' It is just possible that in some
way or other this case has been confounded with the story of
Biddenden; at any rate, the occurrence of such a statement in
Lycosthenes' work is of more than passing interest. Had there
been no bequest of land in connection with the case of the
Kentish Maids, the whole affair would probably soon have been
forgotten.
"There is, however, one real difficulty in accepting the story
handed down to us as authentic,--the nature of the teratologic
phenomenon itself. All the records agree in stating that the
Maids were joined together at the shoulders and hips, and the
impression on the cakes and the pictures on the 'broadsides' show
this peculiar mode of union, and represent the bodies as quite
separate in the space between the above-named points. The Maids
are shown with four feet and two arms, the right and left
respectively, whilst the other arms (left and right) are fused
together at the shoulder according to one illustration, and a
little above the elbow according to another. Now, although it is
not safe to say that such an anomaly is impossible, I do not know
of any case of this peculiar mode of union; but it may be that,
as Prof. A. R. Simpson has suggested, the Maids had four separate
arms, and were in the habit of going about with their contiguous
arms round each other's necks, and that this gave rise to the
notion that these limbs were united.
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