The Siamese twins, Chang and Eng : a biographical sketch.

Date:
[1869]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Siamese twins, Chang and Eng : a biographical sketch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    physical contact is felt only by the body which experiences the contact. Yet if Chang is ill, Eng suffers in like manner! Sometimes they have had decided differences of feeling and opinion; yet not unfrequently they have the same thought, volition, and purpose. A carefully pre- pared article, written by a master in science, appeared in Silliman’s Journal for 1830. This reliable authority will assure the reader that in respiration, circulation, hours for sleep, moods of joy, anger, and pain, Chang and Eng seem to be one. Yet a tooth extracted from Chang does not give Eng the quiver of pain. Hero are two sets of undoubted facts; but tho one set seems to deny the other set! If the disagreement of doctors puts the non-professional to silence, what can even doctors say, when the admitted facts are seemingly at variance? There is a fact in regard to the sensibility of the connecting flesh, that puzzles the physiologist. That band on the upper side has a length of five inches, on the lower side of four inches; is about three inches in width, and two in thickness. Now here is the strange fact: pressure on the middle of that band is equally felt by both—seeming to say that there is essentially but one person; pressure, however, at any distance from the centre, is felt only by the one nearest the point of pressure—seeming to say there are two persons! Thus, at every turn, the attempt to solve the mystery is baffled. Nature has had its freak in Chang and Eng; and thus far it keeps up the freak with those who have sought to unfold the mystery. CAN THEY BE SEPARATED? The question whether Surgical Skill can, without harm to the sub- jects, sever the band, has ever been a matter of deep interest to Chang and Eng, of scientific importance to the physiologist, and of rational curiosity to the world. The obvious disadvantages of such constant companionship have made them eager to profit by such treat- ment, if the probability of a successful issue could be made to appear strong. But the doubt has thus far deterred them from seeking the experiment, and the surgical profession from seeking the practice. But Chang and Eng are now nearly sixty years of age. If they are really two persons as well as two bodies, and if their physical distinction is such that the death of the one does not involve the death of tho other, there is, as every one foresees, a shocking contingency at no very remote future. That a living man shall, even for a moment, find himself linked to a lifeless body, is a possibility on which the mind refuses to dwell. Every reader can understand why Chang and Eng feel that tho question of separation is one that must bo met. If it is a possibility, its much longer postponement would be a disgrace to tho College of Surgeons. If practicable, tho skillful hand that shall enable Chang and Eng to shako hands and bid each other a good night—each in health and strength—going his different way,—the hand which does