Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-08

1.-TWO little twins with only one alb.
uomen between them are now ex.
citing the interest of doctors and
thoughtful people of Paris.
Ihese twins are girls, Madeleine and
Suzanne Durand by name. They are
united by band of flesh near the bottom
OF the brest bone The abdominal cavities
open into one another and are practically
one.
} Inc twins were born on November 20
and have developed satisfactorily up to
the present. The leading French sur
geons are now planning an operation to
separate them, because the abnormal
bond between them, rendering privacy and
an individual life impossible, must other
wise make their existence a long tragedy.
! Just imagine how you would feel if you
were girl Joined to another, so that
every illness that afflicted her must at
tack you and you could not even listen to
your sweetheart's most impassioned words
without the intrusion of third person
DR.. E. LIE Filliatre, surgeon of the Cen
trail Prison Infirmary and member of the
Academy of Medicine, has made special
study of the case and will take part in
the proposed operation to separate the
twins. He described the case to YOUR
correspondent
Madeleine and Suzanne" he said. che
long TO the xiphopagous variety of twins.
mat means that they are joined together
at point above the stomach and below
tAo thoraX The connecting link is niece
OF very hard flesh of about twelve inches
III circumference and four inches in thick
ness
An X-ray examination has shown that
the lungs and the hearts of the twins are
completely Independent of one another
Thore are two oesophagi, two stomachs
and two intestines, but the two abdominal
cavities are in communication A curious
fact is that if Madeleine breathes in, while
Suzanne is breathing out, Madeleine's
small intestine passes into Suzanne's alb
domen, and similarly Suzanne's small in
testine passes into Medicines abdomen
when the latter is breathing out But if
they both breathe in and out together,
then the two intestines come into oppo-
sition and one cannot invade the others
territory
They are what a woman would call
very nice babies, and their condition now
is satisfactory At first they were fed
with the bottle, but now they have wet
nurse and are putting on a third of an
ounce daily, their weight at present being
eleven pounds. Their physical, physiolog-
ical and psychic duality is beyond doubt.
One laughs while the other cries; SUI
the will of each is independent of the
other.
"Madeleine's height is 16 inches while
Suzanne's is 1928 inches, and the latters
chest measurement is also greater by two
thirds of an inch Suzanne is the stronger,
and the bones of her limbs are a little
longer than Madeleine's The hands and
feet of Madeleine are small, her face is
round, while her sisters is oval, and her
heLrt pulsates 120 times to the minute,
against $50 per minute for Suzanne The
body temperature of the twins differs
slightly and there is a difference in their
cries.
Stranger still, there is a difference in
the blood of the two persons BY micro
scopc examination of the blood we have
counted 6.2S0,000 red and 6,325 white glo-
bules per cubic millimeter in the case of
Madeleine, and 100000 red and 1900
white globues in Suzanne's blood"
The father of the twins is thirty-tive
wears old and is a perfectly normal man.
The mothers is forty-four. BY her first
marriage she had son who is now twenty
three years old and exhibits no physical
REGULARITY. BY her second marriage she
also had a boy who died at the age OF
seven from scarlet fever. Doctors have
been unable to trace any hereditary de-
fects in the family.
While the doctors state that Suzanne
and Madeleine are separate individuals
there must be many respects in which
their sensations are confused or shared.
There is no fixed line upon the band or
flesh that unites them where one individual
ends and the other begins A pin prick at
anv spot along this uniting band causes
both of the babies to cry, although a SINH
lar stimulus on the opposite side from the
band would make only one baby cry Ap-
parently. there is a connection between
the smaller nerves of the two bodies in
this locality.
Taste. hunger, pain and most of the sim
pler sensations are experienced separately
bv each individual When one baby is
pleased by the taste of food in its mouth,
the impression is conveyed to its brain