Quintuplets are quite rare, and the Index Catalogue of the Surgeon General's Library, U. S. A., gives only 19 cases, reports of a few of which will be given here, together with others not given in the Catalogue, and from less scientific though reliable sources. In the year 1731 there was one case of quintuplets in Upper Saxony and another near Prague, Bohemia. In both of these cases the children were all christened and had all lived to maturity. Garthshore speaks of a healthy woman, Margaret Waddington, giving birth to 5 girls, 2 of which lived; the 2 that lived weighed at birth 8 pounds 12 ounces and 9 pounds, respectively. He discusses the idea that woman was meant to bear more than one child at a birth, using as his argument the existence of the double nipple and mamma, to which might be added the not infrequent occurrence of polymazia.
In March, 1736, in a dairy cellar in the Strand, London, a poor woman gave birth to 3 boys and 9 girls. In the same journal was reported the birth at Wells, Somersetshire, in 1739, of 4 boys and a girl, all of whom were christened and were healthy. Pare in 1549 gives several instances of 5 children at a birth, and Pliny reports that in the peninsula of Greece there was a woman who gave birth to quintuplets on four different occasions. Petritus, a Greek physician, speaks of the birth of quintuplets at the seventh month. Two males and one female were born dead, being attached to the same placenta; the others were united to a common placenta and lived three days. Chambon mentions an instance of 5at a birth. Not far from Berne, Switzerland, the wife of John Gelinger, a preacher in the Lordship of Berne, brought forth twins, and within a year after she brought forth quintuplets, 3sons and 2 daughters. There is a similar instance reported in 1827 of a woman of twenty-seven who, having been delivered of twins two years before, was brought to bed with 5 children, 3boys and 2 girls. Their length was from 15 1/2 to 16 1/2 inches.
Although regularly formed, they did not seem to have reached maturity. The mother was much exhausted, but recovered. The children appeared old-looking, had tremulous voices, and slept continually; during sleep their temperatures seemed very low.
Kennedy showed before the Dublin Pathological Society 5 fetuses with the involucra, the product of an abortion at the third month. At Naples in 1839 Giuseppa Califani gave birth to 5children; and about the same time Paddock reported the birth in Franklin County, Pa., of quintuplets. The Lancet relates an account of the birth of quintuplets, 2 boys and 3 girls, by the wife of a peasant on March 1, 1854. Moffitt records the birth at Monticello, Ill., of quintuplets. The woman was thirty-five years of age; examination showed a breech presentation; the second child was born by a foot-presentation, as was the third, but the last was by a head-presentation. The combined weight was something over 19 pounds, and of the 5, 3 were still-born, and the other 2 died soon after birth. The Elgin Courant (Scotland), 1858, speaks of a woman named Elspet Gordon, at Rothes, giving birth to 3 males and 2 females. Although they were six months'
births, the boys all lived until the following morning. The girls were still-born. One of the boys had two front teeth when born.
Dr. Dawson of Rothes is the obstetrician mentioned in this case.
The following recent instance is given with full details to illustrate the difficulties attending the births of quintuplets.
Stoker has reported the case of a healthy woman, thirty-five years old, 5 feet 1 inch high, and of slight build, whom he delivered of 5 fetuses in the seventh month of pregnancy, none of the children surviving. The patient's mother had on two occasions given birth to twins. The woman herself had been married for six years and had borne 4 children at full term, having no difficulty in labor. When she came under observation she computed that she had been pregnant for six months, and had had her attention attracted to the unusually large size of her abdomen. She complained of fixed pain in the left side of the abdomen on which side she thought she was larger. Pains set in with regularity and the labor lasted eight and three-quarter hours. After the rupture of the membranes the first child presented by the shoulder.
Version was readily performed; the child was dead (recently).
Examination after the birth of the first child disclosed the existence of more than one remaining fetus. The membranes protruded and became tense with each contraction. The presentation was a transverse one. In this case also there was little difficulty in effecting internal version. The child lived a couple of hours. The third fetus was also enclosed in a separate sac, which had to be ruptured. The child presented by the breech and was delivered naturally, and lived for an hour. In the fourth case the membranes had likewise to be ruptured, and alarming hemorrhage ensued. Version was at once practised, but the chin became locked with that of the remaining fetus. There was some difficulty and considerable delay in freeing the children, though the extent of locking was not at any time formidable. The child was dead (recently). The fifth fetus presented by the head and was delivered naturally. It lived for half an hour. The placenta was delivered about five minutes after the birth of the last child, and consisted of two portions united by a narrow isthmus. One, the smaller, had two cords attached centrally and close together; the other, and larger, had two cords attached in a similar way and one where it was joined to the isthmus. The organ appeared to be perfectly healthy. The cord of the fourth child was so short that it had to be ligated in the vagina. The children were all females and of about the same size, making a total weight of 8 pounds. The mother rallied quickly and got on well.
