Anna Mullern was born in Swabia in 1626 and married late, probably in her 30s. Anna and her husband wanted children but for many years were unable to conceive. In 1674, when Anna was 48, she “declared herself to be with child”, having shown “all the usual tokens of pregnancy”. Anna experienced some swelling but when symptoms abated after a few weeks, her doctor declared this ‘pregnancy’ a false alarm.

All that was quickly forgotten when Anna conceived and delivered two healthy children, a son and a daughter. Her husband died soon after but Anna remained in excellent health, bringing up her children alone and living to the ripe old age of 94.

In March 1720, as Anna lay dying, she made an unusual request of her physician, Dr Wohnliche. Convinced that she had conceived a child in 1674, and that it remained trapped inside her, Anna requested her body be “cut open” after death. A Dr Steigertahl performed the requested autopsy – and quickly located the petrified body of Anna’s stillborn child from 46 years before:

“Her body was opened by the surgeon… he found within her a hard mass of the form and size of a large ninepin bowl, but had not the precaution to observe whether it lay in the uterus or without it… For want of a better instrument [he] broke it open with the blow of a hatchet. This ball, with the contents of it, are expressed in the following figures [see image, right].”

Source: Dr Steigertahl, “An Account of a Foetus that continued 46 years in the mother’s body” in Philosophical Transactions, vol. 31, 1721. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.