144 



OBSTE TRIG A L PH YSIOL OG Y. 



always born dead, or die soon after birth. In the register of a stud, only 

 one instance of twins was found in every 236!- births. 



Demoussy, cited by Saint-Cyr, observed an example of double gestation ; but the 

 foals, though alive when born, perished soon after. Lemaitre gives a similar instance ; 

 only that one of the foetuses was expelled at four months, while the other was retained, 

 was foaled alive at the usual time, and survived. Trelut has seen a Mare which, at the 

 tenth month of pregnancy, cast two well-formed foals. She had been put to the stallion 

 five times — on April 23, May 4, 16, and 25, and June 5; she aborted on March 15. Her 

 abdomen was enormously large, and some time before abortion she had received a kick 

 in the flank. 



A fourth example of double gestation is related by Goux. The two foals — a colt and 

 a filly — were alive when born, and continued to thrive. Saint-Cyr's father, an agricul- 

 turist, witnessed an analogous occurrence, the progeny also surviving ; and Saint-Cyr 

 himself saw a twin birth in a Mare, one of the foals, which was born dead, weighing 25 

 kilogrammes ; the other, which lived, weighing nearly 26 kilogrammes. 



In the Veterinarian are found a number of instances of twin foals in this country. 

 Mr. Millington (vol. iv., p. 424) gives three cases of this kind, the foals being born 

 alive. In vol. ix. (p. 450) an account is given of a Mare which died of hydrops uteri, 

 in which were twin foals ; in vol. xii. (p. 288) is another account of two born dead, and 

 in vol. xvii. (p. 177) a similar instance. 



A most unusual case of twin-birth is related in the North British Agricnlturist for 

 May 17th, 1876 : — A Mare, the property of Mr. Chapman, farmer, Halnaby, gave birth 

 to a colt and filly foal on the 2d March, 1875, both living. On the i6th March, 1876, 

 she brought forth two filly foals, thus giving birth to four foals — one colt and three fillies 

 — in less than thirteen months. 



The Field (May 10, 1873) reports a Mare in Devonshire, which produced twin foals 

 three times within three years. The Mare went full time in each instance, but only one 

 foal (they were all colts) lived for any length of time. According to the Liverpool Mer- 

 cury (July 23, 1845) ^ Mare at Abringhall, fifteen years old, brought iorth/our colts in 

 the space of fifteen months ! 



Raabe, in 1852, witnessed a triple birth in a five-year-old Mare ; the three foals were 

 born alive, and were completely developed, but they soon died. 



Two instances of triple birth are given by Saint-Cyr, the most remarkable being that 

 recorded by Paugoue. This occurred with a Mare which, put to the Ilorse only once, 

 on February 17th, 1843, aborted during the night of September 27-28, two foals being 

 found in one chorion; on the 25th of the following February, it produced a third foal, 

 perfectly formed, and which lived. In the second case, related by Devilliers, the Mare 

 had been put to the stallion several times in May, June, and July. On March loth it 

 produced three properly-formed but dead foals, one having apparently ceased to live 

 some days before. 



In the Veterinarian for 1875 (P- 334) allusion is made to an agricultural Mare in Nor- 

 folk, eight years old, and not known to have been previously bred from, producing three 

 foals at a birth. The first was dead, and appeared to have been so for several days. 

 The second was born alive immediately after the birth of the first, but only lived about 

 half an hour. The third was born dead seven hours after the second, but its condition 

 showed that at the time parturition commenced it was alive. The foals were all of the 

 same color — bay — and were perfectly formed. The Mare made a good recovery. In 

 the same journal for 1867 (p. 595), Mr. Newman, of Havant, reports the birth of three 

 fine, well-developed foals, two of which were born alive and lived. The Mare, of the 

 cart-breed, had gone the full period of pregnancy. 



The most numerous instances of twin or triple gestation in the Mare are, 

 however, to be attributed to two successive fecundations, of which Saint- 

 Cyr has collected eight examples. In all of these, strange to say, the 

 Mares had been put to a stallion of the equine and asinine species in suc- 

 cession, and brought forth each a foal and a mule. In the majority of 

 these instances, the two fecundations were within a brief period — the one 

 succeeding the other immediately, or, at any rate, within the same day ; 

 though in one instance there was an interval of fifteen days. Which was 

 the elder of the two foals in these births — the one first born or the one 

 first conceived ? Though in the human species such a question might 

 have some importance, with animals it has only a physiological interest; 



