A woman of considerable physical courage mounted a horse, rode side by side with her soldier-husband, and witnessed the drilling of the troops for battle. The exciting music and scene together inspired her with a deep thirst to behold a war and a conquest. This event transpired a few months before the birth of her child — his name, Napoleon.

During the period immediately preceding the birth of Dante, his young mother saw a startling vision. She beheld a populated globe rise gradually out of the sea and float mid-heavens. Upon a high and grand mountain stood a man with brilliant countenance, whom she knew to be her son.

A woman gave birth to a child covered with hair, and having the claws of a bear. This was attributed to her beholding the images and pictures of bears hung up in the palace of the Ursini family, to which she belonged.

— Dr Foote’s Home Cyclopedia of Popular Medical, Social and Sexual Science, 1858