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A study of the reaction to multiple birth shows many differences in various societies and historical periods. Western societies (Roman and Greek) tended to look upon twin birth favorably, even with reverential awe. However, many more societies viewed twin birth with such horror, shame, and disgust that the social standing of the mother and the life of one or both twins were endangered. These hostile attitudes are found for the most part in primitive and near-primitive civilizations, although there are exceptions. Multiple births are often considered to be either supernatural or unnatural and this stems from the belief that man, in contrast to animals, can beget only one child.
In Japan adverse reactions to the birth of twins have prevailed until recent years. Up to and including the nineteenth century, twin birth was considered a disaster for the family and the mother was regarded with pity and aversion. In a book on obstetrics, published in 1858, a traditional Japanese physician, T. Kondo, described the abdomen of a woman following multiple birth as 'animal belly'—one of the most obscene insults of that period. Kondo wrote: 'It is normal emotionally for women to feel that it is animal and abnormal to bear twins'. News concerning the birth of twins was suppressed and if both were males, one was usually given to a trusted courtier. However, if the twin kept by the parents died the other child would be returned to the parental court to take his brother's place. Usually the first-born child was retained by the parents, but if the second-born was stronger and healthier he would sometimes be considered the eldest. None of the older Japanese medical writers refers to the fate or even possibility of twin girls; it is likely that due to the practice of 'weeding out' the weak and undesirable, girl twins were rendered 'stillborn' by the midwife at the request of the family.
The violent abhorrence of twins has not totally subsided in Japan and there remains a tendenc