Molitor gives an instance of precocious pregnancy in a child of eight. It was probably the same case spoken of by Lefebvre and reported to the Belgium Academy: A girl, born in Luxemborg, well developed sexually, having hair on the pubis at birth, who menstruated at four, and at the age of eight was impregnated by a cousin of thirty-seven, who was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for seduction. The pregnancy terminated by the expulsion of a mole containing a well-characterized human embryo. Schmidt's case in 1779 was in a child who had menstruated at two, and bore a dead fetus when she was but eight years and ten months old. She had all the appearance and development of a girl of seventeen. Kussmaul gives an example of conception at eight. Dodd speaks of a child who menstruated early and continued up to the time of impregnation. She was a hard worker and did all her mother's washing. Her labor pains did not continue over six hours, from first to the last. The child was a large one, weighing 7 pounds, and afterward died in convulsions. The infant's left foot had but 3 toes. The young mother at the time of delivery was only nine years and eight months old, and consequently must have been impregnated before the age of nine. Meyer gives an astonishing instance of birth in a Swiss girl at nine. Carn describes a case of a child who menstruated at two, became pregnant at eight, and lived to an advanced age. Ruttel reports conception in a girl of nine, and as far north as St. Petersburg a girl has become a mother before nine years. The Journal de Scavans, 1684, contains the report of the case of a boy, who survived, being born to a mother of nine years.
Beck has reported an instance of delivery in a girl a little over ten years of age. There are instances of fecundity at nine years recorded by Ephemerides, Wolffius, Savonarola, and others. Gleaves reports from Wytheville, Va., the history of what he calls the case of the youngest mother in Virginia—Annie H.—who was born in Bland County, July 15, 1885, and, on September 10, 1895, was delivered of a well-formed child weighing 5 pounds. The girl had not the development of a woman, although she had menstruated regularly since her fifth year. The labor was short and uneventful, and, two hours afterward, the child-mother wanted to arise and dress and would have done so had she been permitted. There were no developments of the mammae nor secretion of milk. The baby was nourished through its short existence (as it only lived a week) by its grandmother, who had a child only a few months old. The parents of this child were prosperous, intelligent, and worthy people, and there was no doubt of the child's age. "Annie is now well and plays about with the other children as if nothing had happened." Harris refers to a Kentucky woman, a mother at ten years, one in Massachusetts a mother at ten years, eight months, and seventeen days, and one in Philadelphia at eleven years and three months. The first case was one of infantile precocity, the other belonging to a much later period, the menstrual function having been established but a few months prior to conception. All these girls had well-developed pelves, large mammae, and the general marks of womanhood, and bore living children. It has been remarked of 3 very markedly precocious cases of pregnancy that one was the daughter of very humble parents, one born in an almshouse, and the other raised by her mother in a house of prostitution. The only significance of this statement is the greater amount of vice and opportunity for precocious sexual intercourse to which they were exposed; doubtless similar cases under more favorable conditions would never be recognized as such.
The instance in the Journal decavans is reiterated in 1775, which is but such a repetition as is found all through medical literature—"new friends with old faces," as it were. Haller observed a case of impregnation in a girl of nine, who had menstruated several years, and others who had become pregnant at nine, ten, and twelve years respectively. Rowlett, whose case is mentioned by Harris, saw a child who had menstruated the first year and regularly thereafter, and gave birth to a child weighing 7 3/4 pounds when she was only ten years and thirteen days old. At the time of delivery she measured 4 feet 7 inches in height and weighed 100 pounds. Curtis, who is also quoted by Harris, relates the history of Elizabeth Drayton, who became pregnant before she was ten, and was delivered of a full-grown, living male child weighing 8 pounds. She had menstruated once or twice before conception, was fairly healthy during gestation, and had a rather lingering but natural labor. To complete the story, the father of this child was a boy of fifteen. One of the faculty of Montpellier has reported an instance at New Orleans of a young girl of eleven, who became impregnated by a youth who was not yet sixteen. Maygrier says that he knew a girl of twelve, living in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, who was confined.
Harris relates the particulars of the case of a white girl who began to menstruate at eleven years and four months, and who gave birth to an over-sized male child on January 21, 1872, when she was twelve years and nine months old. She had an abundance of milk and nursed the child; the labor was of about eighteen hours' duration, and laceration was avoided. He also speaks of a mulatto girl, born in 1848, who began to menstruate at eleven years and nine months, and gave birth to a female child before she reached thirteen, and bore a second child when fourteen years and seven months old. The child's father was a white boy of seventeen.
The following are some Indian statistics: 1 pregnancy at ten, 6 at eleven, 2 at eighteen, 1 at nineteen. Chevers speaks of a mother at ten and others at eleven and twelve; and Green, at Dacca, performed craniotomy upon the fetus of a girl of twelve. Wilson gives an account of a girl thirteen years old, who gave birth to a full-grown female child after three hours' labor. She made a speedy convalescence, but the child died four weeks afterward from bad nursing. The lad who acknowledged paternity was nineteen years old. King reports a well-verified case of confinement in a girl of eleven. Both the mother and child did well.
Robertson of Manchester describes a girl, working in a cotton factory, who was a mother at twelve; de La Motte mentions pregnancy before twelve; Kilpatrick in a negress, at eleven years and six months; Fox, at twelve; Hall, at twelve; Kinney, at twelve years, ten months, and sixteen days; Herrick, at thirteen years and nine months; Murillo, at thirteen years; Philippart, at fourteen years; Stallcup, at eleven years and nine months; Stoakley, at thirteen years; Walker, at the age of twelve years and eight months; another case, at twelve years and six months; and Williams, at eleven.
An editorial article in the Indian Medical Gazette of Sept., 1890, says:—
"The appearance of menstruation is held by the great majority of natives of India to be evidence and proof of marriageability, but among the Hindu community it is considered disgraceful that a girl should remain unmarried until this function is established. The consequence is that girls are married at the age of nine or ten years, but it is understood or professed that the consummation of the marriage is delayed until after the first menstrual period. There is, however, too much reason to believe that the earlier ceremony is very frequently, perhaps commonly, taken to warrant resort to sexual intercourse before the menstrual flux has occurred: it may be accepted as true that premenstrual copulation is largely practised under the cover of marriage in this country.
"From this practice it results that girls become mothers at the earliest possible period of their lives. A native medical witness testified that in about 20 per cent of marriages children were born by wives of from twelve to thirteen years of age. Cases of death caused by the first act of sexual intercourse are by no means rare. They are naturally concealed, but ever and anon they come to light. Dr. Chevers mentioned some 14 cases of this sort in the last edition of his 'Handbook of Medical Jurisprudence for India,' and Dr. Harvey found 5 in the medicolegal returns submitted by the Civil Surgeons of the Bengal Presidency during the years 1870-71-72.
"Reform must come from conviction and effort, as in every other case, but meantime the strong arm of the law should be put forth for the protection of female children from the degradation and hurt entailed by premature sexual intercourse. This can easily be done by raising the age of punishable intercourse, which is now fixed at the absurd limit of ten years. Menstruation very seldom appears in native girls before the completed age of twelve years, and if the 'age of consent' were raised to that limit, it would not interfere with the prejudices and customs which insist on marriage before menstruation."