Some books speak of seven, eight, nine, ten, and more, children at a birth. But these statements are so marvelous, so incredible, and unsupported by proper testimony, that they do not merit any degree of confidence. The climax of such extraordinary assertions is reached, and a good illustration of the credulity of the seventeenth century furnished, by a writer named Goftr. This traveller, in 1630, saw a tablet in a church at Leusdown (Lausdunum), about five miles from the Hague, with an inscription stating that a certain illustrious countess, whose name and family he records, brought forth at one birth, in the fortieth year of her age, in the year 1276, 365 infants. They were all baptized by Guido, the Suffragan. The males were called John, and the females Elizabeth. They all, with their mother, died on the same day, and were buried in the above-mentioned church. This monstrous birth was said to have been caused by the sin of the countess in insulting a poor woman with twins in her arms, who prayed that her insulter might have at one birth the same number of children as there were days in the year. Of course, notwithstanding the story being attested by a tablet in a church, it must be placed among the many other instances of superstition afforded by an ignorant and credulous era.
We may remark, in closing this subject, that fewer plural births come to maturity than pregnancies with single children. Miscarriages are comparatively more frequent in such pregnancies than in ordinary ones.
PREGNANCY
VENERATION FOR THE PREGNANT.
We have been considering woman hitherto as maiden and wife. She now approaches the sacred threshold of maternity. She is with child. In no period of her life is she the subject of an interest so profound and general. The young virgin and the new wife have pleased by their grace, spirit, and beauty. The pregnant wife is an object of active benevolence and religious respect. It is interesting to note how, at all times and in all countries, she has been treated with considerate kindness and great deference. She has been made the subject of public veneration, and sometimes even of religious worship. At Athens and at Carthage the murderer escaped from the sword of justice if he sought refuge in the house of a pregnant woman. The Jews allowed her to eat forbidden meats. The laws of Moses pronounced the penalty of death against all those who by bad treatment or any act of violence caused a woman to abort. Lycurgus compared women who died in pregnancy to the brave dead on the field of honour, and accorded to them sepulchral inscriptions. In ancient Rome, where all citizens were obliged to rise and stand during the passage of a magistrate, wives were excused from rendering this mark of respect, for the reason that the exertion and hurry of the movement might be injurious to them in the state in which they were supposed to be. In the kingdom of Pannonia all enceinte women were in such veneration, that a man meeting one on the road was obliged, under penalty of a fine, to turn back and accompany and protect her to her place of destination. The Catholic Church has in all times exempted pregnant wives from fasts. The Egyptians decreed, and in most Christian countries the law at the present time obtains, that if a woman shall be convicted of an offence the punishment of which is death, the sentence shall not be executed if it be proved that she is pregnant.
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF PREGNANCY.
1. The sign most commonly relied upon is the cessation of the monthly sickness. The wife who misses the expected return of her illness, is apt to conclude that conception has taken place. This sign is far from being an infallible one.
It should be borne in mind that young married women sometimes have a slight show for two or three periods after their first impregnation. Ignorance of this fact has very frequently led to a miscalculation of the time of confinement. On the other hand, the menses will sometimes become arrested soon after marriage, and continue so for one or two months, without there existing any pregnancy. The temporary disappearance of the monthly sickness in such cases is due to the profound impression made upon the system by the new relations of the individual.