STRANGE FREAK OF NATURE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2427, 19 November 1892, Page 2

STRANGE FREAK OF NATURE.

There is living on a farm within five miles of Forsyth, in America, one of the strangest freaks that has ever been heard of. The freak is the sou or daughter, or both, of James Howard, a farmer. There is a perfect double child of both sexes, but connected in such a way that no possible surgical 'operation can separate them. The children are now seven years old, They are perfectly formed, with the exception that they have about eight inches of spinal column in common. They are back to back, and about ten inches above the end of the spinal columns the bones merge into one column, with a single spinal cord. The bodies separate again, and the lower parts are entirely distinct. Howard has been approached several times by museum men who have heard of the freak, but he steadily refuses all offers to exhibit the children. The children play and act as other children of their age do, and seem, in no wise affected by their singular situation. They have much difficulty in locomotion, but they have hit on a plan of their own whereby they get about. They have an understanding, and when one wants to get forward the other is told, and walks backward. They have done this so much that they can walk either way very rapidly. They have no thoughts in common, and are apparently thoroughly distinct, with the exception of the slight connections of their spines.