It may simply be said, in conclusion, that the
phenomenon of Biddenden is interesting not only on account of the
curious bequest which arose out of it, but also because it was an
instance of a very rare teratologic type, occurring at a very
early period in our national history."
Possibly the most famous example of twins of this type were Helen
and Judith, the Hungarian sisters, born in 1701 at Szony, in
Hungary. They were the objects of great curiosity, and were shown
successively in Holland, Germany, Italy, France, England, and
Poland. At the age of nine they were placed in a convent, where
they died almost simultaneously in their twenty-second year.
During their travels all over Europe they were examined by many
prominent physiologists, psychologists, and naturalists; Pope and
several minor poets have celebrated their existence in verse;
Buffon speaks of them in his "Natural History," and all the works
on teratology for a century or more have mentioned them. A
description of them can be best given by a quaint translation by
Fisher of the Latin lines composed by a Hungarian physician and
inscribed on a bronze statuette of them: --
Two sisters wonderful to behold, who have thus grown as one,
That naught their bodies can divide, no power beneath the sun.
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