308 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



conceptions, impulses, thoughts, etc. ; that it never was the pro- 

 fessional opinion that the death of one of the brothers would be 

 instantly followed by that of the other, or that their separation was 

 surrounded by fearful difficulties, and that the link now binding 

 tL'era together is not a means of perfect physical union by which 

 sensations or impressions are conveyed from one to the other. 

 There is, in fact, nothing more common between these Siamese 

 than what would have been acquired by any other twins indissolu- 

 bly united by a hempen or metallic cord, and subjected, as they 

 have been, to precisely similar circumstances from their birth. 

 Indeed, the band uniting them is almost insensible, so much so 

 that, on shipboard they were pulled about by a rope tied to it. 

 No pulsating vessel has ever been detected in it, though, undoubt- 

 edly, it is just here and nowhere else, in the centre of this cord, 

 made up of gristle and skin, and for about an inch on either side, 

 that there are vessels and nerves communicating from one to 

 the other. Here, but nowhere else, a touch on the space indicated 

 is felt by both. Precisely here, and here alone in the band uniting 

 them, there is sensation and nothing else whatever common to 

 both. If they are inclined to sleep, eat, etc., and perform the 

 functions of fife with great similarity, and agree always in their 

 tastes and habits, we must recollect that their surroundings, posi- 

 tions, etc., have all been precisely alike. People forget, too, that 

 one of them is irritable, the other very mild ; one of them is the 

 laro-er, strono'er, and the more intelligent, and he controls the other. 

 His slightest movement is followed by the weaker one from neces- 

 sity, and not, as is generally supposed, from unity of will or har- 

 monious action. They play games, one against the other, and 

 have quarrelled just like other good brethren, and more than 

 once. 



The decision given by the profession in Europe and America, 

 thirty-eight years ago, when this case was first put on exhibition, 

 was that the ligament of union was cartilaginous, probably a pro- 

 longation of the ensiform cartilage from the sternum, and the chief, 

 if not the only, objection to its division has been that the perito- 

 neum might be involved in the operation. It was, moreover, not 

 one demanded by surgery, for the twins had lived and miglit yet 

 live for years. 



The London "Lancet" of 1830 even declared that it was more 

 rare than curious. By the ecraseur or knife any student who has 

 attended a course of lectures may perform this operation with 

 success, and which, moreover, should be attempted even by any 

 one in case of death, taking care to divide the parts nearer the 

 one deceased. — Louisville Med. Journal. 



THE ARTIFICIAL PRODUCTION OF MONSTROSITIES. 



M. Dareste, in *♦ Comptes Rendus," January and August, 1868, 

 gives some interesting experiments bearing on teratology, of 

 which we present the following abstract. Attempting, in the first 

 place, to disturb the evolution of the embryo by varnishing the 



