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Legal Encouragement of Prolificity. In Quebec Province, Canada, according to a Montreal authority, 100 acres of land are allotted to the father who has a dozen children by legitimate marriage. The same journal states that, stimulated by the premium offered, families of 20 or more are not rare, the results of patriotic efforts. In 1895, 1742 "chefs de famille" made their claim according to the conditions of the law, and one, Paul Bellanger, of the River du Loup, claimed 300 acres as his premium, based on the fact that he was the father of 36 children. Another claimant, Monsieur Thioret de Sainte Genevieve, had been presented by his wife, a woman not yet thirty years old, with 17 children. She had triplets twice in the space of five years and twins thrice in the mean time. It is a matter of conjecture what the effect would be of such a premium in countries with a lowering birth-rate, and a French medical journal, quoting the foregoing, regretfully wishes for some countrymen at home like their brothers in Quebec.

Old Explanations of Prolificity. The old explanation of the causation of the remarkable exceptions to the rules of prolificity was similar to that advanced by Empedocles, who says that the greater the quantity of semen, the greater the number of children at birth. Pare, later, uses a similar reason to explain the causation of monstrosities, grouping them into two classes, those due to deficiency of semen, such as the acephalous type, and those due to excess, such as the double monsters. Hippocrates, in his work on the "Nature of the Infant," tells us that twins are the result of a single coitus, and we are also informed that each infant has a chorion; so that both kinds of plural gestation (monochorionic and dichorionic) were known to the ancients. In this treatise it is further stated that the twins may be male or female, or both males or both females; the male is formed when the semen is thick and strong.

The greatest number of children at a single birth that it is possible for a woman to have has never been definitely determined. Aristotle gives it as his opinion that one woman can bring forth no more than 5 children at a single birth, and discredits reports of multiplicity above this number; while Pliny, who is not held to be so trustworthy, positively states that there were authentic records of as many as 12 at a birth. Throughout the ages in which superstitious distortion of facts and unquestioning credulity was unchecked, all sorts of incredible accounts of prolificity are found. Martin Cromerus, a Polish historian, quoted by Pare, who has done some good work in statistical research on this subject, says a that Margaret, of a noble and ancient family near Cracovia, the wife of Count Virboslaus, brought forth 36 living children on January 20, 1296.

The celebrated case of Countess Margaret, daughter of Florent IV, Earl of Holland, and spouse of Count Hermann of Henneberg, was supposed to have occurred just before this, on Good Friday, 1278. She was at this time forty-two years of age, and at one birth brought forth 365 infants, 182 males, 182 females, and 1 hermaphrodite. They were all baptized in two large brazen dishes by the Bishop of Treras, the males being called John, the females Elizabeth. During the last century the basins were still on exhibition in the village church of Losdun, and most of the visitors to Hague went out to see them, as they were reckoned one of the curiosities of Holland. The affliction was ascribed to the curse of a poor woman who, holding twins in her arms, approached the Countess for aid. She was not only denied alms, but was insulted by being told that her twins were by different fathers, whereupon the poor woman prayed God to send the Countess as many children as there were days in the year. There is room for much speculation as to what this case really was. There is a possibility that it was simply a case of hydatidiform or multiple molar pregnancy, elaborated by an exhaustive imagination and superstitious awe. As late as 1799 there was a woman of a town of Andalusia who was reported to have been delivered of 16 male infants, 7 of which were alive two months later.

In Prussia, from 1826 to 1880, there were 85 cases of quadruplets and 3 cases of 5 at a birth.

The most extensive statistics in regard to multiple births are those of Veit, who reviews 13,000,000 births in Prussia. According to his deductions, twins occur once in 88 births; triplets, once in 7910; and quadruplets, once in 371,126. Recent statistics supplied by the Boards of Health of New York and Philadelphia place the frequency of twin births in these cities at 1 in every 120 births, while in Bohemia twins occur once in about 60 births, a proportion just twice as great. Of 150,000 twin pregnancies studied by Veit, in one-third both children were boys; in slightly less than one-third both were girls; in the remaining third both sexes were represented.

Authentic records of 5 and 6 at a birth are extremely rare and infinitesimal in proportion. The reputed births in excess of 6 must be looked on with suspicion, and, in fact, in the great majority of reports are apochryphal.

The examples of multiple births of a single pregnancy will be taken up under their respective numbers, several examples of each being given, together with the authorities. Many twin and triplet brothers have figured prominently in history, and, in fact, they seem especially favored. The instance of the Horatii and the Curatii, and their famous battle, on which hung the fate of Rome and Alba, is familiar to every one, their strength and wisdom being legendary with the Romans.

Twins and triplets, being quite common, will not be considered here, although there are 2 cases of interest of the latter that deserve citation. Sperling reports 2 instances of triplets; in the first there was 1 placenta and chorion, 2 amnions, and the sex was the same; in the second case, in which the sexes were different, there were 3 placentas, 3 chorions, and 3 amnions. What significance this may have is only a matter of conjecture. Petty describes a case of triplets in which one child was born alive, the other 2 having lost their vitality three months before. Mirabeau has recently found that triple births are most common (1 to 6500) in multiparous women between thirty and thirty-four years of age. Heredity seems to be a factor, and duplex uteruses predispose to multiple births. Ross reports an instance of double uterus with triple pregnancy.

Quadruplets are supposed to occur once in about every 400,000 births. There are 72 instances recorded in the Index Catalogue of the Surgeon General's Library, U. S. A., up to the time of compilation, not including the subsequent cases in the Index Medicus. At the Hotel-Dieu, in Paris, in 108,000 births, covering a period of sixty years, mostly in the last century, there was only one case of quadruplets. The following extract of an account of the birth of quadruplets is given by Dr. De Leon of Ingersoll, Texas: -

"I was called to see Mrs. E. T. Page, January 10, 1890, about 4 o'clock A.M.; found her in labor and at full time, although she assured me that her 'time' was six weeks ahead. At 8 o'clock A.M. I delivered her of a girl baby; I found there were triplets, and so informed her. At 11 A.M. I delivered her of the second girl, after having rectified presentation, which was singular, face, hands, and feet all presented; I placed in proper position and practised 'version.' This child was 'still-born,' and after considerable effort by artificial respiration it breathed and came around 'all right.' The third girl was born at 11.40 A.M. This was the smallest one of the four. In attempting to take away the placenta, to my astonishment I found the feet of another child. At 1 P.M. this one was born; the head of this child got firmly impacted at the lower strait, and it was with a great deal of difficulty and much patient effort that it was finally disengaged; it was blocked by a mass of placenta and cords.

The first child had its own placenta; the second and third had their placenta; the fourth had also a placenta. They weighed at birth in the aggregate 19 1/2 pounds without clothing; the first weighed 6 pounds; the second 5 pounds; the third 4 1/2 pounds; the fourth 4 pounds. Mrs. Page is a blonde, about thirty-six years old, and has given birth to 14 children, twins three times before this, one pair by her first husband. She has been married to Page three years, and has had 8 children in that time. I have waited on her each time. Page is an Englishman, small, with dark hair, age about twenty-six, and weighs about 115 pounds. They are in St. Joseph, Mo., now, having contracted with Mr. Uffner of New York to travel and exhibit themselves in Denver, St. Joseph, Omaha, and Nebraska City, then on to Boston, Mass., where they will spend the summer."

Tags: Pregnancy & Childbirth