FECUNDITY. 129 



production of twins, it is necessary to notice the popu- 

 lar error respecting the alleged barrenness of females 

 who have themselves been born as twins with male 

 children, for it is still customary among nurses and 

 midwives, in some places, to talk somewhat disrespect- 

 fully of such females, as disqualified for the marriage 

 state, in consequence of their supposed inability to 

 have children. 



" This error, w r hich probably arose from the well- 

 established fact of the barrenness of the free-martin 

 (the imperfect cow-calf twin with a 'bull-calf), was re- 

 futed by Mr. Cribb, in a paper published in 1823, 1 

 which contains six cases of such females becoming 

 mothers. 



" Dr. Sieveking has informed me of a case in which 

 a woman, twin with a male, subsequently gave birth 

 to twins ; and any remaining doubt on the subject is 

 removed by the fact that such females have on some 

 occasions become even more than usually prolific, as 

 in the case which occurred near Maidenhead, 2 of quad- 

 ruplets, consisting of three boys and one girl, who 

 were all reared, and the only female in this quartet 

 subsequently became the mother of triplets, consisting 

 of two boys and one girl." 3 



The following remarkable case would need to be 

 well authenticated to entitle it to credence : " The 



1 London Medical Repository, 1823, pp. 213-216. 



3 Ibid., 1827, p. 350. 



3 In the above quotation from Mr. Sedgwick's paper, British and 

 Foreign Medico- Chirurgical Review, July, 1863, pp. 170, 171, the origi- 

 nal sources from which the cases were compiled are cited in the foot- 

 notes. 



