ear above mentioned. For such a birth would, in the opinion of the
times, be regarded undoubtedly as a most evident prodigy or omen of
evil. Still, even admitting that the date 1100 must be allowed to
stand, its remoteness from the present time is not a convincing
argument against a belief in the real occurrence of the phenomenon; for
of the dicephalic Scottish brothers, who lived in 1490, we have
credible historic evidence. Further, Lycosthenes, in his "Chronicon
Prodigiorum atque Ostentorum", published in 1557, states, upon what
authority I know not, that in the year 1112 joined twins resembling the
Biddenden phenomenon in all points save in sex were born in England.
The passage is as follows: 'In Anglia natus est puer geminus a clune ad
superiores partes ita divisus, ut duo haberet capita, duo corpora
integra ad renes cum suis brachiis, qui baptizatus triduo supervixit.'
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. If this be so, then the teratologic difficulty is removed, for
the case becomes perfectly comparable with the well-known but rare type
of double terata known as the pygopagous