The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-21
The Death of the siamese Twins.


The Death Of the Siamese Twins.
A despatch received at this Office on Mon
day evening announced the death Of Chang
and Eng, the celebrated Siamese twins The
death occurred on Saturday morning last at
their residence at Mount Airy Surrey county,
n G. The despatch that gives this informa-
ton does not presenG a very pleasant picture
OF the last days of these remarkable phe-
nomena According to that account Chang
had been partially paralyzed since last fall,
and this affection had made him habitually
fretful and driven him to drink as a means of
solace Added to this was the fact that for
some years the brothers had not entertained
as undisturbed On affection for each other as
formerly. AS the reader will perhaps antici-
pate woman was, or rather two women were,
at the bottom of this disafection. The twins
had married two sisters, and the sisters instead
of cementing the reciprocal love Of the two
strange beings so phenomenally linked, were
the means, innocently, perhaps. of dissipating
it. One Of the brothers was fortunate enough
five. The report does not state whether Chang
or Eng was the afflicted party; but it appears
that he of the smaller family nursed feeling
of envy against his brother. This bitter emo
ton and the disease and vice of Changes last
few months of life must have rendered in
tensely painful the indissoluble companion
ship to which fate ordained the two men.
The struggle, however, is now over, and o
question which has SO often occurred to every
one who has wondered what effect the death
of one of the twins would produce upon the
other, is answered
Several interesting conscientious suggest
themselves in contemplation of this event.
Some years ago the twins paid visit to Paris
for the purpose of consulting the most emf
nent physicians there in regard to the posi-
bility of safe separation A series of expert
ments was made, and the experiments proved
that a separation would involve the death of
both. 1t is said that the twins were led to
seek information of this character with view
to ascertaining the probable effect of the death
of one of them upon the other; but it is easy
to imagine-in fact it is difficult not to
imagine-that other motives may have had
weight It Is almost impossible not to be-
lieve that the many embarrassments entailed
by that indissoluble band of flesh, which
married the brothers to one another in a less
revocable tie than that of conjugality, were
heightened to an indefinite extent by the
duties, privileges and cares of matrimony. The
most active and ingenious imagination can
scarcely form an adequate picture of the I'M
speakable annoyances to which the brothers
must have been subjected, not so much on
account of conflicting idiosyncrasies of tenn
permanent, or opposing currents of opinion, as
because of the bias which the wife of each
must have given to his general character. !
Gould the domestic history of these twins be
truthfully written, could their individual char
acters and the influences operating upon them
be accurately portrayed, the result would be
both interesting as psychological study and
improving as an illustration of social and per-
sonal morals. A sensitive mind, gifted with
tact and delicacy but as full of power as re-
finement, would be necessary for the proper
performance of such task but we have no
expectation that biographer of this de-
scription will be forthcoming What
ever might be instructive in the modest,
truthful and discriminating record of such
phenomenal condition of existence would be
apt to be lost mid the vulgar description of
accidental habits and external eccentricities.
These, OF course, are not without interest
Nothing can be without interest in the case of
two beings brought into such unhappy and ire
mediable intimacy with one another, and we
would give everything its due place. But the
general world would be too apt to forget that
behind the physical phenomenon of the
uniting band of flesh lay moral and intellec-
tual phenomena not less strange, and which
that unwritten but irrefragable bond was the
means of creating. Meanwhile post-mortem
examination might possibly throw light upon
more than one physiological question which
these wonderful brothers have suggested from
time to time, and we shall be surprised if no
such examination has taken place.
The ELECTION in the Twenty-frst Assembly |
district Yesterday resulted in the friumnb of |