MR. BOLTON ON THE UNITED SIAMESE TWINS. 
185 
common subject of discourse between them, it is not an unreasonable conjec- 
ture, that some female attachment, at a future period, may occur to destroy 
their harmony, and induce a mutual and paramount wish to be separated. 
They are remarkably quick in intellect, and possess great imitative powers. 
They also observe very minutely whatever is presented to them, and comment 
upon the subject to their friends. On the 29th of November, a gentleman 
visited them with me, and recommended Captain Coffin to have them taught 
their letters, and to write. By way of experiment he marked with a pencil, on 
a card, a large A ; he then pronounced the letter, which sound the boys exactly 
imitated. He afterwards formed a B and a C ; but while doing this, Chang 
interrupted him, wishing to obtain the pencil ; and both not only repeated the 
sounds of the three letters, but imitated their forms, Chang even making a 
pun on the letter C ; for on being asked if he knew its form and pronuncia- 
tion, he replied, laughing, “ Yes, I see you.” 
A person who had lost an eye, visiting them at their exhibition -room in 
New York, they inquired of their attendant what he had paid for his admis- 
sion ; and on being informed that it was the same as other persons, they 
remarked that half of it should be returned, as he had not had the same advan- 
tage as the others. 
These extraordinary individuals are the most remarkable instances on re- 
cord of perfect and distinctly formed human beings united together, who have 
attained the age of puberty in a state of sound bodily health : hence an au- 
thentic account of their moral and physical habitudes will probably be deemed 
valuable*. 
On concluding this report, I wish it to be known, that I have neither insti- 
tuted, nor permitted to be made, any unjustifiable experiments upon these 
youths ; considering myself bound, by professional responsibility, as well as 
by a sense of national justice, to resist all such improper proposals. For these 
reasons, and also because I am averse to the administration of mercury, unless 
it be imperatively demanded, I have not had an opportunity of knowing 
whether the mercurial influence would pervade the one youth, if applied 
* There is a case of a double female monster, born at Szony in Hungary, October 26th, 1701, who 
died February 23rd, 1723, at Presburg, in the convent of the Nuns of St. Ursula, recorded in the 
Philosophical Transactions for 1757, page 311, by Justus Joannes Torkos, M.D. F.R.S. 
2 B 
MDCCCXXX. 
