Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T06:56:41.319Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Presidential Address: The Aberdeen Contribution to Twinning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Ian MacGillivray

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Although Francis Galton was the first to use twins for comparative genetic studies in a scientific way, there had been considerable interest and speculation about twinning from very early times. This has been referred to in numerous publications in the past, and indeed, Professor Gedda, Founding President of our Society, has written extensively on this [9]. The earlier writings referred almost entirely to the twins themselves, and there seemed to have been little attention paid to the mothers, except that they were either considered to have had intercourse with two men, or indeed, with a deity. Galton also referred in his publication of 1876 [8] to the largeness of the families into which twins are born, but a graduate of Aberdeen University, James Matthews Duncan, had pointed out some of the characteristics of mothers having twins ten years earlier. In 1865 he published his paper “On the Comparative Frequency of Twin-Bearing in Different Pregnancies” [7] and in this he showed that mothers of twins tended to be of higher parity and older. This very accurate observation has since been confirmed, but is was not clear whether age and parity were separate factors until Anderson, again working in Aberdeen, showed in 1956 that the twinning incidence increased up to a peak at age 35 and thereafter fell [1].

Type
Research Article
Information
Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae: twin research , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , January 1984 , pp. 5 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Twin Studies 1984

References

REFERENCES

1.Anderson, WJR (1956. Stillbirth and neonatal mortality in twin pregnancy. J Obstet Gynaecol Br Emp 63:205–215.Google Scholar
2.Campbell, DM, MacGillivray, I (1977): Maternal physiological responses and birthweight in singleton and twin pregnancies by parity. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 7:7.Google Scholar
3.Campbell, DM, Campbell, A, MacGillivray, I (1975): Maternal characteristics of women having twin pregnancies. J Biosoc Sci 6:463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Corney, G, Robson, EB (1975): Types of twinning and determination of zygosity. In MacGillivray, I, Nylander, PPS, Corney, G (eds): Human Multiple Reproduction. London: GB Saunders Co, p 16–39.Google Scholar
5.Corney, G, Seedburgh, D, Thompson, B, Campbell, DM, MacGillivray, I, Timlin, D (1981): Multiple and singleton pregnancy: differences between mothers as well as offspring. In Gedda, L, Parisi, P, Nance, WE (eds): Twin Research 3: Part A, Twin Biology and Multiple Pregnancy. New York: AR Liss, p 107–114.Google Scholar
6.Corney, G, MacGillivray, I, Campbell, DM, Thompson, B, Little, J (1983. Congenital anomalies in twins in Aberdeen and Northeast Scotland. Acta Genet Med Gemellol 32:31–35.Google Scholar
7.Duncan, JM (1865. On the comparative frequency of twin-bearing in different pregnancies. Edimburgh Med J 10:928–929.Google Scholar
8.Galton, F (1876): The history of twins as a criterion of the relative powers of nature and norture. J Anthropol Inst 5:391.Google Scholar
9.Gedda, L (1951): Studio dei Gemelli. Roma: Edizioni Orizzonte Medico.Google Scholar
10.Giovannucci-Uzielli, ML, Vecchi, C, Donzelli, GP, Levi D'Ancona, V, Lapi, E (1981): The history of the Florentine sextuplets: obstetric and genetic consideration. In Gedda, L, Parisi, P, Nance, WE (eds): Twin Research 3: Part A, Twin Biology and Multiple Pregnancy. New York: AR Liss, p 217–220.Google Scholar
11.Herrlin, KM, Hauge, M (1967): The determination of triplet zygosity. Acta Genet Stat Med 17:81–95.Google Scholar
12.Kemsely, WFF, Billewicz, WZ, Thomson, AM (1962): A new weight-for-height standard based on British anthropometric data. Br J Prev Soc Med 16:189.Google Scholar
13.MacGillivray, I (1983): Determinants of birthweight of twins. Acta Genet Med Gemellol 32:151–157.Google Scholar
14.MacGillivray, I, Campbell, DM, Samphier, M, Thompson, B (1982. Preterm deliveries in twin pregnancies in Aberdeen. Acta Genet Med Gemellol 31:207–211.Google Scholar
15.Mulligan, TO (1970): Personal communication.Google Scholar
16.Myrianthopoulos, NC (1978): Congenital malformations. The contribution of twin studies. Birth Defects Orig Art Ser 14(6A):151.Google ScholarPubMed
17.Nylander, PPS (1971. The incidence of triplets and higher multiple births in some rural and urban populations in Western Nigeria. Ann Hum Genet 34:409–415.Google Scholar
18.Nylander, PPS (1973): Serum levels of gonadotrophins in relation to multiple pregnancy in Nigeria. J Obstet Gynaecol Br Commonw 80:651.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
19.Nylander, PPS (1975): Frequency of multiple births. In MacGillivray, I, Nylander, PPS, Corney, G (eds): Human Multiple Reproduction. London: GB Saunders Co, p 87–97.Google Scholar
20.Registrar General (1963–1969): Statistical Review of England and Wales for the Years 1961-1967. London: HM Stationery Office.Google Scholar
21.Rovinsky, JJ, Jaffin, H (1965): Cardiovascular haemodynamics in pregnancy. 1. Blood and plasma volumes in multiple pregnancy. Am J Obstet Gynecol 93:1.Google Scholar
22.Sen, DP (1983): Personal communication.Google Scholar
23.Statistical Bulletin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (1960).Google Scholar
24.Swapp, GH (1975): Personal communication.Google Scholar
25.Tchouriloff, MM (1877): Quoted by Anderson [1].Google Scholar