The Orangeburg news. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1867-1875, 1869-06-05
The sia,nc,e Twins, Again.

| Sir James Snip pson, the Professor ol
Medicine and Midwifery in the Uniyer
sity of EdinbugghI has examined very
mlnutely and from dTery point of scienti
fic interest these wil|s, and has delivered
lecture to the students of the Univer.
sity class on these anu other recorded
cases of united twihs, Of whom they are
in many respects the most remarkable
on record. In thiA lecture, which he
publishes iii the British Medical Journal
he gives first theirt history and dcscrip.
ton. Chang and Eng or as they now
sign themselves, Chang and Eng Bunk er
are now fifty-eight years of age. They
were two Of sever%! children, the rest
being naturally FORMED. When infants
they were attached face to face, but in
stinctive efforts frdm the earliest age
have so far elongated the band as to
enable them to adopt an imperfect lateral
relation to each other. They arc short
but wlry-looking mch; Eng, the taller of
the two, being only five feet two and a
half inches-Chan8 an inch shorter.
They use the outer legs more than he
inner, by stan'' ing5 and these are the
larger in circumfe4 4ence. There is no
inversion of position of the heart aud
other organs, as Professor Allen Thomp
son, Of Gl sgow, has shown to be the
general law i'll rclaf ftion to united twins.
Neither Of the aspirations nor circula-
tions of the twin brothers are synchron-
Gus. Examined in! Edinburgh by Dr.
Aitken when they were suffering from
influenza, the pulse of one was twenty
four beats to the minute quicker than
the other. Examih this week in
London by Sir Henry Thompson and
Mr. Earnest Heart, fhcrc was less differ
encc-tour pulsatiolS in the minute. In
their chemical as Well as their organic
functions, they are Shown by Sir james
Simpson to be two separate and distinct
individuals. They Ican walk, swim and
run; they are keen lsportsmen, and good
shots; intelligent, well-informcd, and
good men of business They are natural
ly much accustomed to join in the same
conversation, but can each easily carry
on conversation with two different i'm.
dividuals. They sopctimcs read sepa-
ratcly each to hi sell, more often one
aloud to the other Their minds. indeed
arc more dual than their bodies the
latter are united t,gsther, but the for
mcr are not. The band of union is for
med partly by the extension Of the carti-
lagos Of the breast Eone it is four inches
half in circumtor,nfo. Mhcn the twins
have suffered from bloSS diseases, as
small.pox, nleasels ,'sae, fkey have been
iHecJad sfihuirafsers ~ Ne,
from experiments which Sir James Simp-
son has made with drugs, he concludes
that the vascular connection between the
two brothers is compar lively very small
On the question OF the surgical scpara
tion of the Siamese Twins. "Chang and
Eng" says Sir james Simpson, ''havc
themselves no desire to be sureicnlly
dividal from each other. But some Of
their relatives and families have become
anxious that they should be separated
if it were possible to do so. The opera
tion is certainly possible, and would be
attended with little. or indeed. no diff
Guilty, but it would be so pcrillouS in its
character, that the twins could not, in
my opinion, be justified in submitting to
it, or any surgeon be justified in pcrior-
ming it," lie then enters into details
to justify this opinion. Chang and Eng
are married To two sisters, the daughters
ofan American Clergyman. Each brother
has nine children The family of Eng
consists Of six sons and three daughters;
the family of Chang consists OF three
sons and six daughters. Their first
children were born within three or four
days of each other; the other at irrcgu-
lar intervals. Chapg's ninth child was
born three months ago
Sir w. Ferguson has carefully cx.
amucd the twins, and, understood: con
ours in the general opinion of surgeons
that any surgical separation would b,
most likely attended with fatal consc
quenccs, not so much on account of any
obstacle presented by the structure o
the uniting band of flesh as the mora
q. 4. Il L.: - Il