There is room for much
speculation as to what this case really was. There is a
possibility that it was simply a case of hydatidiform or multiple
molar pregnancy, elaborated by an exhaustive imagination and
superstitious awe. As late as 1799 there was a woman of a town of
Andalusia who was reported to have been delivered of 16 male
infants, 7 of which were alive two months later.
Mayo-Smith remarks that the proportion of multiple births is not
more than 1 per cent of the total number of parturitions. The
latest statistics, by Westergaard, give the following averages to
number of cases of 100 births in which there were 2 or more at a
birth:--
Sweden, 1.45
Germany, 1.24
Bavaria, 1.38
Denmark, 1.34
Holland, 1.30
Prussia, 1.26
Scotland, 1.22
Norway, 1.32
Saxony, 1.20
Italy, 1.21
Austria, 1.17
Switzerland, 1.16
France, 0.99
Belgium, 0.97
Spain, 0.85
In Prussia, from 1826 to 1880, there were 85 cases of quadruplets
and 3 cases of 5 at a birth.
The most extensive statistics in regard to multiple births are
those of Veit, who reviews 13,000,000 births in Prussia.
According to his deductions, twins occur once in 88 births;
triplets, once in 7910; and quadruplets, once in 371,126.
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