P A R T U 
three living boys, and a dead one.—Auguft 22, 1746, the 
wife of Williams, of Coventry-ftreet, Piccadilly, was de¬ 
livered of two boys and two girls, all likely to live.— 
June 1752, a woman in the parifh of Tillicultrie, near 
Stirling, in Scotland, was delivered of four children, 
which were all immediately baptized, and all died at the 
fame time next morning.—In September 1757, a poor 
woman, of Burton Ferry, Glamorganlhire, was delivered 
of three boys and one girl.—Dr. Hamilton writes, that 
not many years ago a woman was delivered of four chil¬ 
dren, at Pennycuick, the feat of Sir John Clark, bart. 
near Edinburgh, when flie was advanced to the middle 
of her laft month of pregnancy, and that fome of thefe 
children lived two or three years. He further fays, that 
he attended a woman at Edinburgh, who, in the feventh 
month of her pregnancy, after a journey of thirty miles, 
was fuddenly delivered of four children, all perfect and 
well grown for the time, of which one was born dead, 
and three alive; but tliofe three died next (Jay- He 
further adds, that thefe are the only cafes of quadruplets, 
or any larger number, he had ever heard of, as born in 
Scotland in his memory. 
Though cafes of five children born at once are fill 
much more uncommon, and though Haller’s alfertion of 
their not happening above once in a million of births may 
be reckoned a very moderate calculation, yet we are not 
altogether without fuch inftances in this country. From 
the Gent. Mag. we learn that, on the 5th of O&ober, 
1736, a woman at a milk-cellar in the Strand was deli¬ 
vered of three boys and two girls at one birth ; and that, 
in March 1739, at Wells in Somerfetftiire, a woman was 
delivered of four fons and one daughter, all alive, all 
chriflened, and all then feemingly likely to live.—In the 
Commercium Literarium Norimbergenfe for the year 
1731, we have two fuch cafes; one hapening in Upper 
Saxony, the other near Prague in Bohemia; in each of 
which five children were born and chriflened, all of whom 
were arrived to that equal degree of maturity which ren¬ 
dered it probable they were all conceived about the 
fame time.—The following more recent cafe was com¬ 
municated by Mr. Hull, the accoucher, at Blackburne 
in Lancafliire, to Dr. Blane, and by him to Dr. Garth- 
fhore, who laid it before the Royal Society; and it was 
printed in the Phil. Tranf. for 1787. p. 344. 
“ Margaret Waddington, aged twenty-one, a poor 
woman of the townfhip of Lower Darwin, near Black¬ 
burn in Lancafliire, formerly delivered of one child at 
the full term of pregnancy, conceived a fecond time 
about the beginning of December 1785, and from that 
period became affedted with the ufual fymptoms that at¬ 
tend breeding. At the end of the firft month, flie be¬ 
came lame, complained of confiderable pains in her loins, 
and the enlargement of her body was fo remarkably rapid, 
that flie was then judged by her neighbours to be almoft 
half-gone with child. When the third month was comple¬ 
ted, flie thought herfelf fully as large as fhe had formerly 
been in her ninth month; and to her former fymptoms 
of naufea, vomiting, lamenefs, and pain of the loins, 
flie had now added a diftrefling fhortnefs of breath. She 
continued to increafe fo rapidly in fize, that flie thought 
fhe could perceive herfelf growing larger every day, and 
w'as under the frequent neceflity of widening her clothes. 
When fhe reckoned herfelf eighteen weeks gone, flie 
firft perceived fomewhat indiftin&ly the motion of a 
child. By the aotli of April, 1786, all her complaints 
were become much more diftrefling; flie had much ten- 
fion and pain over all the abdomen, her vomiting was 
inceftant, and flie could not make water but with the 
utmoft difficulty. The fymptoms being palliated by 
medical afliftance, flie advanced in her pregnancy to 
Monday the 24th of April, when, being fuppoled to have 
arrived at the twentieth week, fhe wasfeized with labour- 
pains. Thefe continued gradually to increafe till the 
next day, about two in the afternoon; at which time 
Mr. Hull was fent for, and flie was foon delivered of a 
Vqg XVIII. No. 1274. 
RITIQN. 681 
fmali, dead, but not putrid, female child. The pains 
continuing, this was foon followed by a fecond lefs 
child ; to this very foon fucceeded a third, larger than 
the firft, which was alive; to thefe a fourth foon fol¬ 
lowed, fomewhat larger than the firft, and very putrid ; 
laft of all, there foon fucceeded a fifth child, larger than 
any of the former, and born alive. Thefe five children 
were all females ; two were born alive; and the whole 
operation was performed in the fpace of 50 minutes; as 
the firft child made its appearance at two in the after¬ 
noon, and the laft at ten minutes before three. Each 
child prefented naturally, was preceded by a feparate 
burft of water, and was delivered by the natural pains 
only. In a ftiort time after the birth of the laft, the pla¬ 
centa was expelled by nature without any haemorrhage, 
was uncommonly large, and in fome places beginning to 
be putrid. It confided of one uniform continued cake, 
and was not divided into diftinft placentulx, the lobu- 
lated appearance being nearly equal all over. Each fu¬ 
nis was contained in a feparate cell, within which each 
child had been lodged; and it was eafy to perceive, by 
the ftate of the funis, and that part of the placenta to 
which it adhered, in which fac the dead, and in which 
the living, children had been contained. The two living 
children having furvived their birth but a fhort time, 
Mr. H. was allowed to carry them home: he preferved 
the whole five in fpirits, and they were exhibited to the 
R. S. when this paper was read, and were afterwards de- 
pofited in the Mufeum of Mr. John Hunter,” which is 
now in Surgeons’ Hall in Lincoln’s Inn Square. 
“The mother, in fpite of the crowds with which her 
chamber was continually filled, continued to recover, 
and was able to be out of bed on the 27th and 28th, her 
third and fourth days; but, finding herfelf then weak, 
kept her bed till the nth of May, when Ihe went out of 
doors, and on the 21ft walked to Blackburn, two miles 
diftant. This was the twenty-feventh day from her de¬ 
livery; flie having entirely recovered her ftrength with¬ 
out any accident.” =v/A 
Though the females of the human fpecies produce 
moft commonly but one child at a birth ; and though 
their formation with only two breafts, and one nipple 
to each, renders it probable they were not originally in¬ 
tended to produce in general more than two; yet, from 
what we know of the womb and its appendages, and 
what from the lateft experiments we are led to conje&ure 
as to the mode of conception, we cannot prefume a priori 
to fet limits to the fertility of nature, nor determine de- 
cifively what number of fcetufes may be conceived and 
nouriflied to a certain period in the human uterus at the 
fame time. The prefent Angular and well-attefted cafe 
allures us, that five have certainly been born at once; 
and we have no title abfolutely to reject all the teftimo- 
nies of even more numerous births, or to fay that, in 
fome rare inftances, this number has never been ex¬ 
ceeded. Dr. Olborn is faid to have once witnefled an 
expulfion of fix abortive ova; and Borellus aflerts, that 
about three years before he publilhed his fecond Century 
of Obfervations, the wife of a nobleman in Languedoc 
was delivered of eight at a birth ! But Borellus, it muft be 
acknowledged, tells many marvellous ftories. We will 
therefore not purfue the fubjeft any farther, left we 
fhould at length reach the hiftory of the lady who had 
as many children as there were days in the year, without 
being able to inform our readers how many days there 
were (at that time) in the year. 
We need hardly mention, that a greater number of 
twin-children, on an average, die during infancy than 
of fingle children ; and this remark applies ftill more 
ftrongly to triplets, quadruplets, See. for it is very 
feldom they are all born living; or, at leaft, they fur- 
vive but a ftiort time. 
There are inftances, however, of triplets living to 
mature age.—Three brothers at the fame birth, by the 
name of John, Michael, and William, Dunn, aged 30 
8 L years. 
