DIONNE QUINTUPLETS

the five daughtersmilie, Yvonne, Ccile, Marie, and Annetteborn prematurely on May 28, 1934, near Callander, Ont., Can., to Oliva and Elzire Dionne. The parents had 14 children, 9 by single births. The quintuplets became international celebrities during their early yearsmaking three feature films for Twentieth-Century Fox, providing profitable endorsements for products from cod-liver oil to typewriters and automobiles, and attracting hordes of tourists to northern Ontario. The attending physician, Allan Roy Dafoe died 1941 also became a celebrity. In 1935 Ontario made them wards of the government, but their father regained control in 1941. The Quints were remarkable in being the first medically and genetically documented set that survived; not one member of any other quintuplet set had previously lived more than a few days. The Dionne set had a sixth member that aborted during the third month of pregnancy. Much credit for the survival of the five premature infants was owing to the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, which quickly made available to Dafoe quantities of mother's milk and modern incubators and other equipment. The University of Toronto conducted biological, psychological, and dental studies of the quintuplets. The biological study established that the set originated from one fertilized egg. The Dionne quintuplets arose through repeated twinning of the early single embryo; therefore, six embryos were produced, and the five infants surviving birth inherited the same genetic material. Three of the sisters married: Annette had three sons; Marie had two daughters; and Ccile had four sons and one daughter. Only Ccile had a multiple birth: twin sons, one of whom died at the age of 15 months. milie died of an epileptic seizure on Aug. 6, 1954, at Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Que.; Marie died in Montreal on Feb. 27, 1970.