THE TWINS OF LOCANA. Grim Horrors.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 176, 30 October 1886, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE TWINS OF LOCANA. Grim Horrors.

A Vienna correspondent writes : — John and Jacob Tocci, the twins of Locana, who have been shown in ulmost every city of Europe as the PucceBPora of the famoue Siamese twins, are dying in the Prater. Their mother is a at roug healthy countrywoman The boys resemble each other exactly, have pretty delicate feature*, and are now in their tenth year. John and Jacob are separate as far aa the sixth rib, and have one abdomen and one pair of Ieg8 between the:^. Jacob moves the right leg, John the left. The twins cannot walk, and keep thoir balance by lacing their arms round each other's neck, Jacob eats often and heartily, and is the healthier of the two, and to all appearance it is he who keeps his brother alive. Two days ago the twins quar relied over a toy, and John grew so ex cited that bia heartblood suddenly ceased to flow, and he changed +o a conditien of complete lethargy, irom which he had not awoke on the following morning. The boy suffered from 'the same complaint a year ago in Berlin, and Professor Virchow then declared that a recurrence of the leth; rgy would certainly put an end to the twin's Jife. A number ot Vienna physicana are observing the malady^ but they entertain little hope for John's life, and if John dies, j Jacob must follow him to the grave. The twins as they lie in their beds offer a strange contrast ; Jacob with feverish eyes and a red face seems to harbour all the j blocd tihafc has retreated from John's lifeloss body. The conscious boy cries incessantly, because he has often heard Protessor Virchow'a remark repeated, and knows that his brother's death is but a harbinger of his own. The poor creatures are meeting with the same y fate that some time ago pnt an end to the life of the Siamene twins, the second of whom died of poisoned blood-vessels, after having spent six terrible 'hours with the corpse of his brother. The advisability of an operation poparating the living from the dead brother was discussed at the time, but before a resolution could be taken death had done its work. The twins of Locana, who for the last eight years have travelled to all the world's shows, were to have left to-day for New York, where Ba>num is said, to have engaged them for a year at a salary of ,30,000, francs. In the event of their death the .parents have sold their body, to a London anatomioal 'museum for the price of JBS.pOp., , The "way in r jjrhieh, these l children are booked* in advance for hire or for purchase, &live t p£ .dead, -is, ."perhaps, .the ; only, thing truly 'disgusting in the 1 * experience., AU the i rest is merely* pain€ult«- But the typical showman Knows nd l rem6rse, , *His smartest Stroke;. Jiui'iijfeljis^lin.e^was, -> perhaps;,? , his J withtbe , .go|ipa;fajc% 'Londoir Alarmed, parhaps r by i v theipreaence"vpfjriyal:;epectatof8,ithe, gentle-

wboed and won her, and thus secured the right of perpetual exhibition. Ho' became a widower^ however, shortly atfer their happy nuptials'; buthe proved equal to the occasion. He bad his dead wife' embalmed, and continued His tour.