Good Golly How Gravid!

[gnommi]

Watering of Maregnac (c. 1880) speaks of the simultaneous birth of 8 children at one time. When several months pregnant the woman was seized with colicky pains and thought them a call of nature. She went into a vineyard to answer it, and there, to her great astonishment, gave birth to 8 fetuses. Watering found them enclosed in a sac, and thought they probably had died from mutual pressure during growth. The mother made a good recovery.

In 1755 Seignette of Dijon reports the simultaneous birth of nine children. Franciscus Picus Mirandulæ, quoted by Paré, says that one Dorothea, an Italian, bore 20 children at 2 confinements, the first time bearing 9 and the second time eleven. He gives a picture of this marvel of prolificity, in which her belly is represented as hanging down to her knees, and supported by a girdle from the neck (Fig. 23, above!). In the Annals, History, and Guide to Leeds and York, according to Walford, there is mention of Ann Birch, who in 1781 was delivered of 10 children. One daughter, the sole survivor of the 10, married a market gardener named Platt, who was well known in Leeds.


Do YOU believe them? These sorts of things I thought only happened with modern IVF techniques... I do, however, rather feel like the poor woman above at the moment... Gah, bloat. Hopefully I shall not be answering a call of nature in a field and give birth to 8 dead foetuses in a sac, however. If I do, I shall be sure to bloggit.

The above and a million more bizarre medical anomalies can be found online here. (I have a hard copy that was sensibly released in a plain white binding!). That'll give you something to browse through on a rainy day.