and to all intents and purposes a m a d m a n . Collins, in his defence, declared that Sarah was for some time all that a dutiful wife should be, and he kept her like a lady until one day he beheld some improper familiarities between her and a strange m a n , and this m a d e him change his course of treatment. H e was a strict Wesleyan, w h o prayed thrice each day, but his wife refused to join in prayer with him. H e was a m a n w h o was in frequent communication with G o d , stood on sanctified ground, and could preach as good a sermon as any parson. H e believed his wife to be thoroughly unfaithful to him, and he chained her up for no other purpose than to prevent her in his absence running off into the bush to keep improper appointments. Evidence was given of the irreproachable character borne by Mrs. Collins; and, notwithstanding all that she had gone through, the poor wife looked with a yearning woeful face at her husband, and was very unwilling that the prosecution should go further. T h e prisoner was committed for trial, but the Crown Prosecutor did not see his way tofilea bill, and Collins was released.
HUMAN FECUNDITY. On the 29th June, 1850, another triplet of young colonists made its appearance in Melbourne in the interesting form of two girls and a boy, but on this occasion the mother died shortly after parturition. She was a Mrs. L. Quinan, whose husband was connected with a horse repository in Bourke Street. M r . Quinan was away two hundred miles in the interior when the unusual increase and " sorrowful bereavement" occurred in his family. It is remarkable that a high average in triplicate births is shown in favour of the Port Phillip of the past as compared with other countries in the world, and especially modern Victoria. In the ten years (1841-1850, both included) the Port Phillipian births are returned as 15,449, giving a triplet to every 3089 births. According to the obstetric statistics of Great Britain, France, and Germany, the triplet is as one in every 7443 births, and as to Victoria, the following extract from HaytcPs Handbook (1883-4) speaks for itself:—"In 1883, 183 twin births, but no triple births were registered, as against 215 twin births and 2 triple births in 1882. In the ten years ended with 1880, 2426 cases of twins, and 21 cases of triplets were recorded; the total number of births in the same period having been 268,710. There were thus 266,242 confinements in the ten years, and it follows that one mother in every i n gave birth to twins, and one mother in every 12,796 was delivered of three children at a birth." It will be seen from this that the triplet (or three-fold birth) is an exceptionally rare procreative product, but the quadruplet (or four-fold birth) is immeasurably rarer; for from returns compiled at the Rotunda Hospital, a famed maternity institution in Dublin, the proportion of quadruplets is computed as one in every 129,172 births. There is one, and only one, authenticated instance of the birth of a quintuplet, i.e.,fivechildren—all born alive ! ! On 16th August, 1850, a Mrs. Hopwood, whose husband was in comfortable circumstances, was walking along the bank of the river at Richmond. She was accompanied by two daughters (aged respectively eleven and nine), a nurse-maid, and a baby in arms. T h e servant and elder girl sought to obtain a drink of water, and whilst so engaged, the w o m a n , warily creeping behind, pushed the servant into the river; but it was in a shallow m u d d y spot, and she scrambled safely out. T h e mother next pushed in the daughter, w h o was drowned. Making for the second girl (Eliza) she also forced her in, but the servant calling to the girl to hold on to a stump, got her out. T h e mother, w h o had evidently been suddenly bereft of reason, ran up and d o w n for awhile, and then facing the current leaped into it and was also drowned. A n inquest was held on the recovered bodies, when "Temporary insanity on the part of the mother" was the verdict. The first hat manufactory was opened about this time by Mr. R. F. Bickerton, in Swanston Street ; and a newspaper of 25th September in making the announcement, declares that "Mr B is prepared to 'turn out' the best and cheapest hat in the Australian colonies, NNN
