nancy two years
after ovariotomy attended with abnormal development of one of the
children. Cutter speaks of a case in which a woman bore a child one
year after the performance of ovariotomy, and Pippingskold of two cases
of pregnancy after ovariotomy in which the stump as well as the
remaining ovary were cauterized. Brown relates a similar instance with
successful delivery. Bixby, Harding, Walker (1878-9), and Mears all
report cases, and others are not at all rare. In the cases following
shortly after operation, it has been suggested that they may be
explained by the long retention of the ova in the uterus, deposited
them prior to operation. In the presence of such facts one can but
wonder if artificial fecundation of an ovum derived from another woman
may ever be brought about in the uterus of a sterile woman!

Conception Soon After a Preceding Pregnancy.--Conception sometimes
follows birth (or abortion) with astonishing rapidity, and some women
seem for a period of their lives either always pregnant or with infants
at their breasts. This prolificity is often alluded to, and is not
confined to the lower classes, as often stated, but is common even
among the nobility. Illustrative of this, we have examples in some of
the reigning families in Europe to-day. A peculiar instance is given by
Sparkman in which a woman conceived just forty hours after abortion.
Rice mentions the case of a woman who was confined with her first
child, a boy, on July 31, 1870, and was again delivered of another
child on June 4, 1871. She had become pregnant twenty-eight days after
delivery. He also mentions another case of a Mrs. C., who, at the age
of twenty-three, gave birth to a child on September 13, 1880, and bore
a second child on July 2, 1881. She must have become pregnant
twenty-one days after the delivery of her first child.

Superfetation has been known for many centuries; the Romans had laws
prescribing the laws of succession in such cases, and many medical
writers have mentioned it. Hippocrates and Aristotle wrote of it, the
former at some length. Pliny speaks of a slave who bore two infants,
one resembling the master, the other a man with whom she had
intercourse, and cites the case as one of superfetation. Schenck
relates instances, and Zacchias, Velchius, and Sinibaldus mention
eases. Pare seemed to be well conversant with the possibility as well
as the actuality of superfetation; and Harvey reports that a certain
maid, gotten