TWINS.

I T is Mr. Galton's misfortune—but not his fault, for he is a most patient inquirer—that in all his speculations on heredity he is obliged to content himself with a very limited number of facts, many of which can never be absolutely proved. In his papers on the transmission of special mental power, he is forced, for example, to confine his argument to a few hundred families, to assume legitimacy—a point which, whenever facts about the Royal caste, for example, are accepted as bases of argument, becomes of great importance—and to suppose that prominence may be taken as fair evidence of power. In his paper, again, on "Twins," in this month's Fraser, though he has taken most creditable pains, he has still to depend for his argument on about eighty cases, in only thirty-five of which he has received full details. That is obviously a very small number on which to found any important theory, yet Mr. Gallon, modestly as he writes, evidently thinks it sufficient to give an air of antecedent probability to a very strong hypo- thesis indeed, nothing less than that nature is almost independent of nurture,—is governed, as it were, by itself, or by its own neces- sary processes, and not by internal will or external circumstances. He had been startled by some evidence for the Necessitarian theory brought before him during his inquiries on heredity, and looked for more in the history of twins. His idea was that if he could show that twins, born alike, did not grow dissimilar under the in of circumstances, and that twins born unlike did not grow similar under identical conditions of nurture, much would be proved in favour of the Necessitarian theory. He therefore sent out circulars, which brought him eighty-five replies, containing in- stances that seem to him to establish, at all events, a prima facie case. He has certainly established his second point. Similarity of nurture does not establish any similarity among twins who were originally different. Mr. Galton has twenty cases before him, in all of which this fact is strongly affirmed, usually by intelligent parents, the most exact similarity of treatment failing to make Esau as Jacob or Jacob as Esau, and indeed on this subject little new evidence is required. Everybody knows that brothers bred in the same house, by the same persons, taught in the same schools, and subjected to the same influences, exhibit strong and even violent diversities of character, tastes, and ways, and there seems no reason why twins originally dissimilar should' differ much from brothers or sisters born in the more usual sequence. The cause of their dissimilarity may be a. most interesting question for the physiologist, but the fact of its existence granted, they pass into the masses of ordinary humanity, Education will not make men similar in character, be

food will make them of equal height, and for this simple reason, that il

education is differently assimilated by different natures. Milk fever;almost inwholly, o results of a similar education upon them would be an interesting in partly duo to the combined action of many small influences, and puzzle ; but there can be no certainty, and is no general pre- n s case is it largely, much less wholly7ascribed to that cause. In sumption, of the kind. The case of dissimilar twins is, therefore, snot a single instance have I met with a word about the growing dis-

for the purpose of discrediting the power of nurture, of little or s, which had triumphed over natural tendencies ; and yet a no value, large proportion of my correspondents happen to be clergymen whose But there remains the far more interesting one of similar twins bent of mind is opposed, as I feel assured from the tone of their letters, retaining their similarity under divergent influences, and on this to a necessitarian view of life."

point Mr. Galton gives some ciiricius evidence. In the first place, Those facts are curious, but how do they support Mr. Galton's Among the thirty-five cases of close similarity transmitted to him are a few in which no point of difference could be specified most observant and accurate, but neither they nor any one else

baffled even paternal or filial affection :— twins themselves, for very few men can dissever action and will

"One of my inquiries was for anecdotes as regards the mistakes made by near relatives between the twins. They are numerous, but while nearly unconscious of willing; and certainly he can get none not very varied in character. When the twins are children, they have from third persons. He might as well ask for Brown's commonly to be distinguished by ribbons tied round their wrist or neck; testimony as to the shape of Smith's soul. That many nevertheless, the one is sometimes fed, physicked, and whipped by diseases are born with us, and will inevitably be de-

mistake for the other, and the description of these little domestic cata- strophes is usually given to ins by the mother, in a phraseology that is veloped under certain conditions ; that bodies consume a fixed somewhat touching by reason of its seriousness. I have one case in supply of vitality at a fixed rate, and if they are much alike will which a doubt remains whether the children were not changed in their die at the same time ; or that bodies absolutely identical in struc-

bath, and the presumed A is not really B, and vice versa. In another

case an artist was engaged on the portraits of twins who were between ture would have an identical liability to certain diseases, are a.sser-

three and four years of age ; he had to lay aside his work for three tions not in themselves improbable, and to be accepted as true on weeks, and on resuming it, could not toll to which child the respec- adequate external evidence, but on the causes of changes of tive likenesses he had in hand belonged Children are usually character external evidence has little if any weight. If all twins quick in distinguishing between their parent and his or her twin ; but I have two cases to the contrary. Thus, the daughter of a twin says : born intimately alike retained their similarity to a late death, that ' Such was the marvellous similarity of their features, voice, manner, certainly would tend to prove this much,—that the human will &c., that I remember, as a child, being very much puzzled, and I think, may be powerless over so much of character as depends on had my aunt lived much with us, I should have ended by thinking I physique, which is, of course, a great deal, just as it is powerless had two mothers.' The other, a father of twins, remarks : ' We were extremely alike, and are so at this moment, so much so that our child_ to alter height, or the colour of the hair, or the focal length of ren up to five and six years old did not know us apart. . . . . . vision, but it would not prove that the will is powerless over the I have a few anecdotes of strange mistakes made between twins in essentials of character. One man may be good and the other

adult life. Thus, an officer writes: ' On one occasion when I returned

from foreign service my father turned to me and said, 'I thought you bad, and yet retain, from physical causes, the liability to shed were in London,' thinking I was my brother—yet he had not seen me his teeth, or die, or fall in love, just when the other did. The for nearly four years—our resemblance was so great.' The next and evidence would be imperfect, even if all twins born alike showed

last anecdote I shall give is, perhaps, the most remarkable of those the same persistence in similarity ; but Mr. Galton does not that I have : it was sent me by the brother of the twins, who were in

middle life at the time of its occurrence: 'A was again coming home assert this, but only that a large proportion of the comparatively from India, on leave ; the ship did not arrive for some days after it was few cases before him do, a wholly insufficient base for so high a due ; the twin brother B had come up from his quarters to receive A, superstructure. All the cases might really, though not apparently,

and their old mother was very nervous. One morning A rushed in,

saying, 'Oh, mother, how are you ?' Her answer was, 'No, B, it's a be subject to the same conditions, and in all the effect of will might bad joke; you know how anxious I am!' and it was a little time be carefully concealed. It is, however, useless to argue, for the before A could persuade her that he was the real man." inner histories of men can be known but partly even to themselves.

In many cases, hair and teeth were shed at the same time, and in Mr. Galton gives us very little evidence at first-hand, that is, no less than nine the twins were apt to sicken at the same time. from the mouths of twins, but one bit of what he does give is The father of one pair of twins says :— very singular, and though it does not bear upon the point we " ' Their general health is closely alike ; whenever one of them has an illness, the other invariably has the same within a day or two, and "There is a curious feature in the character of the resemblance they usually recover in the same order. Such has been the case with between twins, which has been alluded to by a few correspondents; it whooping-cough, chicken-pox, and measles; also with slight bilious is well illustrated by the following quotations. A mother of twins says : attacks, which they have successively. Latterly, they had a feverish =There seemed to be a sort of interchangeable likeness in expression, attack at the same time.' Another parent of twins says :—' If any- that often gave to each the effect of being more like his brother than thing ails one of them, identical symptoms nearly always appear in the himself.' Again, two twin brothers, writing to me, after analysing their other ; this has been sing,ul.rly visible in two instances during the last Points of resemblance, which are close and numerous, and pointing out two months. Thus, when in London, one fell ill with a violent attack certain shades of difference, add, 'These seem to have marked us of dysentery, and within twenty-four hours the other had precisely the through life, though for a while, when we were first separated, the same symptoms.' A medical man writes of twins with whom he is one to go to business, and the other to college, our respective characters well acquainted : 'Whilst I know them, for a period of two years, there were inverted ; we both think that at that time we each ran into the was not the slightest tendency towards a difference in body or mind ; character of the other. The proof of this consists in our own recollec- external influences seemed powerless to produce any dissimilarity.' tions, in our correspondence by letter, and in the views which we then The mother of two other twins, after describing how they were ill took of matters in which we were interested."

simultaneously up to the age of fifteen, adds, that they shed their first

milk-teeth within a few hours of each other." We wonder What the writer of that letter meant • by "inter- changeability." Does he mean merely that new circum- The existence of similarity, and similarity of a very intimate and stances brought out in each twin the point of character thorough kind, may then be admitted—it has never been doubted previously most noted in the other, and heretofore latent in him- by the public, but the public is very credulous—and we arrive at self; or does he mean that in each the latent qualities became the substantial point of the inquiry,—Is this similarity altered in apparent, while the apparent became latent? He surely cannot any serious degree by circumstances ? Mr. Galton replies with mean what he seems to say, namely, that they unconsciously but great confidence that it is not, unless the circumstance be an ill- actually changed characters and then rechanged them again,— ness affecting the material condition of one of the twins :— that is, were the subjects of some external power, which neither "It was with no little interest that I searched the records of the allowed of free-will, nor individuality, nor, indeed, continuous thirty-five cases for an answer; and they gave an answer that was not identity. That would be an assertion for a genie in "The Arabian altogether direct, but it was very distinct, and not at all what I had he considers the fact of the occasional recurre hinted conclusion? How could clergymen, any more than laymen,

nce of similarity

almost amounting to identity to be established past all question. th —we know of one such case, in which the most careful observa-

tion has detected nothing but an apparent " roundness " in the eyes of one twin, which on a change of attitude disappeared—and one or two hi which similarity approached external identity, and they twins or not, if they are originally dissimilar, any more than very different conditions of life ; and they showed in the other oases that the parents ascribed such dissimilarity as there was wholly, or

nesatso sotmehsfosr.minofonilelneass.su In fourfeoffures cases it wasbsecdartslet- may be poured into water and into vinegar in the same quantity nervous fever ; then yIpfincli effects'from slight Indian climate; from from ana and in the same way, but the result neither is, nor is expected to illness (unnamed) of nine months' duration • from varicose veins; from be, identical. If we could assume, indeed, that twins were always a bad fracture of the leg, which prevented all active exercise after- identical in character, and only differed in appearance, the varying Iwsarsdnyy :nvde ryth feerwe ws sesrees til:rett e rosthsesrmcsassel alusaifonillt -shettsth.di.ss.h;ii.l . ..ty.

results of a similar education upon them would be an interesting in partly duo to the combined action of many small influences, and puzzle ; but there can be no certainty, and is no general pre- n s case is it largely, much less wholly7ascribed to that cause. In sumption, of the kind. The case of dissimilar twins is, therefore, snot a single instance have I met with a word about the growing dis- similarity iltawriisty being due to the action of the firm free will of one or both of

for the purpose of discrediting the power of nurture, of little or s, which had triumphed over natural tendencies ; and yet a no value, large proportion of my correspondents happen to be clergymen whose But there remains the far more interesting one of similar twins bent of mind is opposed, as I feel assured from the tone of their letters, retaining their similarity under divergent influences, and on this to a necessitarian view of life."

point Mr. Galton gives some ciiricius evidence. In the first place, Those facts are curious, but how do they support Mr. Galton's as to their children's or pupils' changes may, as regards facts, be are a few in which no point of difference could be specified most observant and accurate, but neither they nor any one else

baffled even paternal or filial affection :— twins themselves, for very few men can dissever action and will in subsequent recollections, and some men will, and will strongly,

made by near relatives between the twins. They are numerous, but while nearly unconscious of willing; and certainly he can get none not very varied in character. When the twins are children, they have from third persons. He might as well ask for Brown's commonly to be distinguished by ribbons tied round their wrist or neck; testimony as to the shape of Smith's soul. That many nevertheless, the one is sometimes fed, physicked, and whipped by diseases are born with us, and will inevitably be de-

strophes is usually given to ins by the mother, in a phraseology that is veloped under certain conditions ; that bodies consume a fixed somewhat touching by reason of its seriousness. I have one case in supply of vitality at a fixed rate, and if they are much alike will which a doubt remains whether the children were not changed in their die at the same time ; or that bodies absolutely identical in struc- case an artist was engaged on the portraits of twins who were between ture would have an identical liability to certain diseases, are a.sser-

three and four years of age ; he had to lay aside his work for three tions not in themselves improbable, and to be accepted as true on weeks, and on resuming it, could not toll to which child the respec- adequate external evidence, but on the causes of changes of tive likenesses he had in hand belonged Children are usually character external evidence has little if any weight. If all twins I have two cases to the contrary. Thus, the daughter of a twin says : born intimately alike retained their similarity to a late death, that ' Such was the marvellous similarity of their features, voice, manner, certainly would tend to prove this much,—that the human will &c., that I remember, as a child, being very much puzzled, and I think, may be powerless over so much of character as depends on had my aunt lived much with us, I should have ended by thinking I physique, which is, of course, a great deal, just as it is powerless had two mothers.' The other, a father of twins, remarks : ' We were extremely alike, and are so at this moment, so much so that our child_ to alter height, or the colour of the hair, or the focal length of ren up to five and six years old did not know us apart. . . . . . vision, but it would not prove that the will is powerless over the I have a few anecdotes of strange mistakes made between twins in essentials of character. One man may be good and the other saying, 'Oh, mother, how are you ?' Her answer was, 'No, B, it's a be subject to the same conditions, and in all the effect of will might bad joke; you know how anxious I am!' and it was a little time be carefully concealed. It is, however, useless to argue, for the

have been discussing, we may quote it for its own interest :—

ness affecting the material condition of one of the twins :— that is, were the subjects of some external power, which neither "It was with no little interest that I searched the records of the allowed of free-will, nor individuality, nor, indeed, continuous thirty-five cases for an answer; and they gave an answer that was not identity. That would be an assertion for a genie in "The Arabian altogether direct, but it was very distinct, and not at all what I had he considers the fact of the occasional recurre hinted conclusion? How could clergymen, any more than laymen, assert what they knew nothing whatever about? Their testimony could penetrate the fastnesses of the mind, or decide how much or how little was due to an exertion of will. Mr. Galton is travelling

in that hint out of the region of evidence altogether. He could get none that would be satisfactory even if he consulted the evidently suspects that there may be some relation between the; Council. His candidature is opposed by the Liberal Association, natures of his brot'aer and himself utterly apart from that which is supported by Mr. J. A. Partridge, a gentleman known in