The Journal of St.

Petersburg, a newspaper of the highest standard, stated that at the end of July, 1871, a Jewish woman residing in Courland gave birth to 4 girls, and again, in May, 1872, bore 2 boys and a girl; the mother and the 7 children, born within a period of ten months, were doing well at the time of the report.

In the village of Iwokina, on May 26, 1854, the wife of a peasant bore 4 children at a birth, all surviving.

Bousquet speaks of a primiparous mother, aged twenty-four, giving birth to 4 living infants, 3 by the breech and 1 by the vertex, apparently all in one bag of membranes.

They were nourished by the help of 3 wet-nurses.
Bedford speaks of 4 children at a birth, averaging 5 pounds each, and all nursing the mother.
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.