122 Account of the Siamese Twins, 



may expect from experiments made on animals will not be 

 disdained in our days ; for nobody is now ignorant that every 

 thing depends upon another in the living economy, diseases 

 ^—functions, and organs ; — that we cannot act upon diseases 

 but- by functions,-r-upon functions but by organs ; and that 

 thus therapeutics is founded upon pathology — pathology on 

 physiology, and physiology upon anatomy. 



Aht. XIII. — Account of the Siamese Twins, united hy a car- 

 tilaginous band. With a Figure. See Plate II. 



-Among the aberrations from the general laws which regulate 

 the structure of man, there has perhaps nev^er occurred an ex- 

 ample so singularly interesting as that of the Siamese youths 

 who are now exhibiting in London. 



The repetition of particular organs which constitute the ge- 

 neral character of monstrous productions never fails to make a 

 disagreeable impression on ordinary spectators ; and in the 

 cases which have hitherto occurred of the duplication of the 

 whole frame, the circumstances have been such as to excite a 

 similar feeling. In the present case, however, the union of two 

 living beings is presented to us under the most interesting cir- 

 cumstances ; and we are persuaded that the general reader, as 

 well as the physiologist, will peruse with pleasure the accounts 

 which have already appeared of this extraordinary pheno- 

 menon. 



The Siamese twins are two distinct and perfectly formed 

 youths, about 18 years of age, possessing all the faculties and 

 powers of that period of life, united together by a short band 

 at the pit of the stomach. On first seeing them, their sides are 

 so close together, that one would suppose there is no interval 

 between them. On examining them, however, they are found 

 not to touch each other, — the band which connects them being, 

 at its shortest part, which is the upper and back part, about two 

 inches long. At the lower front part this band, which is there 

 soft and fleshy, or rather like thick soft skin, is above five inches 

 long, and might be susceptible of extension, were it not for a 

 thick, rope-like, cartilaginous substance, which forms the upper 



