Legal Encouragement of Prolificity.--In Quebec Province, Canada,
according to a Montreal authority, 100 acres of land are allotted
to the father who has a dozen children by legitimate marriage.
The same journal states that, stimulated by the premium offered,
families of 20 or more are not rare, the results of patriotic
efforts. In 1895, 1742 "chefs de famille" made their claim
according to the conditions of the law, and one, Paul Bellanger,
of the River du Loup, claimed 300 acres as his premium, based on
the fact that he was the father of 36 children. Another claimant,
Monsieur Thioret de Sainte Genevieve, had been presented by his
wife, a woman not yet thirty years old, with 17 children. She had
triplets twice in the space of five years and twins thrice in the
mean time. It is a matter of conjecture what the effect would be
of such a premium in countries with a lowering birth-rate, and a
French medical journal, quoting the foregoing, regretfully wishes
for some countrymen at home like their brothers in Quebec.
Old Explanations of Prolificity.--The old explanation of the
causation of the remarkable exceptions to the rules of
prolificity was similar to that advanced by Empedocles, who says
that the greater the quantity of semen, the greater the number of
children at birth.
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