Anomalies and Curiosities of MedicineGould, George M. (George Milbrey)
Science
Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
Gould, George M. (George Milbrey)
Abnormalities, Human; Medicine -- Anecdotes
In 1816 some girls were admitted to the Paris Maternite as young as
thirteen, and during the Revolution several at eleven, and even
younger. Smith speaks of a legal case in which a girl, eleven years
old, being safely delivered of a living child, charged her uncle with
rape. Allen speaks of a girl who became pregnant at twelve years and
nine months, and was delivered of a healthy, 9-pound boy before the
physician's arrival; the placenta came away afterward, and the mother
made a speedy recovery. She was thought to have had "dropsy of the
abdomen," as the parents had lost a girl of about the same age who was
tapped for ascites. The father of the child was a boy only fourteen
years of age.
Marvelous to relate, there are on record several cases of twins being
born to a child mother. Kay reports a case of twins in a girl of
thirteen; Montgomery, at fourteen; and Meigs reports the case of a
young girl, of Spanish blood, at Maracaibo, who gave birth to a child
before she was twelve and to twins before reaching fourteen years.
In the older works, the following authors have reported cases of
pregnancy before the appearance of menstruation: Ballonius, Vogel,
Morgagni, the anatomist of the kidney, Schenck, Bartholinus, Bierling,
Zacchias, Charleton, Mauriceau, Ephemerides, and Fabricius Hildanus.
In some cases this precocity seems to be hereditary, being transmitted
from mother to daughter, bringing about an almost incredible state of
affairs, in which a girl is a grandmother about the ordinary age of
maternity. Kay says that he had reported to him, on "pretty good"
authority, an instance of a Damascus Jewess who became a grandmother at
twenty-one years. In France they record a young grandmother of
twenty-eight. Ketchum speaks of a negress, aged thirteen, who gave
birth to a well-developed child which began to menstruate at ten years
and nine months and at thirteen became pregnant; hence the negress was
a grandmother at twenty-five years and nine months. She had a second
child before she was sixteen, who began to menstruate at seven years
and six months, thus proving the inheritance of this precocity, and
leaving us at sea to figure what degree of grandmother she may be if
she lives to an advanced age. Another interesting case of this nature
is that of Mrs. C., born 1854, married in 1867, and who had a daughter
ten months after. This daughter married in 1882, and in March, 1883,
gave birth to a 9-pound boy. The youthful grandmother, not twenty-nine,
was present at the birth. This case was remarkable, as the children
were both legitimate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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