en, they
are usually distinguished by ribbons tied round the wrist or neck;
nevertheless the one is sometimes fed, physicked, and whipped by
mistake for the other, and the description of these little domestic
catastrophes was usually given by the mother, in a phraseology that
is somewhat touching by reason of its seriousness. I have one case
in which a doubt remains whether the children were not changed in
their 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 three and four years of age; he had to lay aside his
work for three weeks, and, on resuming it, could not tell to which
child the respective likenesses he had in hand belonged. The
mistakes become less numerous on the part of the mother during the
boyhood and girlhood of the twins, but are almost as frequent as
before on the part of strangers. I have many instances of tutors
being unable to distinguish their twin pupils. Two girls used
regularly to impose on their music teacher when one of them wanted a
whole holiday; they had their lessons at separate hours, and the one
girl sacrificed herself to receive two lessons on the same day,
while the other one enjoyed herself from morning to evening. Here is
a brief and comprehensive account:--

"Exactly alike in all, their schoolmasters never could tell them
apart; at dancing parties they constantly changed partners without
discovery; their close resemblance is scarcely diminished by age."

The following is a typical schoolboy anecdote:--

"Two twins were fond of playing tricks, and complaints were
frequently made; but the boys would never own which was the guilty
one, and the complainants were never certain which of the two he was.
One head master used to say he would never flog the innocent for the
guilty, and another used to flog both."

No less than nine anecdotes have reached me of a twin seeing his or
her reflection in a looking-glass, and addressing it in the belief
it was the other twin in person.

I have many anecdotes of mistakes when the twins were nearly grown up.
Thus:--

"Amusing scenes occurred at college when one twin came to visit the
other; the porter on one occasion refusing to let the visitor out of
the college gates, for, though they stood side by side, he professed
ignorance as to which he ought to allow to depart."

Children are usually quick in distinguishing between their parent
and his or her