SIAMESE TWINS IN HISTORY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 255, 24 July 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

SIAMESE TWINS IN HISTORY

Ten Different Types Of Union-

The unusual operation which an anonymous surgeon performed upon the Godino brothers, "Siamese" twins, has precedents in medical history, though -they are undeniably few, says Lincoln Barnett in the “New York Times,” Even in the curious annals of medieval medicine, where scholars of the time frequently failed to distinguish between biological and imagined “monsters,” there are indications that various types of conjoined twins existed, and that physicians occasionally sought to separate them.

That the operation on the Godino brothers was successful, as it appears to be, was due principally to the fact that their systems were less closely related than other united twins. Their circulatory networks were distinct, and their alimentary canals were linked only by a single flexure of intestine that passed from Simplicio’s into Lucio’s body through the connecting stalk. Certain anatomists have sought to classify double organisms, or “Siamese” twins, into about ten categories. According to their terminology, the Godino twins were of the “pygopagous” variety—in other words, their bodies were joined at the base of the spine. This type of union has been found less often than that where the connecting cartilaginous band lies in the sternal region.

The famous brothers, Eng and Chang, who first gave to the public the misapplied term “Siamese” twins, were united at the breastbone. For years medical men debated the advisability of separating them. They finally died, still united, on January 17, 1874 (they were born in Siam of Chinese parentage in May. 1811), whereupon an autopsy disclosed that while their intestines had been independent, their livers had been inter-related. The original Siamese twins, like the Godino brothers, married sisters, English girls. They settled in North Carolina, adopted the name of Bunker, and had eleven children between them, all strong and healthy.

Instances whore operations were performed successfully on twins of the Eng-Chang type occurred in Paris in 1812, when both twins survived, and in Germany, in 1866. when one child lived. One of the earliest known cases of such an operation was recorded as having taken place in Constantinople in 945 A.D., under the reign of the Roman Emperor, Constantine VII.

On the latter occasion, according to the historian Le Beau, writing in IS7G, two male children, united at the abdomen, had been found in Armenia and taken to Constantinople for exhibition. One died, and a surgeon attempted to save the other’s life by an emergency operation. Ho lived for three days. Few successful operations have been recorded as having been performed on pygopagous, or back-to-back twins, though several examples of the type achieved considerable fame. The best known are the “Biddenden Maids” of Biddenden, Kent, whose memory has

been kept alive by the parish church in their community since their death in 1134.

Tlie Biddenden Maids were Mary ami Eliza Chulkhurst, and they were united apparently not only at the hips, but also at the shoulders. They were pious women, ami when one died at, thirtyfour. the other refused to let a surgeon attempt an operation, saying, “As we came together, we will also go together.” Six hours after her sister’s death, she died.

These women, according to tlie legend, bequeathed their twenty acres to the churchwardens, and for SOO years the parish has preserved their memory by using the income from that little grant (in 1900 it amounted to £32) for disposition of 270 quartern loaves and proportionate cheese io the poor of rhe parish, and about 300 little cakes to strangers in Biddenden on each Eastertide. Each of the memorial cakes bears the impression of the Biddenden Maids with the dates 1100-1134. A later example of the same type of twin was reported by the historian Bateman in “The Doome,” 1581. who related that in 1493 a creature having “two bellies, four arms, four legs and two heads was exhibited throughout Italy for gain's sake.” In 1701. Helen and Judith. Hungarian sisters, whose description tallies with that of the Godino twins in every way. were shown over Europe, and subsequently placed for care in a convent, where they died at twenty-one. Pope, the poet, celebrated their existence, and ‘they are mentioned also in Buffon's “Natural History."

A still more recent pair of pygopagopns twins were Millie anil Christine, negroes born in Columbus County. N.C.. on July 11, 1851. Their mother had eight other children, all normal The sisters were exhibited in Paris in 1873. Rarer than tlie chest-to-chost or baek-to-baek twins are tlie eranniopagi. or I'orehead-to-forehoad type. Instances of these, inseparably united by osseous formations of tlie skull and also of the brain, were reported in 1495. 1501 and 1855 in various parts of Europe. An operation attempted in one ease proved successful.

. Even more curious are several reported examples of conjoined twins who possessed two heads, four arms, two chests, but only n single trunk and only two legs. The imaginations of scholars throughout the ages have been captured by tlie existence of such a hazard of nature, and one such fictitious pair was celebrated by Mark Twain in his book, “Pudd'nhead Wilson,”

A real union of this sort, however, was found in the court of James ITT. of Scotland, who made much of Lis extraordinary retainer and elevated him to a post of jester and minstrel. [The twin. Simnlicio Godino. who was separated from his brother Lucio when tlie latter twin died from rheumatic fever on November 25 last, survived for ten days, dying from eerbro-spinal meningitis just after the above article wag written.]