She was not only denied alms, but was insulted by being told that her twins were by different fathers, whereupon the poor woman prayed God to send the Countess as many children as there were days in the year.

There is room for much speculation as to what this case really was.

There is a possibility that it was simply a case of hydatidiform or multiple molar pregnancy, elaborated by an exhaustive imagination and superstitious awe.

As late as 1799 there was a woman of a town of Andalusia who was reported to have been delivered of 16 male infants, 7 of which were alive two months later.
Mayo-Smith remarks that the proportion of multiple births is not more than 1 per cent of the total number of parturitions.

The latest statistics, by Westergaard, give the following averages to number of cases of 100 births in which there were 2 or more at a birth:-- Sweden, 1.45 Germany, 1.24 Bavaria, 1.38 Denmark, 1.34 Holland, 1.30 Prussia, 1.26 Scotland, 1.22 Norway, 1.32 Saxony, 1.20 Italy, 1.21 Austria, 1.17 Switzerland, 1.16 France, 0.99 Belgium, 0.97 Spain, 0.85 In Prussia, from 1826 to 1880, there were 85 cases of quadruplets and 3 cases of 5 at a birth.
The most extensive statistics in regard to multiple births are those of Veit, who reviews 13,000,000 births in Prussia.