Of the children, 47 by the first husband and 52
by the second were baptized; the other births were still or
premature. There were 33 confinements in all.
Extreme Prolificity by Single Births.--The number of children a
woman may bring forth is therefore not to be accurately stated;
there seems to be almost no limit to it, and even when we exclude
those cases in which remarkable multiplicity at each birth
augments the number, there are still some almost incredible cases
on record. The statistics of the St. Pancras Royal Dispensary,
1853, estimated the number of children one woman may bear as from
25 to 69. Eisenmenger relates the history of a case of a woman in
the last century bearing 51 children, and there is another case
in which a woman bore 44 children, all boys. Atkinson speaks of a
lady married at sixteen, dying when she was sixty-four, who had
borne 39 children, all at single births, by one husband, whom she
survived. The children, 32 daughters and 7 sons, all attained
their majority. There was a case of a woman in America who in
twenty-six years gave birth to 22 children, all at single births.
Thoresby in his "History of Leeds," 1715, mentions three
remarkable cases--one the wife of Dr.
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