682 
PARTURITION. 
years, are now (1813) living in London. Three fillers, 
Anne, Sufan, and Catharine, Howel, were born to¬ 
gether at Malwyd in Merionethlhire : at the age of fif¬ 
teen years, in 1796, they were all three very beautiful, 
and fo alike that the llightell difference could not be 
perceived. Oljletric Studies, p. 50.—Mary Baker, wife 
of Robert Baker, carrier, at Streatham, in the county 
of Surrey, was delivered on the nth of December, 1796, 
of three children, one boy and two girls ; the children 
all thrived well, have all grown up hale and ftrong, and 
are all now living, having on Thurfday Dec. n, 1817, 
completed their twenty-firft year. The father and mo¬ 
ther are alfo alive, and in the enjoyment of good health. 
Morning Chronicle, Dec. 13, 1817. 
A moll extraordinary inftance of human fecundity is 
related in the Menagiana, tom. i. p. 33a ; which, if it 
does not convince, may at lead amufe; it is the abbe 
himfelf who fpeaks. “ Mr. D-told me, the day 
before yelterday, that the wife of a petty Ihopkeeper, in 
his neighbourhood, of the name of Biunet, had borne 
twenty-one children in feven fuccdfive child-bearings. 
That thefe triplet-children had not only been baptized, 
but had lived, fome feveral days, others feveral months, 
and that twelve of the molt robuft were Hill alive, who 
were all grown up, and in good health. He added, that 
as doubts might be entertained whether the hulband or 
the wife contributed the moll to produce this kind of 
prodigy, the man made a further experiment, by de¬ 
ducing a fervant girl who lived with them. At the end 
of nine months, Hie likewife was delivered of three male 
children, who, notwithllanding their mother’s youth 
and delicatenefs, lived a fortnight or three weeks.” 
M. Menage adds, that probably the whole ancient 
world could not produce another example of a fecundity 
fo prodigious ! But this Parifian father of multitudes 
mull be confidered as nothing, when compared with the 
wonderful Ruffian, who is mentioned in the Gentleman’s 
Magazine for September 1783, p. 733. This man, 
Feoder Waffilief, a peafant, aged 75, is laid to have had 
By his firlt wife; By his fecond wife ; 
4X4=16 6X2=12 
7 X 3 = 21 2X3 = 6 
16X2=32 _ — — 
— — Births 8 18 Children. 
Births 27 69 Children. 
Births in all, 35 ; Children, 87 ; of which 84 are living, 
and only three buried. The above relation, however 
aftoniffiing, may be depended upon, as it came direClly 
from an Englilh merchant at St. Peterlburgh, to his re¬ 
lation in England, who added that the peafant was to be 
introduced to the emprefs. The above letter is dated 
Aug. 13, 1782, at which time the man was faid “ to be 
alive, and in perfeCl health, in the government of Mof- 
cow.” 
OfSuPERFCETATiON.—The cafes we have related, p. 680, 
of twins being born at remote periods, fix weeks or more, 
from each other, have given rife to an opinion that they 
mull have been conceived at different times; for the 
term fuperfcetation implies a fecond impregnation whilll a 
child is in utero. But this cannot be, if the commonly- 
received theory of conception, which affumes the tranf- 
miffion of the male femen along the uterus to the tubs 
Fallopianse, be correCl; becaufe, the os uteri being 
blocked up by coagulable lymph, and the entrance to 
the Fallopian tubes being obftruCled by the decidua 
uteri foon after conception, render fuch an occurrence 
impoffible. (See, however, Smellie’s remark upon theo¬ 
ries, p. 670.) “Thofe cafes in which a plurality of chil¬ 
dren haveexilled, and in which fuperfcetation is fuppofed 
to have occurred, are referable, either (fays Dr. Conqueft.) 
to the premature death of one fcetus, which has remained 
in utero with the living child to the full period of utero- 
geltation ; or, to the defcent of the two ova into the 
uterus from the ovarium not obferving the fame order of 
time; one being more llowly evolved than the other, al¬ 
though both might have been fecundated by the fame 
coitus.” Outlines of Midwifery, p. 141, 2. 
Pliny, the naturalift, relates an inftance of a female 
Have who produced twins, one of which refembled the 
mailer of the Have, the other another man with whom Ihe 
had had fexual connexion. This faCl, although it might 
lead to the fufpicion of the poffibility of fuperfcetation, 
Hill it would by no means demonllrate it. That quoted 
by Buffon is more conclufive: In the year 1714, a wo¬ 
man of South-Carolina, when in bed, was approached by 
a negro, who, with a poignard in his hand, obliged her, 
by violent menaces, to fubmit to his defires : nine months 
afterwards Hie was delivered of two children, one of them 
black, the other a mulatto. This, being at that period 
a lingular cafe in hiftory, might be confidered as doubt¬ 
ful ; but fimilar inllances have fince occurred, to fupport 
it, and apparently to prove the poffibility of fuperfce¬ 
tation. 
Monf. Baudelocque relates, in the fecond volume of 
his Traite de l’Art des Accouchemens, a cafe of fuper- 
foetation obferved, in 1780, by Dr. Defgranges, of Lyons. 
On the birth of the firft infant, the difcharge from the 
uterus ceafed immediately after delivery ; no milk ap¬ 
peared in the breads ; and the belly remained more vo¬ 
luminous than ordinary. Twenty days afterwards this 
woman admitted the careffes of her hulband, and a few 
days after that ftie felt the motions of a foetus in the 
uterus. After the lapfe of a hundred and fixty-eight 
days from her former accouchement, Ihe gave birth to a 
full-grown infant; fo that it is apparent that this was 
conceived about feventy-two days after the former. Both 
of the children were living in 1782. 
A woman of Arles produced, November 11, 1796, a 
female infant, apparently at the full period of geftation, 
which lived feven months. 1 The lochiae were fuppreffed 
on the fourth day, and no milk appeared in the breafts, 
although meafures were taken to folicit it, from the de¬ 
fire of the mother to fuckle her child. Six weeks after 
her delivery, this woman, with much furprife, felt the 
motions of a fcetus in the uterus ; but, recollecting that 
file had cohabited with her hulband four days after her 
accouchement, file confidered that Ihe was pregnant 
from that period ; but this conjecture was found to be 
incorreCl, by her giving birth to another female child, of 
the full growth and development, at the termination of the 
fifth month from that of the former. The milk now ap¬ 
peared in her breafts, with which the mother fuckled 
both her children. This faCl is attefted by two medical 
praflitioners. 
M. Delmas, a furgeon refidentat Rouen, relates, that 
a woman of that city, thirty-fix years of age, was de¬ 
livered at the hofpital at Rouen, on the 26th of Febru¬ 
ary, 1806, of two male children, one white, the other 
mulatto. This woman had been pregnant eight months; 
the tw'o placentas, united in the manner generally ob¬ 
ferved in the cafe of twins, were expelled within a few 
minutes after the birth of the fcetufes. The woman 
lived with a white man, but Ihe had twice had connexion 
with a negro about the time when flie believed herfelf to 
have been pregnant four months. The infants lived 
but three hours. 
The following has been publilhed, under the title of 
“a Cafe of Superfcetation,” by Dr. Maton, in the fourth 
volume of the TranfaCtions of the College of Phyficians, 
p. 161. A lady, who had previoufty borne children, 
had, on the 12th of November, 1807, another male child, 
which was brought forth under circumftances peculiarly 
diftreffing, being dropt on a bundle of ftraw at midnight 
in an uninhabited room. Though this infant had every 
appearance of health at the time of birth, he lived about 
nine days onlj r . On the 2d of February, 1806, (not 
quite three months from the former accouchement,) file 
was delivered of another male infant completely formed, 
and apparently in perfeCt health. This child died in 
about three months of meafles. 
Thefe 
