Note 59 — Chapter VI · ANTAGONISM BETWEEN GROWTH AND SEXUAL GENESIS.

A passage translated for me from the German may be here given in verification. Dr. Dionys Hellin in an essay on the origin of Multiparity and Twin-births, refers to the thesis above set forth, and says that “the fact that it is generally women of small growth who bear twins is in complete agreement with it.” He adds that “Puech is right in his opinion that twin pregnancies are a direct result of relatively large ovaries (i.e., in comparison with the whole body). He has observed that for the same size of body the ovarium of a pluriparous animal is always of greater volume than that of a uniparous animal ... a sow has ovaries as large as a cow’s; but while the latter bears only one calf [at a time], the sow brings forth 6–15 at each litter. Even in animals of the same species but belonging to different races these relations may be verified,” e.g., Barbary sheep and ordinary sheep.