Anomalies and Curiosities of MedicineGould, George M. (George Milbrey)
Science
Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
Gould, George M. (George Milbrey)
Abnormalities, Human; Medicine -- Anecdotes
"Here lies the body of Mrs. Mary, wife of Dr. John Bull, Esq. She died
November 4, 1778, aetat. ninety, having had 13 children, 101
grandchildren, 274 great grandchildren, and 22 great-great
grandchildren, a total of 410; surviving, 336."
In Esher Church there is an inscription, scarcely legible, which
records the death of the mother of Mrs. Mary Morton on April 18, 1634,
and saying that she was the wonder of her sex and age, for she lived to
see nearly 400 issued from her loins.
The following is a communication to "Notes and Queries," March 21,
1891: "Mrs. Mary Honeywood was daughter and one of the coheiresses of
Robert Waters, Esq., of Lenham, in Kent. She was born in 1527; married
in February, 1543, at sixteen years of age, to her only husband, Robert
Honeywood, Esq., of Charing, in Kent. She died in the ninety-third
year of her age, in May, 1620. She had 16 children of her own body, 7
sons and 9 daughters, of whom one had no issue, 3 died young--the
youngest was slain at Newport battle, June 20, 1600. Her grandchildren,
in the second generation, were 114; in the third, 228, and in the
fourth, 9; so that she could almost say the same as the distich doth of
one of the Dalburg family of Basil: 'Rise up, daughter and go to thy
daughter, for thy daughter's daughter hath a daughter.'
"In Markshal Church, in Essex, on Mrs. Honeywood's tomb is the
following inscription: 'Here lieth the body of Mary Waters, the
daughter and coheir of Robert Waters, of Lenham, in Kent, wife of
Robert Honeywood, of Charing, in Kent, her only husband, who had at her
decease, lawfully descended from her, 367 children, 16 of her own body,
114 grandchildren, 228 in the third generation, and 9 in the fourth.
She lived a most pious life and died at Markshal, in the ninety-third
year of her age and the forty-fourth of her widowhood, May 11, 1620.'
(From 'Curiosities for the Ingenious,' 1826.) S. S. R."
Animal prolificity though not finding a place in this work, presents
some wonderful anomalies.
In illustration we may note the following: In the Illustrated London
News, May 11, 1895, is a portrait of "Lady Millard," a fine St. Bernard
bitch, the property of Mr. Thorp of Northwold, with her litter of 21
puppies, born on February 9, 1896, their sire being a magnificent
dog--"Young York." There is quoted an incredible account of a cow, the
property of J. N. Sawyer of Ohio, which gave birth to 56 calves, one of
which was fully matured and lived, the others being about the size of
kittens; these died, together with the mother. There was a cow in
France, in 1871, delivered of 5 calves.
CHAPTER V.
MAJOR TERATA.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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