BAFFLING RIDDLE

Evening Star, Issue 23685, 19 September 1940, Page 6

BAFFLING RIDDLE

THE " SYMPATHY " BETWEEN TWINS Geoff Wardle and Gilbert Wardle arc twins Always, they said, whatever happened to the one would happen to the other And now their loved ones in England are hoping for the best, for Lieutenant Geoffrey Wardle, ot the lost submarine Starfish, is reported alive and well in a German prison camp, and Sub-lieutenant Gilbert Wardle, cf the lost submarine Sterlet, may perhaps turn out to bo equally safe. Tt seems a slim chance to count on, this strange link of coincidence that so often binds the lives of twins. Yet it happens too often to be disregarded. Only the other day in Britain twin sisters. Lois and Louise Coasts, who had married twin brothers, brought—unknown to each other—twin divorce actions based on identical charges of cruelty. In Cairo, recently, twin sisters died 'at the same moment, though nowhere near each other. One died in hospital. At that exact moment, her sister (lung herself from the window of her flat , . Doctors have a name for this strange sympathy of twins. They cal! »it ‘‘"twillics ” Its cause—or its cure—is a baffling riddle. Twins have died on the same dav of the same complaint. This happened recently when one of the best-known cattle-breeders in Scotland, Mr James Marshall, died, aged sixtyfive. of high blood pressure . . . while in Sussex bis brother died of the same complaint. Not long ago, at Brighton. Sussex, a young man came up on a charge of theft. It was explained that bis character had utterly changed since the death of his twin sister. Again, an Australian woman felt so sure that her twin sister in London was in trouble that she sent off a helpful sum of money. Only after several weeks was it proved that her guess about the other’s financial distress had been correct. . . ' In Waslrngton. scientists are studying girl twins who have lived apart for eighteen years and yet still answer questions ‘alike and are in voice, appearance and smiles. They have been separated since they were eight days old , . . but perhaps they pr7>vc the triilb that yon can never separate twins.