ing, but quite small. The mother was married six years previously
and then weighed 273 pounds. She had given birth to 2 pairs of twins,
and, with these 3 boys and 5 girls, she had borne 12 children in six
years. She herself was a triplet and her father and her mother were of
twin births and one of her grandmothers was the mother of 5 pairs of
twins. This case was most celebrated and was much quoted, several
British journals extracting it.

Watering of Maregnac 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 Mirandulae, quoted by Pare, 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. 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. Jonston quotes
Baytraff as saying that he knew of a case in which 9 children were born
simultaneously; and also says that the Countess of Altdorf gave birth
to twelve at one birth. Albucasis mentions a case of fifteen
well-formed children at a birth. According to Le Brun, Gilles de
Trazegines, who accompanied Saint Louis to Palestine, and who was made
Constable of France, was one of thirteen infants at a simultaneous
accouchement. The Marquise, his mother, was impregnated by her husband
before his departure, and during his absence had 13 living children.
She was suspected by the native people and thought to be an adulteress,
and some of the children were supposed to be the result of
superfetation. They condemned them all to be drowned, but the Marquis
appeared upon the scene about this time and, moved by compassion,
acknowledged all 13. They grew up and thrived, and took the name of
Trazegines, meaning, in the o