PAPERS OX MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH 319 



smned that there has been an unequal division of the germ 

 plasm in the uniovular variety which might account for 

 the variable behavior to infection. 



Three sets of double ovum twins, observed by Orgler, 

 showed uniform behavior to infection. However, in the 

 case of twins of opposite sex who were admitted to the 

 hospital at the age of five weeks and remained there for 

 a considerable length of time, the boy, at the age of six 

 months, developed measles, while the girl remained free 

 from the disease, notwithstanding the fact that they oc- 

 cupied adjoining cribs. 



Ballantyne in his 4k Antenatal Pathology and Hygiene" 

 records a case where both twins acquired variola from 

 their mother. In another case, one was affected while 

 the other escaped. In a third, both fetuses exhibited the 

 eruption. One presented many pustules, while the other 

 had only a few. 



During infancy and early childhood, twins, like other 

 siblings, develop almost simultaneously intestinal upsets, 

 grippal infections, measles, mumps, chicken pox. scarlet 

 fever, and other infections. 



Syphilis. Where one or both parents are syphilitic, 

 the twins, as a rule, suffer the same fate as does the fetus 

 in a single pregnancy. There are cases recorded, how- 

 ever, where one of the twins presents evidence of mani- 

 fest lues while the other seems to remain immune. Grete 

 Singer reports twins, a girl and a boy. one of whom was 

 clinically and serologically luetic, the other normal. The 

 non-infected infant showed negative Wassermann reac- 

 tions during a period of two years. 



Finger reports cases of dissimilar severity of syphilis 

 in twins, i. e., one was more severely affected than the 

 other. There are numerous corroborative reports in the 

 literature, in which one case was syphilitic, the other 

 healthy. Rosinski reported syphilis in twins. The boy 

 showed severe symptoms of hereditary lues. The girl, 

 who was observed for twenty-four years, remained en- 

 tirely free from the disease. No satisfactory explana- 

 tion can be found for this inequality in the distribution of 

 the disease. Why one child should be infected and the 

 other remain free is difficult to conceive. It has been 



