About Twins

Miatakes made by near relatives, be;ween twins, are nnmerous, but not very raried in character. When the twins xe children, they have commonly to be iistinguished by ribbons tied arcrand their wrist or neck ; nevertheleBS the ane is sometimea fed, physicked, and whipped by mistake for the other, and the description of these little domestic catastrophes is usually given to me by the mother, in a phraseology that íb Bomewliat touohing by reason of its seriousness. I have one case in -which a doubt remains whether the ohildren were not changed in their bath, and the presumed A is not really B. In another case an artiat was engaged on the portraits of twins who were between three and four years of age ; he had to lay away his work for three weeks, and, on resuming it, could not teil to which child the respective likeness he had in hand belonged. The mistakes are lesa numerous on the part of the mother during the boyhood and girihood of the twins, but almost as frequent on the part of strangers. I havo many instauces of tutors being unable to distinguish their twin pupila. Thua, two girls used regularly fo impose upon their muaic teacher when oue of them wanted a whole holiday : they had their lessons at separate hours, and the one girl sacrifloed herself to receive two lessons on the same day, while the other one enjoyed herself. Here is a brief and comprehensive account : "Exactly alike in all, their schoolmaster could never teil them apart ; at dancing parties they constantly ehanged partners without discovery ; their close resemblance is scarcely diminished by age." The following is a typical schoolboy anecdote : "Twotwins were fond of playing tricks, and complaints were frequently made ; but the boys would never own which was the guilty one, and the complainants were never certain which of the two he was. One head master used to say ho would never flog the innocent for the guilty, and another used to flog both." No less than nine anecdotes have reached me of a twin seeing his or her reflection in a looking-glass, and addressing ït, in the belief it was the other twin in person. I have many anecdotes of mistakes when the twins were nearly grown up. Thus : "Amusing scènes occnrred at college when one twin oame to visit the other ; the porter on one occasion refusing to let the visitor out of the college gates, for f ihough they Rtood sitie by sirle, he proessed ignoranco as to whick he ought ,o allow to dopart. Ghildren are usualy quick in distmgmshing betwoen their arent and his or hor twin ; but I have ;wo cases to the contrary. Thus the daughter of a twin says : "Siich was the marvelous similarityof heir features, voice, manner, &c, that : romember, as a ohild, being very much puzzled, and Ithink, had my aunt ived much with us, I should have ended by thinking I had two mothera." The other, a fattier of twinS remarks : "We were extremely alike, and are so at this moment, so much so that our children up to flve and six years old did not know us apart. " I have f our or five nstances of doubt during an engagement of niarriage. Thus : " A married first, but both twins met ihe lady together f or the ñrst time, and ell in love with her there and then. A managed to see her home and to gain ïer affection, thougli B went sometimos courting in his place, and neither the ady or her parents could teil which was whioh." I have also a Germán letter, written in quaint terms, about twin rothers who married sisters, but could noteasily be distinguished by them. In he well-known novel by Mr. Wilkie Collins of "Poor Miss Finch," the blind girl distinguishes the twin she loves by ie touch of his hand, which gives her a hrill that the touch of the other brothr does not. Philosophers have not, I elieve, as yet investigated the condiions of such thrills ; but I have a case n which Miss Finch's test would have ailed. Two persons, both friends of a certain twin lady, told me that she had requently remarkedto them that kissing ïer twin sister was not like kissing her other sisters, but like kissing herself - ïer own hand, for example. It would je an interesting experiment for twins who were closely alike to try how far dogs could distinguiah between them by scent. 1 have a few anecdotes of strange mistakes made between twins in adult life. Thus an offlcer writes : "On one sccasion when I returned from foreign service my father turned to me and said, 'I thought you were in London,' thinking I was my brother- yet he had not seen me for nearly f our years - our resemblance was so great. " The next and last anecdote I shall give is, perhaps, the most remarkable of those that I have. It was sent me by the brother of the twins, who were in middle life at the time of the occurrence. A was again coming home from India on leave ; the ship did not arrive for some days af ter it was due; the twin brother B had come up from his quarters to receive A, and their old mother was very nervous. One morningArushed in saying, "Oh, mother, how are you!" Her answer was, "No, B, it's a bad joke, you know how anxious I am !" and it was some time before A could persuade her that he was the real man.-