

CRS eee aes ae ee eee Ses A IS PO ees ee ae 

1891.] The Double Monster Rosa-Josepha Blazek. 891 
THE DOUBLE MONSTER ROSA-JOSEPHA BLAZEK.' 
moe and Josepha Blazek were born January 2oth, 1878, a 
Skreychov, in Bohemia. Their birth, which seems to have 
taken place without any difficulty, was accomplished under the 
care of a village nurse. 
The mother, aged twenty-two years, had been delivered, two 
years previously, of a well-formed and healthy daughter. The 
parents are sturdy peasants, of some means, but of limited intelli- 
gence. Until recently they have been opposed to a public exhi- 
bition of their children. 
A short notice printed at Prague in 1878 shows that six 
months after their birth they were visited by M. Auguste Breisky, 
then a professor of the German Faculty of Medicine of that city, 
and director of the Gynecological Clinic. After an examination, 
M. Breisky stated that the development of Rosa-Josepha was in 
accordance with their age. M. Marcel Baudoin relates that soon 
after their birth the parents, horrified, took the advice of an old 
woman, and left them eight days without food, expecting them to 
die. 7 
At first sight the sisters Rosa-Josepha give the impression of 
two little girls, rather small for their age (now thirteen years), very 
blonde, slightly pale, with a gentle, amiable manner, and eyes some- 
what languid in expression. On seeing them sitting side by side 
on the same footstool one would hardly suspect their union when 
they are dressed; but if one makes the slightest movement the 
other follows immediately. 
The trunks are not parallel, the axes of the vertebral columns 
diverging perceptibly, making a large V, the apex of which cor- 
responds to the union of the pelves. Each trunk is bent on itsel 
at an angle of 45°, to give the faces their proper positions. More- 
over, the heads are inclined a little toward each other, for the same 
reason. The contact of the trunks is, less—although Rosa- 
Josepha is only thirteen years old—than that of the double mon- 
From the Revue Scientifique. 



