Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1875-12-18
TWINS.

ST.
Mrs. Camp once sarcasticaIly remarked 10
Mr.. Chuffey, when the latter had made an
assertion which, from professional point of
view, she regarded as altogether too pre-
sumptuous. that perhaps he would have the
goodness to give her his "opiniOn of twins -
1t is obvious, from the circumstances in
which this remark was made. that Mrs
camp regarded twins as the most abstruse
ard difficult topic which can be considered by
the human mind. That she was right i'm this
estimate may be gathered from the care with
which even the most confident of men have
refrained from giving their views of twins
Mr. Carlyle is, apparently, afraid of nothing
but he has nevertheless hesitated to grappie
with the subject of twins. Mr.. Upper mas
trickled his wisdom over nearly everything
on the earth beneath and variety of things
In the heavens above, but we may search his
ponoerouS DOCK In vain for any allusion u
twins. The subject appalls men of all
classes and professions, and 1t is only recent,
ly that writer-tO wit, Mr.. Francis Gal
ton-has been found bold enough to give US
his opinion of twins.
MIR. Cation has collected a vast array of
dacts bearing on the subject which he dis
tt ,s, and although he leaves his opinion of
wills 10 De inferred instead of directly ex-
pressing 1t, his readers can readily nercefve
mat ne regards twins as an i'll advised and
unsuccessful experiment He shows thai
parents fail to distinguish between ta,;r
children, and 1t thus happens that the pood
twin receives the chastisement which the
Dad one deserves, while the latter is rewarI-
ed with undeserved sugar pIums Thus the
moral sense of twins is injuriously affected
and growing up in the practical experience
OF the fact that punishment falls on the lust
and the unjust twin without any apparent
discrimination, they are led to ignore the dis
tinction between right and wrong. He gives
numerous other instances of the compiled
lions TO which twins frequently give RISE
but the most remarkable and painful of them
all is the fact, as asserted by him. that
twins are frequently changed in the bath
For example, twin brothers, who, while
dressed in different colored garments are
quite distlnguishable, may exactly resem-
Die one another when undressed and made
ready for the bath tub. While in this undIs-
tinguishable condition they may easily be
changed. The twin who entered the bath tub
as John, may issue from it as James, and the
original James may be unintentionally
transformed into John. This accident is, OF
course, liable to occur at every successive
bathing ceremony, and the result of this per-
petual change OF identity upon the minds of
the unhappy twins must be extremely con-
fusing. Such make shifts as the tying of
ribbons OF different colOrs about each twin
will often remove these ri bbons and replace
them on the wrong twin. In fact, until a
twin reaches the age OF self-washing he can
never be sure OF his Identity, and it is not
even certain whether it is safe for twins at
any age to battle together without first care
fully Labelling themselves and making sure
clothes at the end oftheir bath. A more mel
ancholy spectacle can hardly be imagined
than that Of twin brothers, who by superhu-
a man eX ,iI mad been Kept unchanged
ly bathed together at Long Branch on arriy-
Ing at manhood, and accidently changing
their Clothing, suffered a sea change, of which
they themselves were unconscious.
considering the danger of such dreadful
possibility, Mr.. Cation is quite right in dis
approving OF twins. 1t is clear that the less
we hear OF them the better. Nothing is
gained by dividing one good substantial
chlld INTO two equal parts. Parents who
fancy that a pair of twins really constitutes
larger family than one child are as much
mistaken as they would be If they supposed
that two pints really amounted to more than
one quart. AT least such is the result OF Mr..
cations Investigations, since he is clearly
OF the opinion that pair of twins Is moth ing
more than the same child put up in two
packages. These may not have been Mrs
camps views, and 1t is to be regretted that
she Is not here to express her estimate of
them. Whether she would agree with them
or not, II is, however, certain that she could
not fail TO recognize the boldness with which
Mr.. Cation has answered the demand which
she sarcastically made upon Mr.. Chuffey,
and has actually given the world his opinion
twins