Statement of the principal circumstances respecting the united siamese twins now exhibiting in London

The twin brothers, of whom an account is given in this paper, were born of Chinese parents in 1811, at a small village in Siam, distant about sixty miles from Bankok, the capital of the kingdom. When the intelligence of their birth had reached the ears of the King of Siam, he gave orders that they should be destroyed, as portending evil to his government; but on being assured that they were harmless, and would be capable of supporting themselves by their own labour, he changed his intention, and suffered them to live. About six years ago Mr. Robert Hunter, a British merchant resident at Siam, saw them, for the first time, in a fishing-boat on the river, in the dusk of the evening, and mistook them for some strange animal. It was only in the spring of last year that permission could be obtained from the Siamese Government to bring them to England. They were taken to Boston, in the United States, where they landed in August last, and six weeks afterwards embarked for England, and arrived in London in November. They are both of the same height, namely, five feet two inches, and their united weight is 180 pounds. They have not the broad and flat forehead so characteristic of the Chinese race, but they resemble the lower class of the people of Canton in the colour of their skins and the form of their features. Their bodies and limbs are well made. The band of union is formed by the prolongation and junction of the ensiform cartilages of each, which meet in the middle of the upper part of the band, and form moveable joints with each other, connected by ligamentous structures. Under­-neath the cartilages there appear to be large hernial sacs opening into each abdomen, into which, on coughing, portions of the intestine are propelled, as far as the middle of the band; though in ordinary circumstances these herniæ are not apparent. The entire band is covered with common integument; and when the boys face each other, its length at the apex is one inch and three quarters, and at the lower edge not quite three inches. Its breadth from above downwards is four inches, and its greatest thickness nearly two inches. In the centre of the lower edge there is a cicatrix of a single navel. It possesses little sensibility, and is of great strength; for upon a rope being fastened to it, the twins may be pulled along without occasioning pain; and when one of them is lifted from the ground, the other will hang by the band alone without sensible inconvenience. For the space of about half an inch from the median line of the band, the sensibility of the skin appears to be common to both. The following experiment was tried upon them by Dr. Roget. A silver tea-spoon being placed on the tongue of one of the twins, and a disk of zinc on the tongue of the other, the moment the two metals were brought into contact, both the boys exclaimed “Sour, sour;" thus proving that the galvanic influence passed from the one to the other through the connecting band. Their strength and activity are very remarkable. They can throw down, with perfect ease, a powerful man. They run with great swiftness, bend their bodies in all directions, and in their sports often tumble head over heels without the least difficulty or inconvenience. In all the bodily actions in which the concurrence of both is required, such as running, jumping, playing at battledoor and shuttlecock, they exhibit a wonderful consent or agreement without the appearance of any previous communication of their intentions. The intellectual powers of each are nearly equal, and they have both attained the same degree of proficiency in the games of chess, draughts, and whist. They both possess great powers of imitation. In their respective physical constitutions, however, several differences are observable. Chang, as the boy on the left is named, has more vigorous health, and greater regularity of functions, than his brother, whose name is Eng. In general they take their meals and obey the calls of nature at the same time. Asparagus, eaten by either of the twins, communicates its peculiar odour exclusively to the urine of the one who has eaten it.