had even a glimpse of tho babies. They were kept in perfect seclusion, and the house was guarded day and night against fire or molestation of any sort. Inspired by the tremendous public interest in the Dionne babies the Dominion Bureau of Statistics has made some research into the rccord of births in Canada and the results are interesting. It found that in the period of seven years from 1926 to 1932 inclusive there were 1,090,032 recorded confinements in Canada, and of these 20^497 —or one in 82.5 —were twin births. Triplet confinements were 203, or fewer than one to 100 twin confinements. Quadruplets were born in one instance, all females, and all died within a few hours of their birth. There were no quintuplets in this period. Quadruplets were born to a New Brunswick family in 1923 —three females and one male —and they all are still living. From its study of the figures the bureau arrived at the conclusion that multiple births occur in greater proportion among mothers of the higher ago groups.