The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1874-01-30
SKETCH OF THE SIAMESE TWINS.

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SKETCH OF THE SIAMESE TWINS.
The Siamese Twins, Eng and Chang,
lately residing in North Carolina, were
afflicted with illness in tho year 1871.
They were born at small village on
the coast of Siam, in the year 1911.
Their parents got their living by fish
Chang were brought to the United
States, they made their living by selling
shellfish. Their mother bore seven
teen children. At one time she gave
birth to three, and never less than two.
But none Of these children were de-
formed. The Twins were united at
the anterior part of the chest by a
prolongation of kind of fieshy band,
the size of the hand. This band Of
flesh is about two inches broad and
four inches thick. The whole mass is
tough and capable of being considera-
bly, extended.
One could whisper in the ear of one
of them without the other hearing;
while volatile salts applied to the nos
trils of one had no effect on the other;
and while pinching the arm Of one
excited no sensation in the other, still
vertical centre of this connecting link
both would finch from the hurt. The
Twins were seldom observed to con-
verse with each other. They played
good game of draughts, made pretty
much the same moves, and at the same
| time, and frequently played against
each other.
! After attracting vast amount of
attention among scientists and physiol-
ogists in the Old World, they married
two sisters, and settled down near
Salisbury, North Carolina, on a well
stocked plantation. In addition they
had at one period ample funds invested
through their agents in New York.
During the war they continued to re-
side on their plantation and lived in
| the same quiet and harmony as ever,
until some few years afterward.
OF course, no one ever thought of
drafting them, and their negroes pros
pered, except when out of temper from
any cause, it was apt to work itself off
| in striking the first one that come to
| hand, from which the best escape was
to keep out of the way. The brothers
! probably never would have had any
difficulty, but that their wives, though
sisters, turned away their hearts, and
children were the cause of this estrange-
ment. Up to the period that each had
five children all prospered we'll enough,
but one of them had sixth, and this
awoke envy and jealousy to such a
degree that the twin sisters, not being
bound together like the twin brothers,
would no longer live under the same
roof. The brothers We're, it seems,
about tifty-four years of age, but one,
we believe, the smaller and feebler of
"a 81 4x,,,
older than the other. They could turn
either back to back or face to face, but
that is as far as the remarkable bond
that united them permitted. 1t is al
most certain that should either die the
other could not survive even more
than a few minutes, as there is an arte-
ry as large as the femoral artery that
connects them.
A few years since they correspondent
with some of the leading surgical opc-
rators in London as to the possibility of
the umbilicus being cut, so that in case
of tho death of one, the life Of the other
might be saved. AT the request of the
London surgeon they visited that city,
and many experiments were tried to
the safety of such an opera
ton. Among other things, a ligature
was tied firmly for q few minutes
around the connection between them
so rs to prevent the circulation of blood
the artery. But it seemed us
if each would expire if this were per-
sisted in. The smaller of the two
tainted away and lost all consciousness,
and there were symptoms that the same
effect would follow to the other, but |
the process could not be continued long |
enough without endangering the life of |
In i'm who tho first ~ ri nj
the breaking out of the rebellion the
twins both dressed in the Confederate
gray, and were both members of the
same church, having united with Il
small Baptist church in their neigh.
borhood, of which they were consider
ed very worthy members, though born
Siamese.
Mrs. Sue Newton is the pioueer lady