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On 24 November 1829 over thirty surgeons and
physicians crowded into the Egyptian Hall in
Piccadilly, London. There was Astley Cooper and
Anthony Carlisle, previous Presidents of the Royal
College of Surgeons (RCS), and Honoratus Leigh
Thomas the current President. There was also a
cohort from the Royal College of Physicians: Francis
Hawkins, Charles Locock and Henry Halford, the
President of the College. These learned gentlemen
had come to pay homage to the exceptional bodies
of Chang and Eng The Siamese Twins, eighteen
years old and joined below the breastbone by a
band of flesh 2in thick and 4in long.
They were giving a private performance in an
exhibition space dubbed the Home of Mystery,
marked with hieroglyphics and fronted by the giant
statues of the Egyptian Gods Isis and Osiris. The
surgeons and physicians watched in amazement as
the twins performed acrobatics with somersaults
and backflips. They even played a form of
badminton with each brother holding a miniature
racket and hitting the shuttlecock to and fro. On
account of their connecting ligament the twins
stood a mere 4–5in apart, so this fast-paced hitting
of the shuttlecock was a spectacle of agility,
harmony and speed.
"The surgeons and
physicians watched in
amazement as the
twins performed
acrobatics with
somersaults and
backflips."
After the show, the surgeons and physicians were
at liberty to poke, prod and inspect the twins. The
surgeons made straight for the connecting
ligament which contained the mystery of their
body, and they fondled the flesh while musing on
the possibility of surgical separation. Not being able
to comprehend fully the nature of the twins’
abnormality made the groping so enthralling: the
enigma of their exceptional physiology engendered
excitement and debate.
The medical gentlemen subsequently signed a
statement testifying to the integrity of Chang and
Eng’s performance, praising the ‘remarkable and
interesting youths’, the reliability of the
performance, ‘in no respect deceptive’, and
emphasising the respectability of the show,
‘nothing whatever, offensive to delicacy’. (1) This
statement was published on the first page of the
twins’ exhibition pamphlet, which was sold when
the public poured into their freak show. A personal
statement by Joshua Brookes, a leading London
anatomist, was included on the first page:
"Having seen and examined the two Siamese
Youths, Chang and Eng, I have great pleasure in
affirming they constitute a most extraordinary
Lusus Natuare; the first instance I have ever seen of
a living double child; they being totally devoid of
deception, afford a very interesting spectacle, and
are highly deserving of public patronage. " (2)
Chang and Eng the Siamese twins, aged eighteen,
with badminton rackets. Coloured engraving by JLB,
1829. Credit: Wellcome Collection.
A reciprocal relationship between medicine and
freakery had been established. On the one hand,
the managers of Chang and Eng benefited from
these medical endorsements. At the time, medicine
was slowly modernizing and becoming more
professional, gaining social respectability and
cultural authority, so these attributes were
transferred onto Chang and Eng’s freak show. The
display of deformity was often associated with lowclass
itinerant fairs, so this backing from medicine