RES ARK ABLE FACTS ABOUT TWINS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2310, 9 June 1898, Page 50

RES ARK ABLE FACTS ABOUT TWINS.

How many shillicg snookers have been weaved around twins, we wonder 1 But however much fiction hss been written on this subject, there is something 'extraordinarily strange and interesting in cases. of twins in real life, which are" far more common than most people believe. We were recently greatiy entertaiced during an interview with a gentleman who has gone deep into ths subjscfc from a scientific standpoint, and who has gathered together soma amazing instances of the resemblance of twins and its amusing consequences.

I-bave a couple of huge manuscript books -filled with accounts of cases of twins, aaid this gentleman, and the majority of them are peculiarly interestirg. Perhaps the most Irernaikable fact ia' the intense sympathy that sometimes exists between twins. For instance, you probably know thac it very often happens that one twin will follow in health every detail of the health of the other — suffering the same complaints, disorders, and diseases as the other, if not at , precisely tbe same time, very shortly before or afterwards.

I have a case in mind where ths sympathy was exceptionally strong. The twins were brothers, aad one was in India with the parents, and the other in England, studying for some examination or other. The young man in India contracted the measles, and was laid up with it for threa weeks, before ths end of which time the fellow in England was attacked' in the same way. Very good ; they both recovered. Same few months later the fellow here, who had recommenced his studies before he had properly recovered his strength, was laid up* wish a mild attack of brain- fever. The announcement of this fact, gent to the parents by a friend in England who had the boy ie hand, actually crossed ia the post a similar announcement concerning the brother in India, who certainly bad not been doing any thing likely to bring on such a malady. Again they both recovered, thought the lad' in Eogland was ill considerably longer than his twin brother. Seven years later they both died of the same intsraal disorder within eight or nine hours 1 of each other.

I have accounts of at least twenty, cases of similar sympathy. Ido not hesitate to acknowledge that very often the diseases or infirmities with which twins are simultaneously afflicted are accounted for by the laws of heredity — that both twins become victims o£ fcffiiefclons from which their parents suffered in a greater or less degree; and it is obviously feasible that when one twin inherits a disease the other twin will do so, while had they not been twine one might have inherited and the other entirely escaped the disease.

But nob by any means is every case of: this kind explained in that way ; and I don't thick such an explanation would fit tbe case the strange facts o£ which I have just given you; I am positively certain it would not fit another case I know.

It was a case of twin brother and sister. The sympathy was very strong between them ; they were more like two parts of. ona person. When one was suffering any pain — headache, toothache, or any little ill like those — the other generally had a suggestion of it, although afc tbe time of which I am speaking they lived more than 100 miles apart. They were very much attached to each other, and corresponded regularly. I have seen letters of theira in which, sometimes one, sometimes the other, says, " I am sure you are not well to-day," or, "I feel that you are writing to me."

Weil, one day the brother, who was employed in London, was run over and had hia leg broken by a cab. He was taken to an hospital, where he was kept for a few days. On being sent to bis lodgings' be found a IBtter written by his sister on tbe evening- of the day in the afternoon o£ which he broke his left leg. In that letter the girl wrote, among a mass of other things, "Are you suffering with rheumatism, Joss t I think I am, for I have bad a nasty ache In my left

leg since luncheon. It came on suddenly, and I feel sure it is iheumati«m."

You might ask why, if the sympathy were so stroDg between them, tha girl did not gueßS something serious waa wrorg with her brother, and come up to town. My answer would be that during the day the psin in her leg increased so much that she was.perfectly convinced she had rheumatism, and took to her bed, where she remained until she felt better, when news of the accident reached her, and explained her rheumatism.

But the fact which strikes me as being moat peculiar is that when the brother died a sbort^time ago — a year or so — the girl did not die also ; she sank into a very low state of health when he was dying- out in the Transvaal, but entirely recovered some time after his death, and has since enjoyed excellent health ; indeed, she, who, like her brother, had never been veryrobust, says she half believes that in dying her' brother took her and bis own delicacy away, and left her his strength as an addition to her own.

Whether tbers"is anything in the suggestion or not I should not like to say ; but I don't see why there should cot ba — twinsympathy is a truly remarkable mystery.

Resemblatc, 1 Yes, indeed, I have corns across some troly 'extraordinary cases of resemblance. For instance, I knew a case of two young men who were twins, and so weirdly alike that their own parents really had the greateßfc difficulty in deciding who was who ; the only way of preventing mistakes, in fact-, was to make them dress differently on all occasions. The only apparent difference Between them was that One was half an Jnch taller than the other and very slightly darker.

The resemblance waa a source of endless amusement to the two men, who often deceived parents aed friends by assuming each other's clothes. To show you how extraordinary was the likeness, I will tell you a little anecdote about them, which I heard from their sister.

The twins had been parted for some sis ■weeks — one had been staying in Manchester, while the other had remained in Leeds. Well, one day one of the brothers chaccsd to go to the railway station, and came face to face with his twin, who had suddenly returned unexpectedly. The two met in a doorway, and so quickly chat they both drew back, fully convinced for the instant that they had mistaken a large mirror for the door. You can easily imagine from' that fact; that tha resemblance was strong.

On one occasion the brothers, jast for the fun of the thicg, decided to attend each other's office as each other, and the joke would have been perfectly successful but for the ignorance of the one of the othei'g business and the dissimilarity of their handwriting. Had it -rot been for these two cirenmstances, I am quite sure they could have falfiled each other's business functions without their eraployerß or fellow clerks being awars of the substitution. That case is the moat reciaikable I know so far -as resemblance goes. You know, perhaps, that very often twics outgrow their similarity ; it is nearly always more marked when 'they are young. I know of: a very strar ge case of this kind. If you (raw the two — they are girls — rogether, you would not for a moment imagine they were twins Yet, as children they were so wonderfully alike that their own mother committed a blunder she was never able to rectify.

She was putting them to bed one evening when they were quite babies and could not talk ; and' when they were both undressed she discovered their night clothes were missing. So she bundled them into a cot. and went in search of themisssng clothes. When she returned she was utterly at a loss to decide who was who, and t.o this day 'she does not know whether she is no,rcalling each by the Christian same of the other. A stranger position of. things it would be difficult to imagine. Yet subsequent facts added to the strangeness. A distant relative died in Australia not very long since, and left a "Bmall sum of money for one of the girle — well, call faer Alice — to whom he had taken a fancy when she was a child and he in England, The humour of the tbitg is obvious. Supposing the girls both claimed that money— as fcbey might easily do — in the law court?, how in tha world would the bench- find a, decision which would be just fco tha girls and fit the letter of the testator's wishes? I thiak the -facts. bt that case. w6uld form the -groundwork for an extremely funny farce — Home paper.