415 



in women who have had twins, as well as in animals, one should find two 

 cicatriculae, both in the same ovarium, or one in each. Twins are gene- 

 rally, very like one another, in features and dispositons. 



The multiplicity of foetuses, in the same pregnancy, is occasioned by 

 the presence of several vesiculse, ready to be detached from the ovaria, 

 and consequently ripe for fecundation. This multiplicity of offspring 

 contributes very little to increase population, for, they are, in general, less 

 robust and strong, and not so capable of reproduction ; they, besides, ex- 

 haust the strength of the mother, and their birth is often fatal to her. 

 The number of children which a woman might bring into the world, 

 from the period of puberty to the cessation of the menstrual discharge, 

 would be much greater than it generally is, if no time were lost. Some 

 women have been know to have twenty-four, thirty, thirty-nine, and even 

 fifty-three children. A woman died in North-America, after having had 

 five hundred children and grandchildren, of whom two hundred and five 

 survived her. 



It is now well known, that the number of male children who are born, 

 exceeds, in general, that 'of the females. The difference, in some coun- 

 tries, is estimated at one in twenty-one, at a fourteenth, a twelfth, and 

 sometimes, though rarely, at a third. In all countries of the world, poly- 

 gamy is, therefore, in direct opposition to the intentions of Nature, and 

 to the multiplication of the species : this is proved, in a most undeniable' 

 manner by the loss of population in those countries in which this practice 

 exists. The boys, more numerous than the girls, during the early part of 

 life, exposed afterwards, to the dangers of war, of navigation, and occu- 

 pied in laborious occupations, lead a more laborious and anxious life, and 

 die in great numbers, so that the equilibrium is soon restored, and the 

 least numerous portion of the human species, at the cradle, forms about 

 two-thirds of it, in old age, since we always see more women than men 

 reach a very advanced age. 



CCXIX. Of superf delations. The cases of foetuses bom with unequal 

 degrees of deveiopemerit, are not to be considered as superfoetations, 

 but as twin cases. Thus, if in a case of twins, one foetus is of its full 

 size, while the other is an embryo whose size does not exceed that of a 

 foetus in the first month; it does not follow that their conception took 

 place at different and distinct periods, but merely that for some reason 

 or other, one of the germs has been incapable of growth and develope- 

 ment. 



To settle the question of superfoetations, one should know whether a 

 woman, with a single uterus, is capable of conceiving two months after 

 effective copulation. Haller is of opinion, that the cervix of the uterus 

 is always open to the semen ; but how is the latter to reach the ovaria, 

 through the adhesions of the chorion to the uterus? It appears easier, 

 where the two conceptions are separated by a short interval ; thus, the 

 white woman mentioned by Buffon, who, in the course of one morn- 

 ing, had connexion with her husband and with a negro slave, bore two 

 children of different colours. Hence, likewise, it sometimes happens 

 that one of two twins is, by its features, a living testimony of adul- 

 tery. 



Two children, born with an interval of some months between their 

 births, cannot be considered as twins, though they may have existed some 

 time together within the mother's womb. The possibility of such super- 



