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XII . — Statement of the principal circumstances respecting the united Siamese 
Twins now exhibiting in London. By George Buckley Bolton, Esq., 
Member of the Royal College of Surgeons , and of the Medical and Chirurgical 
Society of London. Communicated by the President. 
Read April 1, 1830. 
THE youths who are the subject of the following memoir, were born in May 
1811 in the kingdom of Siam, at Maklong, a small village sixty miles distant 
from the capital, Bankok. They are the offspring of Chinese parents, and 
have been named, the one Chang, and the other Eng. Bankok is situated on 
the river Minam, forty miles from its mouth, between the Burmese and Chinese 
empires, in latitude 13° north, and longitude 101° east. Siam is tributary to 
the latter empire. 
The king of Siam soon heard of the birth of Chang and Eng, and at first 
designed to have them put to death, conceiving them to be monsters, and 
imagining that the existence of such beings portended some evil to his kingdom. 
But afterwards hearing that they were harmless, and would probably be able 
to support themselves by labour, he allowed them to remain unmolested. 
Mr. Robert Hunter, a British merchant resident at Siam six years ago, saw 
the twins for the first time in a fishing-boat on the river Minam. They were 
naked from the hips upwards, were very thin in their persons, and it being 
then dusk, he mistook them for some strange animal. Shortly afterwards he 
endeavoured to prevail on the Siamese government to allow them to visit 
England, but could not at that time succeed. However, in March 1829, 
Captain Coffin and Mr. Hunter conjointly obtained this permission for a 
certain period, having gained the ready acquiescence of their mother, on the 
condition of a provision being made for her during the absence of her sons. 
The mother is stated by Captain Coffin to be about five feet seven inches in 
height, well formed, with large hips, and, for her country, a strong woman, 
2 A 
MDCCCXXX. 
