Editing Conjoined twins (section)

== History ==
[[Image:Nuremberg chronicles - Male Siamese twins (CCXVIIr).jpg|thumb|left|Conjoined brothers from ''[[Nuremberg Chronicle]]'' (1493)]]
[[Image:Nuremberg chronicles - Female Siamese Twins (CLXXXIIv).jpg|thumb|left|Conjoined twin sisters from ''Nuremberg Chronicle'' (1493)]]
[[Image:Conjoinedtwinslarcomuseum.jpg|thumb|[[Moche culture|Moche]] ceramics depicting conjoined twins. 300 AD [[Larco Museum|Larco Museum Collection]] Lima, Peru]]
The [[Moche (culture)|Moche]] culture of ancient Peru depicted conjoined twins in their ceramics dating back to 300 AD.<ref>Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. ''The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the [[Larco Museum|Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera]].'' New York: [[Thames and Hudson]], 1997.</ref> Writing around 415 AD, [[Augustine of Hippo|St. Augustine of Hippo]], in his book, ''[[City of God (book)|City of God]]'', refers to a man "double in his upper, but single in his lower half—having two heads, two chests, four hands, but one body and two feet like an ordinary man."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120116.htm |title=CHURCH FATHERS: City of God, Book XVI (St. Augustine) |publisher=Newadvent.org |access-date=2014-08-03}}</ref>

According to [[Theophanes the Confessor]], a Byzantine historian of the 9th century, around 385/386 AD, he writes that "in the village of [[Emmaus]] in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], a child was born perfectly normal below the navel but divided above it, so that it had two chests and two heads, each possessing the senses. One would eat and drink but the other did not eat; one would sleep but the other stayed awake. There were times when they played with each other, when both cried and hit each other. They lived for a little over two years. One died while the other lived for another four days and it, too, died."<ref>The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor. Byzantine and Near Eastern History, AD 284–813. Translated with Introduction and Commentary by Cyril Mango and Roger Scott. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997, p. 106-107.</ref>

In Arabia, the twin brothers [[Hashim ibn Abd Manaf]] and [['Abd Shams]] were born with Hashim's leg attached to his twin brother's head. Legend says that their father, [[Abd Manaf ibn Qusai]], separated his conjoined sons with a sword and that some priests believed that the blood that had flowed between them signified wars between their progeny (confrontations did occur between Banu al'Abbas and Banu Ummaya ibn 'Abd Shams in the year 750 AH).<ref name="pg69">The Life of the Prophet Muhammad: Al-Sira Al-Nabawiyya By Ibn Kathir, Trevor Le Gassick, Muneer Fareed, pg. 132</ref> The Muslim [[polymath]] [[Abū al-Rayhān al-Bīrūnī]] described conjoined twins in his book ''Kitab-al-Saidana''.<ref name="Zahoor">A. Zahoor (1997), [http://www.unhas.ac.id/rhiza/arsip/saintis/biruni.html Abu Raihan Muhammad al-Biruni] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225113805/http://www.unhas.ac.id/rhiza/arsip/saintis/biruni.html |date=February 25, 2020 }}, [[Hasanuddin University|Hasanuddin U]]</ref>

The English twin sisters [[Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst]], who were conjoined at the back (pygopagus), lived from 1100 to 1134 (or 1500 to 1534) and were perhaps the best-known early historical example of conjoined twins. Other early conjoined twins to attain notice were the "Scottish brothers", allegedly of the [[dicephalus]] type, essentially two heads sharing the same body (1460–1488, although the dates vary); the pygopagus [[Ilona and Judit Gófitz|Helen and Judith]] of [[Szőny]], Hungary (1701–1723), who enjoyed a brief career in music before being sent to live in a convent; and Rita and Cristina of Parodi of [[Sardinia]], born in 1829. Rita and Cristina were dicephalus tetrabrachius (one body with four arms) twins and although they died at only eight months of age, they gained much attention as a curiosity when their parents exhibited them in Paris.

[[Image:Bunker Grave.jpg|right|thumb|Grave of [[Eng and Chang Bunker]] near [[Mt. Airy, North Carolina]]]]Several sets of conjoined twins lived during the nineteenth century and made careers for themselves in the [[performing arts]], though none achieved quite the same level of fame and fortune as [[Chang and Eng Bunker|Chang and Eng]]. Most notably, [[Millie and Christine McCoy]] (or McKoy), pygopagus twins, were born into slavery in North Carolina in 1851. They were sold to a [[showman]], J.P. Smith, at birth, but were soon kidnapped by a rival showman. The kidnapper fled to England but was thwarted because England had already banned slavery. Smith traveled to England to collect the girls and brought with him their mother, Monimia, from whom they had been separated. He and his wife provided the twins with an education and taught them to speak five languages, play music, and sing. For the rest of the century, the twins enjoyed a successful career as "The Two-Headed Nightingale" and appeared with the Barnum Circus. In 1912, they died of [[tuberculosis]], 17 hours apart.

[[Giacomo and Giovanni Battista Tocci|Giacomo and Giovanni Tocci]], from [[Locana]], Italy, were immortalized in [[Mark Twain]]'s short story "Those Extraordinary Twins" as fictitious twins Angelo and Luigi. The Toccis, born in 1877, were dicephalus tetrabrachius twins, having one body with two legs, two heads, and four arms. From birth they were forced by their parents to perform and never learned to walk, as each twin controlled one leg (in modern times, [[physical therapy]] allows twins like the Toccis to learn to walk on their own). They are said to have disliked show business. In 1886, after touring the United States, the twins returned to Europe with their family. They are believed to have died around this time, though some sources claim they survived until 1940, living in seclusion in Italy.
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