Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1870-11-26
Siamese TWINS 0utdone.

ONE OF THE MOST SINGULAR PROpIGIEs EVER HEARD OF
Ten days ago the wife Cf Samuel Fin
ley, farmer residing in Morrow county,
about five miles southeast of Ashley,
gave birth to one of the most singular
maltOrmations of the human species ever
heard of in any age or country. The
accouchment took place at the home Of
the mother, and owing TO its suddenness,
not more than half an hour being occu-
pied, only in the presence of a female at
tendnnt, by whose rare discretion the
singularity of the being just brought into
the world was concealed from the ma
ternal parent. The mother was not al
lowed sight of her offspring until after
the physician who had been summoned
arrived when it was exhibited to her,
and, as we are told, caused her to swoon.
And no wonder, for human eyes proba-
bly, never looked upon slch an anomalous
development of the human form.
One of our prominent physicians who
has seen and examined this strange freak
of nature, favors us with the following
cl, ar and accurate description
'This wonderful thing can be truly
called double child. There is but one
spine, at each extremity of which there
is IL perfectly formed head and face.
Each has well formed shoulders, arms
and hands, and good chest containing
lungs and heart, as any other human be-
ing. Each has also stomach and liver.
There is. bnt tne a>c', which is in the
center of the abdomen, equidistant from
the two heads. 1t is at the middle OF
the body that the two are grown to-
gether. The abdomen spl ears TO be but
one, and the organs contained iU it, De-
low the stomach and small iItestines, are
probably common to the two, as there is
but one external outlet.
Upon one side, al right angles to the
body, there is a wcllformed pair of hips,
legs and feet. Upon the opposite side
there is one large leg. (p ossiby the con
solidation OF two legs,) upon the eGtremi
ty of which there are eight toes. Most
monstrosities are repugnant TO look upon
This one is not so i'll any respect, except
ing this leg.
This child, or these children, are now
ten days old ale doing as well as children
mostly do at that period of existence
| IL nurses ut both heads. One will bt
asleep while the other is crying, and
sometimes both will sleep or cry at the
same time. The natural outlets from
the body are in their natural position
between the perfect pair of legs, and are
common to the two, there being no out
let upon the opposite side. In sex it is
female. The length fran the top of on'
head 10 the top of the other is twenty
inches, and the weight at birth was tel
poands."
Here, certainly, iA problem for psy
coIogisis as well as Psychologists. Il
this one being With one will and ont
sentence, or two beings each having III
dependent will, aud consciousness anC
different desires, impulses and feelings
or is it two souls with but single
thought spiritually welded and trans
fused as they are physically united
Many circumstances go to establish tn
theory OF two individual eXistences, not
wilhstanding the identity of sex and tn
intimacy of physical union. Person
who have seen this inexplieable pheno
menon infolm us that while one half o
it-or perhaps we should say, one o
those blended existences-has been seel
crying and in the active use of its limbs
the other WAS at the same time calml,
asleep, and while the two legs one side 0
the body were in motion the single on
on the other side, apparently under tb
control of different will, would be un
disturbed. At the same hour one o
these strange beings-if indeed there ar
two-will be sick while the other seem
to be at the same instant enjoying per
feet health. One may weep aud tn
other appear to be at the same time per
fectly unconscious of distress,
Th.re are no terms in our languag
applicable to such n phenVplenon it ]
something tor which the dictionary ma
kers have made no provision whatever
and which utterly confonnds all gram
matical rules as to gender, auiuber AM
person, Let any one undertake 70 writ
hbont It, beng precise as TO the meaning