The Washington times., 1921-03-27

me-the day my dear sister Ross
- dies; that day must die also. "
1t was Miss Jose Black speaking. From
one common spine nature had chosen to
grow two human beings; Rosa and Jose
Black, the most remarkable twins the
eye of Science has ever had the opportunity
to examine.
Yes said the other sister, Rosa, "And
II anything happens to Jose and she dies
] must share her fate"
Are you sure that when one OF you dies
the other must die too?" asked the writer,
who had called the other day to see these
interesting women shortly after their ar
rival IN New York from their home in
CzechoAslovakia. formerly Bohemia.
"oh, there is no doubt whatever tha. the
fatal illness of one of us is the death
sentence for the other" said Jose with a
feeble smile.
You see we have been examined by all
the prominent scientists of Europe" the
twin continued. From head to foot every
square inch of US has been pinched and
punched and microscoped and tested and
retested and X-Rayed and measured and
photographed and charted and diagram
med oh, these long, tiresome ezamina-
tions are awful-the inquisitive doctors
spare US nothing. And when they get
through they all agree that we can ne ,er
be separated-to cut us apart as has been
done successfully with some twins. would
be instantly fatal to u.s."
"But why could not the living twin be
released from the dead twin in case Que
should die?" the writer inquired.
I'VE are vitality tied together as the
famous Siamese twins were. Chang caught
pneumonia, but Eng was not affected. But
when Chang grew worse and died, then Eng
died too-but not Of pneumonia. Their
blood circulation was connected because
their arteries were joined together The
lifeless blood of Chang crept into the
arteries of Eng and poisoned his blood
and brought his heart to a standstill.
"We are even more hopelessly linked
together than Chang and Eng Would you
like to read what the German scientists
reported after long examination OF us?
AtooiC, uCdi, you jump up anu run over 10
the desk there and get that German scien-
tifc paper"
This little joke brought smile to the
faces Of both sisters, and with perfect
harmony of motion the four legs stiffened,
the two bodies rose and with a sidelong
motion like crab, the twins glided across
the room to the desk. From the publ shed
report Of the painstaking medical exauina-
tion 1t appears that:
The twins have separate spinal columns
to point in their backs little below their
arm-pits. At the seventh or eighth verte-
brae, counting downward, the spines Join
in a rigid bridge of flesh and bone which
Is thirty-seven inches in circumference.
When you pinch any spot in this bridge
within two inches either side of the centre,
both Jose and Rosa feel the pinch. But
pinch the bridge outside of that zone and
on Rosa's side and she alone perceives the
sensation. II you pinch the bridge on
Jose's side. only Jose gets the sensation
Their bodies are turned away from each
other at an angle of about forty-five
degrees. They can easily look into each
others eyes and by severely twisting thoir
necks, have trained themselves to kiss
each other. Their outer shoulders are
twenty-eight inches apart.
Each sister has all the bodily organs of
q normal woman except that their intest-
ines are Joined at the end.
Jose had st. Vitus' dance, Rosa didn't.
Rosa had diphtheria, Jose didn't.
Rosa is a trifle taller and thinner than
Jose, her height being four feet eight
inches. Jose is one inch shorter.
The twins weigh 210 pounds.
Each twins feet are set in line with their
bodies, making them walk with crah-like
thax odv va hrth "a
then both inner feet together. They have
no trouble in walking up or down stairs
and when they were children, used to climb
trees.
Jose's left leg is two inches shorter than
her right giving her the appearance when
walking Of having had hip disease.