A DOUBLE CHILD.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 794, 28 March 1871, Page 3

A DOUBLE CHILD.

A human monstrosity, in the shape of a double child, is the subject of lengthy notices and comments in the American papers, and promises to become a public exhibit, as only the second day after its birth an offer was made by a speculator, and accepted, by the parents, to travel for two years with the child. It is the off-spring of Mrs Joseph Finlay, whose husband is a well-to-do farmer at Cardington, Ohio. A physician of prominence in the state thus describes the strange being which was born in November last: —" This wonderful thing can be truly called a double child. There is but one spine, at each extremity of which there is a perfectly formed head and face. Each has well formed shoulders, arms, and hands, and a good chest, containing lungs and heart, as any other human being. Each has also a stomach and liver. There is but one navel, which is in the centre of the abdomen, equi-distant from the two heads. It is at the middle of the body that the two are grown together. The abdomen appears to be but one, and the organs contained in it below the stomach, and small intestiues, are probably common to the two. Upon one side there is a well-formed pair of hips, legs, and feet. Upon the opposite side there is one large leg, possibly the consolidation of two legs, upon the extremity of which there are eight toes. Most monstrosities are repuguant to look upon. This one is not so in any respect, excepting this leg. This child, or these children, are now ten days old, and are now doing as well as children mostly do at that period of existence. It nurses at both heads. One will be asleep while the other is crying, and sometimes both will sleep or cry at the same time. In sex it is a female. The length from the top of one head to the top of the other is 20in., and the weight «at birth was 101b."