THE SIAMESE TWINS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 103, 4 May 1869, Page 2

THE SIAMESE TWINS.

The remarkable brace of Asiatics known as the Siamese Twins have returned to this country after fin absence of thirty-eight years, and are now exhibiting themselves at the Egyptian-hall. They are accompanied by two of their daughters, and by a very beautiful Circassian lady, who is said to have been seized and sent to Constantinople to be sold as a slave. Here she excited the interest of a European gentleman, who became her protector, and had her carefully educated. She is very amiable and pleasing in conversation with the audience, and gives them the choice of five languages in which to hold discourse ■with her. Sir James Simpson, the professor of medicine and midwifery in the university of Edinburgh, has examined ver}' minutely, and from every point of scientific interest, these twins, and has delivered a lecture on them. In this lecture, which he publishes in the British MedicalJournal, he gives first their history and description. Chang and Eng, or as they now sign themselves, Chang and Eng Bunker, are now fifty-eight yeais of age. They were two of several children ; the rest being naturally formed. When infants, they were attached face to face, but instinctive efforts from the earliest age have so far elongated the band as to enable them to adopt an imperfect lateral relation to each other. They are short, but wiry-looking men ; Eng, the taller of the two, being only five feet two and a-half; Chang, an inch shorter. In their chemical as well as their organic functions, they are shown by Sir James Simpson to be two separate and distinct indi- v viduals. They can walk, swim, and run; they are keen sportsmen and good shots ; intelligent, well-informed, and good men of business. The band of union is formed partly by the extension of the cartilages of the breast-bone; it is four inches and a-half long, and eight inches and a half in circumference. When the twins have suffered from blood-diseases, as small-pox, measles ague, they have been affected simultaneously. On the question of the surgical separation of 'he Siamese Twins, Sir James Simpson says they "have themselves no desire to be surgically divided from each other. But some of their relatives and families have become anxious that they should be separated, if it were possible to do 60. The operation is certainly possible, and would be attended with little, or indeed no, difficulty ; but it would be so perilous in its character that the twins could not, in my opinion, be justified in submitting to it, nor any surgeon justified in performing it." Chang and Eng are married to two sisters, the daughters of an American clergyman. Each

brother has nine children. The family of Eng consists of six sons and three daughters ; the family of Chang consists of three sons and six daughters. Their first children were born within three or four days oi each other; the others at irregular intervals. Chang's ninth child was born three months ago. Lokd Lyttelton gave a lectuve a: Leamington on his visit to New Zealand. Speaking of the political illations of the various settlements, his lordship said that the general movement of the best opinion among them is towards a further consolidation and concentration of political action throughout the colony. In the early days of such settlements it was almost inevitable that each separate one should have its separate Government; but with the progress of population and intercourse, it weuld be a sign of weakness rather than of streneth that such independence should continue. There could be little doubt that the ultimate aim of New Zealand statesmen should be the establishment of a strong central government surrounded by municipalities.— Pall Mall Gazette. The Wroko England is Doing New Zealand.—The Sydney Morning Herald says:— The wrong of England is not in recalling her legions and contracting her empire within the limits of a profitable trade. The wrong is not in refusing to adopt any new sovereignty, or offering any new inducements to further colonisation; hut the ' wrong she is doing is in leaving to danger her own people, who were led into it by her former policy, and in averting her eyes alike from their sacrifice and their vengeance. In imposing upon them a sole-charge, which they cannot support; she is making mercy impossible by making it -dangerous. A savage foe in the hands of men who have to preserve themselves by their own sole efforts will be put to death. No quarter, will inevitably be the cry of the deserted colonist, who has to return to his lands and home, and -which can never be safe but when his enemy is dead. In England there is a great re-action. Many remember the enthusiasm which Heki excited by his elevated temper and military capacity. Manv Englishmen saw, with half regret, the conquest of the noble savage. The feeling is now different, and it is not unlikely to become disgraceful. But the responsibility cannot be cast off from the Parent State. The colonist is sensible that the odds »re become more and more •unfavorable. If we were reposing say— under the shadow of Lichfield Cathedral— we could afford to admire the New Zealand warrior. As it is, he is in danger of becoming cruel by the presence of a foe from which he cannot find security in courage or humanity. Professor Goldwin Smith, an unsuccessful candidate for Parliamentary honors, thus speaks of the electors: — " In the course of my canvass I formed and expressed the convirtion that money -was omnipotent, and that there was scarcely a constituency in England in which anything could stand before it. This is not the case in other countries. Englishmen may boast that th y are uneg.ual led in energy and fortitude; but the Englishmen of t'ne present generation are also -unequalled in subserviency to wealth. That •money should command almost every seat in the National Councils is surely not a thing to be ■emblazoned in the escutcheon of a great nation. The authorities at Chatham dock-yard have received an Admiralty order, directing that no more clerkships are to be entered for the civil department of the service, and that no promotions are to be made until further orders Some discharges from the dock-yard may shortly "be expected. An inmate of Swansea workhouse fell down stairs and was killed. His name was Jonathan Thomas, he was 85 years ot aue, and formerly O ilor-Sergeant of the Gallant 23rd Welsh Fusileers, and served with that regiment at Waterloo. Another Waterloo veteran was on the jury. [It is not said whether this latter was an •• inmate of a workhouse." England is a great country. A Color-Sergeant, 85, to die in a. -workhouse l~[ THEtotafcost of the Prussian war of 1866,. as verified by the Berlin Court of Accounts, amounts to £22,624,600, of whicli £109,364 "was for secret political purposes.