Medicine, Sports, Siamese twins, Eng and Chang, Badminton

"The Siamese twins"

Wood engraving. In very good condition.

Measurements at the widest part: 16 x 9,5 cm (ca. 6.3 x 3.7")

Eng and Chang (Eng on right side, Chang on the left) were born in 1811 in a small village on the coast of Thailand. Their mother had seventeen children, once triplets and never less than two. Eng and Chang were take to to the United States in 1929 and examined by medical experts also in England and in France. The conjoined brothers Eng and Chang Bunker (their given family name) were exhibited widely as curiosities. They became famous in American and European ãfreak shows". And their Siamese original was became synonymous for conjoined twins generally. They lived until 1874.
Here one of the twins is playing badminton.

Here is part of the Wikipedia entry:

Newspapers and the public were initially sympathetic to them, and within three years they left the control of their managers, who they thought were cheating them, and toured on their own. In early exhibitions, they appeared exotic and displayed their athleticism; they later held conversations in English in a more dignified parlor setting.

In 1839, after a decade of financial success, the twins quit touring and settled near North Carolina They became American citizens, married local sisters, and fathered 21 children, several of whom accompanied them when they resumed touring. Chang's and Eng's respective families lived in separate houses, where the twins took alternating three-day stays. After the Civil War they lost part of their wealth. Eng died hours after Chang at the age of 62. An autopsy revealed that their livers were fused in the ligament connecting their sternums.