The Portland daily press., 1875-12-16
Concerning Twins,

Mr.. Francis Gallon, well-known by his in
vestigations into mental heredity, has had
his attention, while prosecuting those inyesti-
cations, turned to the subject of twins. The
objection has been brought against statistical
evidence in proof of inheritance of mental
ability that in the lines of the persons COM
pared the trifing accidental circumstances to
which success is frequently due are entirely
LETT out OF account, and that the proper dis
elimination is not made between the respec.
tive effects OF nature and nurture. Mr..
Galton thinks the life.history of twins sup
plies these DEFICIENCIES. He enquiries about
twins who were closely alike in youth and
who were educated together for many years,
and learns whether they subsequently grew
unlike. He also enquiries into the history of
twins who were exceedingly unlike in child
hood, and learns how far they became assimi-
lated under the influence of their identical
nurture. In the course of his researches he
has accumulated great store of entertain
ing gossip, which, of course, coming from so
distinguished source, must be called scien.
tific gossip.
Mr.. Galton finds that twins may be divided
into three groups; namely, strongly alike,
moderately alike, and extremely dissimilar.
When the twins are boy and a girl they are
uever closely alike. Thrty-fve cases of close
similarity are reported, and in many of these
not single difference could be specified. In
these cases of close personal resemblance the
resemblance sometimes diminishes with
years, the divergence being due, it is argued,
to the appearance of qualities inherited at
birth, though dormant, like gout, in early
life. There is frequently an interchangeable
likeness in expression, "that often gives 10
each the effect of being more like his brother
than himself" Mr.. Galton explains this by
reminding his readers that no character is
simple, and that in twins who strongly re-
semble each other every expression in the
one may be matched by corresponding ex-
preston in the other, but that it does not
follow that the same expression should be
the dominant one in both cases; now it is by
their dominant expressions that we should
distinguish between the twins; consequently
when one twin has temporarily the express
sion which is the dominant one in his
brother, he is apt to be mistaken for him.
As remarkable similarities in temperament
and disposition as in personal resemblance
are mentioned. In one case two twins at
the age of twenty-three were attacked by
toothache, and the same tooth had to be ex.
tracted in each case. Close correspondence
in the falling off of the hair are noticed. In
stances are made known where twins suffered
from the same halucnatlons; where in
towns remote from each other they attempted
suicide at the same time, and in both cases
by drowning: where one, being in Scotland,
bought set Of champagne glasses as sur
prise for his brother, aud the other, being in
England, hit upon the same gift on the same
day, for his brother.
On the other hand Mr.. Galton quotes twen-
ty cases where there are sharply contrasted
characteristics among twins, even when they
have had exactly the same nurture. He
does not attempt to estimate the relative pro.
portion of cases of similarity and dissimilari.
ty; but the object of his paper is to prove
that the statistical estimation made in his
work on heridity of natural gifts by com.
parison of successes in life, is not open to the
objection urged against it in the beginning Of
this article. The twins who closely resem.
BILE each other, in childhood continue to re-
semble each other even though they are reared
under very dissimiar conditions, while those
who have strongly contrasted characteristic;
| never become assimilated even when the
causes conducive to assimilation begin to ac
| from the earliest moment and continue to thu
end of life. Hence he infers that there is NJ
escape from the conclusion that nature pre-
walls enormously over nurture; that the ont
element, which varies in different individuals
but is constant in each Of them, is the natur
al tendency; ald that in estimating the men
tai calibre of man we may safely ignore thu
many small differences in nurture which art
sure to have characterized each individua
case