Their length was from 15 1/2 to 16 1/2 inches.
Although regularly formed, they did not seem to have reached
maturity. The mother was much exhausted, but recovered. The
children appeared old-looking, had tremulous voices, and slept
continually; during sleep their temperatures seemed very low.
Kennedy showed before the Dublin Pathological Society 5 fetuses
with the involucra, the product of an abortion at the third
month. At Naples in 1839 Giuseppa Califani gave birth to 5
children; and about the same time Paddock reported the birth in
Franklin County, Pa., of quintuplets. The Lancet relates an
account of the birth of quintuplets, 2 boys and 3 girls, by the
wife of a peasant on March 1, 1854. Moffitt records the birth at
Monticello, Ill., of quintuplets. The woman was thirty-five years
of age; examination showed a breech presentation; the second
child was born by a foot-presentation, as was the third, but the
last was by a head-presentation. The combined weight was
something over 19 pounds, and of the 5, 3 were still-born, and
the other 2 died soon after birth. The Elgin Courant (Scotland),
1858, speaks of a woman named Elspet Gordon, at Rothes, giving
birth to 3 males and 2 females. Although they were six months'
births, the boys all lived until the following morning.
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