THE BIRTH OF SIX PAIRS OF FRATERNAL TWINS TO THE SAME PARENTS

Abstract

The literature contains numerous reports of women who have had a large number of multiple births. Probably the most frequently cited is that mentioned by Geissler 1 concerning Mary Austin, who, during thirty-three years of married life, is said to have borne forty-four children, thirteen pairs of twins and six sets of triplets. One sister of this mother is reported to have had twenty-six children and another forty-one. In addition to what must have been her principal occupation. Mary Austin apparently found time to acquire a doctor's degree. An even more remarkable case is that reported by Boer 2 of a Viennese woman who bore thirty-two children in eleven births. In the third month of her twelfth pregnancy her abdomen was described as being as large as that of a normal woman at term. This reference to the size of her abdomen suggests that she was well on the way