Report of the autopsy of the Siamese Twins : together with other interesting information concerning their life.

Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the autopsy of the Siamese Twins : together with other interesting information concerning their life. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    or both female. They are male in twenty or twenty- five per cent, of the cases. Dr. H. C. Wood here asked Dr. Jacobi a question in regard to the Biddenden Sisters [an account of whom will be found in another column of this journal], as to whether they had been reported in the works on monstrosities. Dr. Jacobi. I do not know anything about that. Dr. Pancoast stated that an account of those sisters was contained in a semi-popular book en- titled '^Lexicon Tetraglotton, published by Samuel Thomson, London, 1660.* None of the Fellows desiring to say anything further upon the subject, on motion, the College adjourned. /^N Thursday, February 19, the Commission con- ^^^ tinned the autopsy upon the Siamese Twins, and made some important discoveries. They found that the two livers, which were supposed to be joined only by blood-vessels, were one body; the paren- chymatous tissue being seemingly continuous be- tween them. The so-called tract of portal continuity is appar- ently liver-tissue, but the point has not yet been proven by microscopic examination. It will be * The Editor of the Times is indebted to Dr. Pancoast for an opportu- nity of inspecting the work. The account of the Biddenden Maids is in a single sheet, and is evidently not a part of the original book, but has been pasted in it. In appearance it equals the body of the work in age, as shown by the color and condition of the paper; but of course it is impos- sible to decide with any accuracy when it was put in the book.