656 
REMARKS ON PARTURITION IN ANIMALS. 
of the way, and not in accordance with ordinary practice or 
fact, to hold so strongly as Dr. Duncan apparently did, that 
such cases were morbid, and ought to be considered as a dis¬ 
eased state. There was abundant evidence to the contrary 
in the rude health of the parent and offspring in plural cases, 
which unquestionably were most frequently noticed in mul¬ 
tiparous mothers. Notwithstanding Dr. Duncaw’s doubts 
as to their hereditary character, such might, he thought, be 
fairly assumed, on the best of all grounds, that of common 
observation in regard to the transmission of twins in certain 
families. Dr. Keiller then cited his observations on the 
mode in which kittens are born, and the ordinary interval 
between their births, and referred to experiments he had per¬ 
formed in cutting the cord close to the umbilicus of the 
kitten immediately on its expulsion. He proposed making 
these observations and experiments the subject of a special 
paper. Although plural kittens, like plural children, usually 
followed each other in quick succession, a more or less pro¬ 
longed interval between their births occasionally occurred. 
He mentioned cases in which several days had been noticed 
to intervene. 
Dr. Thompson could not agree with the doctrine that twins 
were an abnormality. He had seen several robust women 
with twins and triplets. He had lately attended a lady who 
had twins—she herself being a triplet. If there is a delay of 
twenty-four hours between the births of the twins, he be¬ 
lieved that the second child will be stillborn. Still, he 
granted that the majority of women who have twins are 
delicate. He believed that twinning is hereditary. 
In reference to the long interval that sometimes exists be¬ 
tween the birth of twins, Dr. Macdonald mentioned a case 
that had occurred in the practice of one of the students at 
the New Town Dispensary, where he (Dr. Macdonald) had 
to apply forceps to deliver the woman of her second twin five 
days after the birth of the first; the patient died from post¬ 
partum haemorrhage. 
Dr. Cairns stated that he once gave a cat, when it was in 
labour, a drachm of ergot, and in less than two hours four 
kittens were born. 
Dr. Burns supported the idea as to twinning being heredi¬ 
tary ; he knew a woman who was a twin, she herself had 
twins four times, and her mother had had them three times. 
Dr. Matthews Duncan , in reply, thought the cases men¬ 
tioned were interesting and important, but that they did not 
bear upon the subject he introduced—they w r ere not the 
spontaneous births of mature children, but were all excep- 
