QUINTUPLETS AND MORE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3136, 25 September 1922, Page 7

QUINTUPLETS AND MORE.

An announcement of the birth o1 quintuplets at Natchez, in Mississippi hag set a contributor to the New York Herald investigating the records. He says:— • Much in the manner of a. lawyer ] sought the books and precedent and found it in the tome, "Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine/' by Drs Gouid and Pyte, which informs me that quintuplets, but'no mention is made oi their survival. In the "Philosophical Transactions of the Hoyal Society of London" Garthshore speaks of a healthy woman, one Margaret Waddington, giving; birth to five girls, two of whom lived. These two children weighed at birth eight pounds twelve ounces and nine pounds respectively. The Prestage quintuplets of Mississippi averaged two and a half pound* each and the attending physician is quoted acs being confident of their thriving. The Gentleman's Magazine (London) reports the case of a poor woman who gave birth to three boys and two girts in a, dairy cellar in the Strand, London, in March, 1736. The same journal reported in 1739 the birth of fourjxiys and a girl, all of whom were christened and healthy. Going back still further in time we have the instances of quintuplet births reported in 1549 by Pare, who had an uncommon and indefatigable sense for the extraordinary. The earliest record of quintuplets we have is i that of Pliny, who reports that on the peninsula of Greece there was a woman who gave birth to quintuplets on four different occasions—but then Pliny also states, positively, that there were authentice records of as many as twelve at a. birth. Aristotle gives >t as his opinion that one woman can bring forth no more than five children at a single birth and discredits reports of multiplicity above that number. <>fg| Cases in which there is a repetition of multiple births are quite numerous. • and sometimes so often repeated as to produce a family of almost incredible size. Pare, who I am told, "may be believed when ho quotes from his own experience," gives an interesting instance of simple arithmetic progression ; ho tells of the wife of the last Lord de Maldemeure—a tale of marvellous prolificity. Within a year of her marriage she gave hirth to twins; in the next year to triplets; in the third year to quadruplets; in the fourth to quintuplets, and in the fifth year bore sextuplets—her last and fatal confinement. The case attracted great notice at the time, it is reported, for the family was quite noble and very well known.

Quoting again from the Gentleman's Magazine the tireless Gould and Pyle give the case of a woman, a shop keeper named Blunet, who had twenty-one children in seven successive births. They were all born alive and twelve still survived and wore healthy. Pico della. Mirandola, the Italian scholar, gathered from the ancient Egyptian" inscriptions that the women of Egypt brought forth sometimes eight children at a birth, and thai one woman bore thirty children in four confinements. Trustworthy records of sextuplets are, of course, extremely scarce. There are a few catalogued at Washington and but two authentic cases are on record in the United States. On December 30, 1.831, a woman in Dropin was delivered of six daughters, all living, and only ;l little smaller than usaial m size. The mother was not quit|e 20 years old, but was of strong constitution ; the children lived long enough to he baptised, but died on the evening of their births. The Boston Medical and Surgican Journal records tne case of a Maine woman who brought forth, in a single accouchement, on June 27. 1847, six children, of whom two survived and.' together with the mother, were "doing well." Tlie Journal of the American .Medical Association cites the birth ol sextuplets in Dallas, Tex., in .1888. Mn George Hirsh, the mother in this case. and the four boys and two girls. smaJ but all perfect and well formed, alsc "were doing well." I Passing beyond sextuplets we find! but rare records in olden days, andi practically none for modern times; this old records are fantastic and even ilj they are untrue they evidence a fer-J tility of imagination which abates the | breath. Pico della Mirandula, quotecj by Pare, says that one Dorothea, an] Italian, bore 20 children at two con-I finements, the first time bearing ninil and the second time eleven. • j One of the most whimsical and cele-l brated cases of great prolificity is that| of the Countess Margaret, daughter oil Florent IV.. Earl of Holland, audi spouse of Countess Margaret, daughi ter of Florent IV., Earl of Holland,! and spouse of Count Herman of Hcune-B berg. The event is supposed to navel occurred on Good Friday, 1278. The? Countess was at this time 42 years ofyj age. and at one birth brought forth! 365 infants. They were all baptised inffl two large brazen dishes by the Bishop!! of Treras: themales were called John.H the females Elizabeth. As late as thel last century the basins were still onjj exhibition in the vollage church of™ Losd'un, and most of the visitors to^i The Hague went out to see them, asTI they were accounted one of the curi-H osities of Holland. ffi The affliction was ascribed to them curse o'f a poor woman who, holdinj jjj twins in her arms, approached theft countess for aid. She was not onlya denied alms, but was insulted by be | ing told that her twins were by d'ifl ferent fathers —an occurrence known teffl happen not infrequently. The pooiS mother prayed God to send the count-ffi eiss as many children as'there were dayfi in the year. Gould and Pyle comment S that there is room for much speculatior 1 as to what this case really was. There| is a possibility, they say, that it was! simply a case of multiple molar preg-gj nancy, elaborated by an exhaustive™ imagination and superstitious awe. || From such a flight into the ineredi-|i ble, to consider quadruplets seems a|| prosaic matter; yet the index cata-Ij l'ogue of the Surgeon-General's Library^ gives less than one hundred cases :m quadruplets are supposed to occur onceß in about every 400,000 birthiS'. __fi Mr" and Mrs Page, " of Ingersoll I Texas-, during the three years of theirl married life had eight offspring. On » January 10, 1890, Mrs Page was de-^ livercd of quadruplets, weighing in theß aggregate 19* pounds. H During the years 1825 to 1880, mi Prussia, there were eighty-five cases of hj quadruplets and three cases of quin-J|J tuplets. Comparative statistics reveal ,t that twins occur about once in every \ 120 births in Philadelphia and New i York; the proportion is just twice as great in Bohemia, where it is estimated that one birth in every sixty is that of twins. An interesting record of prolificity is : evidenced by the curious epitaph at '•' Conway, Carnarvonshire : —"Here lieth, the body of Nicholas Hookes of Conway, gentleman, who was the one-and-fortieth child of his father, William Hooks, Esq., by Alice, his wife, and the father of twenty-seven children. He died 20th of March, 1637." This inscription is rivaled by one in Litchfield. Conn., which reads: —"Here lies the body of Mrs Mary, wife of Dr John Bull, Esq. She died November 4, 1778. aelat ninety, having had thirteen children, 101 grandchildren, 274 great-

grandchildren and 22 great-great-grandchildren, a total of 410; surviving, 336." When you indulge in a computation of the possible number of living descendants one person may have you have luxuriously large figures to satisfy yourself with. Gould and Pyle mention "that "in Esher Church there is an inscription, scarcely legible, which records the death of the mother of Mrs Mary Morton on April 18, 1634, saying that she was the wonder of her sex and age, for she lived to see nearly 400 of her offspring."