Biographical sketch of Millie Christine, the Carolina Twin : $b Surnamed the Two-headed Nightingale and the Eighth Wonder of the World — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Biographical sketch of Millie Christine, the Carolina Twin : $b Surnamed the Two-headed Nightingale and the Eighth Wonder of the World
John Stuart Mill · en
The _Baltimore Sun_, a paper of very high standing in Maryland, says:
“There is, at the juncture of the trunk, but one spinal column. The
nervous system seems to be identical, but each possesses individual
consciousness, and each head does its own thinking. On the other hand,
the appetite is the same; when one is hungry the other is the same. The
digestive organs are independent. As she moves about she looks like
two bright young copper-colored girls tied together in the middle, in
the same dress, which is cut short so as to display the movements of
four feet. The busts of each are very nearly symmetrical; the heads and
necks, shoulders and arms, are perfect. The faces are round, bright and
intelligent; eyes large and clear; hair black and glossy.”
The press of all the large cities in America bore similar testimony.
During the past few months Millie Christine has received an enormous
number of visitors. Christine Millie’s receptions have always been
attended by great numbers of people. In the city of Washington,
during a fortnight’s stay, thirty thousand persons attended her
receptions; in Philadelphia, during eight weeks, a hundred and fifty
thousand visited her; in Boston, seventy thousand in three weeks;
and in New York, in a single day, ten thousand persons flocked to
see her. Christine Millie has made an extensive tour of Europe, and
remained there several years. The _Liverpool Mercury_ has the following
regarding her.
EXTRAORDINARY PHYSICAL PHENOMENON.
Since the days when the Siamese twins arrived in this country and
occasioned so much excitement in medical circles, no illustration
of the freaks of nature has been found at all approaching in its
remarkable character to that given in the person of Christine Millie,
a native of North Carolina, who arrived at this port on Tuesday, per
City of Brussels, from New York. The young person who is about to
proceed to London for exhibition, is the child of parents formerly
slaves in North Carolina, still living, and having several other
children, and was herself born a slave. It is scarcely possible by
a written description to convey anything like an adequate idea of
the marvelous physical organization of this extraordinary being. In
figure, Christine Millie, who is 19 years of age, is rather short,
and possesses two heads upon one body, with two well-developed chests
and four arms. This portion of the frame is as perfectly distinct
in each figure as if the upper part were the heads of two persons;
but at the lateral posterior portion of the pelvis there is but one
body, with one spine, the lower parts of which gradually incline
outwards from each side, and terminate with four legs. The faces
are of the African type, with thick lips and large mouth, denoting
the race from which the girl has descended; but in conversation the
countenances brighten with intelligence, and those who have had the
opportunity of seeing the girl could not fail to be pleased with