His second
wife bore him 18 children in 8 accouchements. In 1872, 83 of the
87 children were living. The author says this case is beyond all
question, as the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, as well as
the French Academy, have substantial proof of it. The family are
still living in Russia, and are the object of governmental
favors. The following fact is interesting from the point of
exaggeration, if for nothing else: "The New York Medical Journal
is accredited with publishing the following extract from the
history of a journey to Saragossa, Barcelona, and Valencia, in
the year 1585, by Philip II of Spain. The book was written by
Henrique Cock, who accompanied Philip as his private secretary.
On page 248 the following statements are to be found: At the age
of eleven years, Margarita Goncalez, whose father was a
Biscayian, and whose mother was French, was married to her first
husband, who was forty years old. By him she had 78 boys and 7
girls. He died thirteen years after the marriage, and, after
having remained a widow two years, the woman married again. By
her second husband, Thomas Gchoa, she had 66 boys and 7 girls.
These children were all born in Valencia, between the fifteenth
and thirty-fifth year of the mother's age, and at the time when
the account was written she was thirty-five years old and
pregnant again.
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