Year: 1870

Finley, farmer residing in Morrow
county about five miles southeast OF
Ashley, gave birth to one of the
most singular malformations of the
human species ever heard of in any
age or country. The accouchment
took place at the home of the moth
er, and owing to it's suddenness,-
not more than half an hour being
eccupied,-only in the presence of
female attendant by whose rare
discretion the singularity Of the be-
ing just brought into the world was
concealed from its maternal parent.
The mother was not allowed a sight
of her offspring until after the ply
sician who had beer summoned ar
rived when it was exhibited to her
and, as we are told, caused her to
swoon. And no wonder, for human
eyes probably never looked upon
such an anomalous development of
the human form.


One of our prominent physicians
who has seen and examined this
strange freak of nature favors US
with the following clear and accu.
rate description:


This wonderful thing can be
truly called double child. There
is but one spine, at each extremity
of which there is perfectly formed
head and face. Each has well
formed shoulders. arms and hands
and a good chest containing lungs
and heart, as any other human be-
ing. Each has also a stomach and
liver There is but one navel, which
IS in the center of the obdomen,
equidistant from the two heads. 1t
is at the middle of the body that
the two are grown together. The
abdomen appears to be but one, and
the organs contained in it, below
the SO mach and small intestines.
are probably common to the two, as
there is but one external outlet.


Upon one side, at right angles
to the body, there is a well-formed
pair of hips, legs and feet. Upon
the opposite side there is one large
leg, (possibly the consolidation of
two legs) upon the extremity of
which there are eight toes. Most
monstrosities are repugnant to look
upon. This one is not so in any
respect, excepting this leg.


This child, or those children,
are now ten days old and are doing
as well as children mostly do at that
period of existence. 1t nurses at
both heads. One will be asleep
while the other is crying, and some
times both will cry or sleep at the
same time. The natural outlets
from the body are in their natural
position, between the perfect pair
of legs, and are common to the two.
there being no outlet on the oppo-
site side. In sex il is q female
The length from the top of one
head to the top of the other is twenty
inches. and the weight at birth, was
ten pounds


Here, certainly, is problem for
psychologists as well as physiolo-
gists. Is this one being with one
will and one sentence, or two be
ings each having independent will
and consciousness and different de-
sires, impulses aud feelings, or is it
"two souls with but a single
thought" spiritually welded aud
transfused as they are physically
united? Many circumstances go to
establish the theory of two individ
ual existences, notwithstanding the
identity of sex and the intimacy of
physical union. Persons who have
seen this inexplicable phenomenon
inform us that while one half of it
or perhaps we should say, one. of
those blended existences-has been
seen crying and in the active use of
its limbs, the other was at the same
time calmly asleep, and while the
two legs on one side of the body
were in motion, the single one ON
the other side, apparently under the
control of q different will, would be
Iundisturbed. Atthe same hour one