Four feline faces...

...but only 2 kitties! Meet the oldest and newest Janus cats (scientific term is diprosopus):

Frank-and-Louie (1st image, video here, more photos here and here)
b. July 2000, alive after 12 years
Marty Stevens was working at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in Grafton, Massachusetts, when local breeders brought in a kitten that had 2 mouths, 2 noses, and 3 eyes. Rather than euthanize the strange-looking little beast, she took him home knowing that he may not survive. Now more than a decade later, she's glad she did. "Every day is kind of a blessing; being 12 and normal life expectancy when they have this condition is one to four days. So, he's ahead of the game; every day I just thank God I still have him." Marty named the cat Frank-and-Louie and nourished him with feeding tubes for the first 3 months to prevent choking. As it turned out, she needn't have worried, because Frank-and-Louie used just 1 of his mouths to eat. A later MRI showed that the other mouth - which has no lower jaw - is not even connected to the esophagus. Both of the cat's noses work, but he can only see out of 2 of his 3 eyes. The middle one doesn't blink, making it appear to stare even when his other eyes are closed. "The condition itself is very rare, and I think that the fact that this cat became an adult, a healthy adult, is remarkable. [T]his cat really has fewer problems than many cats that have very normal anatomies. You can look at a cat like this as either a very strange and bad omen, or you can look at this cat as a miracle," said Tufts vet Dr. Armelle deLaforcade. Frank-and-Louie is in fact a record-breaker as the longest-surviving Janus cat. He has thrived and exhibits the characteristics of his exotic rag-doll breed: soft and silky fur, a docile temperament, and a friendly personality. Because he walks with Marty on a leash and is not afraid of people, strangers often approach him. "It's funny because people walk up to him thinking it's a nice, fluffy white cat and they're walking up with a big smile on their face to pat him, like, 'Oh, what a beautiful cat' and I see a look of horror come over their faces when they actually see his face," Stevens said, laughing.

Harvey Dent (2nd image, video here, more photos here)
b. Jan. 2012, died after 2 days
After he and his wife Amanda Forsythe watched a TV show about a Janus cat, Nash Hand of Port Charlotte, Florida, says, “I looked at her and said wouldn't that be weird if that happened to us?" Well, guess what popped out of their pregnant cat Nene? A male Janus cat! "They simultaneously work together, the two faces. When he eats on one side it looks like he is eating on the other. When he meows it comes out of both sides," describes Amanda. Lungs, respiration, and heart rate were pronounced normal by the vet. But when they sought out advice online, they received only negative comments. The couple were worried that they would not be able to afford the kitten's care if complications arose, but were against euthanizing it. "I am not going to let somebody tell me that it needs to be done. It shouldn't be killed just because it is a little different." Unfortunately, Harvey Dent passed away at just 2 days old.

In the interim between the birth of Frank-and-Louie and the brief life of Harvey Dent, a number of notable 2-faced cats have been born (photos here, scroll down), some of which survived into adulthood:

• Image b. June 2000
• Deuce b. March 2005
• Gemini b. June 2005
• Tiger b. July 2006

Of Lil'Bit b. Feb. 2007, the owner says, "The amazing thing to watch is that one of Lil'Bit's faces can be asleep while the other one is awake. I have also seen him sneeze out of one side and not the other and blink on one side of his face but not the other. And when he purrs it is like he is purring in stereo."

Follow-ups

2/1/11 Alpine ibex Follower Priscilla notes, "We never talk about the ones that end up crashing. That would be natural selection improving the herd. It does happen occasionally." Both my Dad and follower Kent report seeing dead mountain goats at the bottom of cliffs.

1/27/11 Cave pearls Chinese cavern classroom closed down.

1/22/11 The moral of the story is obvious What the train conductor sees (not bloody, but caution). Man filmed himself being run over by a train.

12/27/10 Tortoise cold, tortoise hot "Lonesome George" still looking for love. It was so cold in Minnesota that a squirrel froze in place.

12/23/10 Snowplow flambe This story reminded a reader of this. Woman in Ekaterinburg sets fire to her dead sister trying to reanimate her with electricity. Caskets, corpse, and cremated remains rescued from burning Michigan funeral home.

12/18/10 600 years apart Ohio murderer who stuffed his victims' bodies in a hollow tree was obsessed with leaves and has been sentenced to life in prison.

11/15/10 Scratchings Ancient rock carvings in East Timor. Microbes responsible for colors in Australian rock art.

11/13/10 The naked ape A gorilla in the U.K. that walks upright.

11/10/10 In Pompeii... Skeletons reveal new insights about Roman family life.

10/29/10 Specimen swallowed Indonesian man caught smuggling dozens of rare animals out of Thailand. Ghanaian man tries to enter U.S. with suitcase filled with "spiritual items." Illegal moose meat siezed in Canada. Arizona restaurant adds lion tacos to the menu, then reconsiders.

10/4/10 Drunk animals Spike gets scrubbed. Alaskan reindeer eat magic mushrooms. German police arrest drunk owl. Romanian bird deaths were caused by alcohol poisoning. Meanwhile, Alabama birds were "whacked by something big" and South Dakota birds were killed in USDA avicide program. (More bird deaths here.)

7/19/10 Ancient spirits Vandals chop 500-year-old grapevine in Austria. Archaeologists find 2,400-year-old soup in China. Oldest known winery found in Armenia.

6/16/10 The most interesting person in the world He really has led an interesting life...

6/12/10 Discovered documents Wisconsin school discovers 340-year-old Bible in their possession.

6/5/10 Body burden Effects of BP oil spill showing up in human blood.

5/24/10 Glass harmonica Musical score hidden in the facade of a Renaissance church.

5/15/10 Great molasses flood The 92nd anniversary.

4/9/10 Of 2 minds about wolves Russian town terrorized by "super-pack" of 400 wolves. Norwegian boy fends off wolves with music by Creed.

4/6/10 Corpses in strange places Body found in freezer of New Mexico home. Bodies double-stacked in the Cook County morgue. Father's mummified body found in wardrobe in son's apartment in Japan. (Make your own mummy here and your own shrunken head here.)

4/3/10 18th c. French hairstyles for women Creator of the beehive hairstyle is honored.

3/26/10 Tarim mummies travel China has pulled the Beauty of Xiaohe from the exhibit.

3/13/10 Census 2010 Remarkable interactive census map of the U.S.

3/5/10 Napoleon's hair Another lock sells at auction.

3/2/10 Evelyn McHale Argentine woman jumps from hotel, but is saved when she lands on a car. Strange story of a hotel suicide caught on film.

3/1/10 Treasure trove Jewelry stash discovered in a used book. Discovery of ornamental sword in wreck of Blackbeard's ship.

2/9/10 Green burial Willow coffins available from English company.

1/19/10 Kite-fighting Kite photography by a Dutch artist. Texas man builds and flies world's largest kites.

1/7/10 Thwarted Two-thirds of the Jews killed in the Holocaust have now been identified by name.

12/23/09 Child heroes Toddler calls for help to save her Mom.

12/19/09 Nero's dining room Ancient Roman "super-highway" discovered in England. Caligula's tomb found south of Rome.

12/7/09 Rose round-up Celery genes help roses last longer.

11/22/09 Oasis and airbus The over-the-top amenities of forthcoming cruise ships. Planned $1.1 billion private yacht.

11/13/09 Circus animals on the lam Car strikes pet pig in Connecticut. German man allowed to take his pet tiger on walks. California sea lion found miles from water. Colorado couple finds a scorpion in the house. Idaho house infested with snakes. Dangerous monkey has escaped in Japan for the 2nd time. Loose emu shot and killed in Maryland. South African man pulled over for drunk driving had 6 passengers and 15 sheep in the car. Zebras shot after escaping from California ranch. A Siberian tiger escaped from a Chinese breeding center and killed a bus driver in full view of his passengers.

11/12/09 Placentas and more Doctors in Berlin capture 1st live MRI images of childbirth. Girl of 3 is youngest survivor of breast cancer. Artist Damien Hirst offends bereaved parents by using a fetal skull in his latest work.

11/5/09 Conjoined twins Two-headed turtle in Turkey. Conjoined lambs in Colorado. Conjoined camels (pictured) in Saudi Arabia. Two-headed cow born in country of Georgia.

10/30/09 Tree mummies Fossilized forests found in the Arctic and the Antarctic. Ice Age fossil cache found in Colorado.

10/27/09 Docking cow tails Cow gives birth to triplets! Cow attack in Florida. Cow that escaped slaughterhouse moves to new sanctuary. Woman hit by flying cow while pregnant gives birth.

10/22/09 Birds in fable and fact Crows use tools to explore dangerous objects.

10/17/09 Lizard lore Satanic leaf-tailed gecko born in San Diego Zoo. Orange alligator spotted in Florida. Cell phone rings inside Ukrainian crocodile. Taxidermied crocodile from 19th c. sold at auction.

9/23/09 Optical illusions What are possibly the world's oldest optical illusions found in France.

8/12/09 Mona Lisa(s) Numbers discovered in the eyes of the Mona Lisa. Hidden literary references in the painting's composition. Landscape depicted has been identified.

8/9/09 Adventurers Club Chinese farmer builds fully-equipped treehouse.

8/6/09 Castaways, real and imagined Daniel Defoe stranded on an island off the coast of Scotland.

7/24/09 Creative cremains Open-air cremations offered in Colorado. U.K. plan to heat swimming pool by way of crematorium next door. Woman in Ireland swept out to sea and drowned while scattering her sister's ashes. Urn containing wife's ashes stolen from Colorado man's house. Thieves of the ashes of a Florida woman's father mistook them for cocaine and snorted some of them!

6/20/09 Placing of stones Standing stone in Scotland falls over. My yoga instructor Cathy has identified a stone she thought may have been carved by human hands as a ventifact.

6/18/09 Birthing and hoarding bunnies Hundreds of animals - including 2 tigers - seized in Texas. Hay airlifted to starving horses in Montana. Seventy-eight bunnies taken from home in Maryland.

6/9/09 Spontaneous human combustion Possible case in Ireland.

6/4/09 Elusive animals Harpy eagles return to Belize after 60-year absence. Bornean bay cat seen for the 1st time since 2003.

5/30/09 Clown's funeral Two clowns were killed in Mexico in an alleged drug gang hit.

5/8/09 Species named after Stephen Colbert Name a giant Madagascar hissing cockroach after your sweetheart.

5/4/09 Vultures Saudis arrest vulture for spying. High-tech attempt to vanquish vultures in Florida. Vultures wintering in Virginia.

5/2/09 Chihuahuas in the weird news Iowa dog survives being shot with an arrow. Iron Age dog guarded ancient treasure. Rescuers adopt dog found stranded on an iceberg in the Baltic Sea. Hermaphrodite dog has surgery. Dogs fed on owner's decomposing body in Kentucky. A blind man lost his seeing eye dog in Florida.

5/1/09 Rossetti's menagerie Wombat nuisance in Australian national park.

4/27/09 Mastectomy tattoos A reader shares her tattoo and says, "I cannot say how choosing art versus traditional reconstruction can empower you."

4/24/09 Ocean garbage dump Oregon professor claims reports of Pacific garbage patch are exaggerated.

4/24/09 Bears in the news Prehistoric bones of largest-ever bear found in Argentina. Escaped Arizona prisoner decides against suicide-by-bear.

4/21/09 Marlin Perkins A reader kindly posted the link to the Wild Kingdom episode I couldn't find in which Marlin and Stan struggle mightily with an anaconda!

4/12/09 Flightless birds Australians warned to stay away from dangerous cassowaries. Woman in Hawaii found not guilty of cruelty in killing peacock. Cockfighting rooster kills its owner in India.

3/26/09 Centenarians - and then some Wal-Mart greeter, 100, thwarts theft in Wisconsin. Illinois' oldest resident dies at 111 and Florida's oldest dies at 112. Missouri centenarian delivers Meals-on-Wheels. World's oldest dies at 115.

3/12/09 Shark attack capital Shark survival story in Australia. Bull sharks seen in flooded Australian streets. Man escapes leopard attack in South Africa.

2/12/09 Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday The body of Italy's best-loved TV quiz show host has been stolen from the tomb.

2/3/09 Polydactyly Chinese boy with 31 fingers and toes. California newborn has 24 digits.

12/14/08 Dendrochronology Roman rise and fall recorded in tree rings.

11/22/08 Facial reconstruction Another ancient bog body has been given a face.

10/19/08 Amputation Swedish man's penis mistakenly amputated. Tree surgeon slices neck with chain saw. Tortilla factory worker killed by mixing machine. Really cool custom prosthetic legs. More images of gruesome bread art.

10/15/08 Hot air balloon fatalities Man dies of fall in Alps after surviving balloon crash. Meanwhile, the owner of the Segway company fell off a cliff and died while riding one.

9/29/08 Kutna Hora ossuary My friend George's latest artistic creation.

9/28/08 Nadar and the Paris catacombs The adventures of cataphiles, brought to you on NPR.

9/25/08 Traumatic skull injuries Knife penetrates cheek of Chinese boy.

9/21/08 Yellowstone National park is bulging with magma. Witness a volcanic island being born in the Solomon Islands.

9/20/08 While They Slept My friend Franck has started a blog called Boisterous Mirth and mentioned me in the 1st post.

The Bailey twins

My Dad arrived for a visit from Arizona on Tuesday with the news that a pair of conjoined twins from his state had died. Emma and Taylor Bailey were born on September 19, 2006, joined at the chest and abdomen and sharing a single 7-chambered heart and a liver. They weren't expected to survive. In fact, their parents were making funeral arrangements for them even before they were born, and they are pictured (3rd image) in the gowns that they were to have been buried in. "We were told when they were born they'd live a few minutes, maybe a few hours," says their grandfather. They reached several milestones, including sitting up by themselves during physical therapy on March 29, 2008 (2nd image), and taking their 1st steps in November 2008.

Emma and Taylor Bailey died on August 10, 2010, at Seattle Children's Hospital during an operation to strengthen their heart in preparation for separation surgery, which was to take place later in the year. As their heart weakened, separation and donor hearts had became the only option for keeping them alive. But before they could be placed on the transplant list, their pulmonary artery burst. "We are humbled and honored to have felt the tender mercies of our Lord through the lives of these precious children," blog their parents. Their mother referred to them as ambassadors of love and considered herself blessed to be their host and caretaker. The viewing and funeral in Arizona tomorrow and Saturday is open to the public, and those who can't attend have so far left more than 30 pages of on-line condolences. The twins are survived by their parents and 4 siblings. They lived nearly 4 years, and the burial gowns long ago became their christening dresses. "Not only did they beat the odds with courage, but they did it with grace. They were happy, cuddly girls right up to the end,” said their grandfather.

Follow-ups

4/25/10 Everest et cetera Jordan Romero has succeeded in his goal to become the youngest climber to summit Mt. Everest. An Australian adventurer intends to find Mallory's camera and the body of his companion.

4/22/10 Sheep's clothing The cured meat of the sheep pig (pictured) sells for $82.99/lb and doesn't look very appetizing to me...

4/6/10 Corpses in strange places Ohio thieves stole a hearse, dumped the body that was in it, then abandoned the vehicle with a note inside telling them where to find the corpse.

2/4/10 Ironic deaths Chicago rail chief stepped in front of a speeding train with a manual in his pocket about how to clean up a suicide on the tracks.
1/24/10 Fiddlehead ferns It's fiddlehead season.

1/20/10 Ancient Egyptian finds Fifty-seven ancient tombs containing mummies have been found in Cairo. Meanwhile, a 500-year-old female mummy has been discovered in Seoul, South Korea.

12/23/09 Child heroes A 4-year-old Florida girl called 911 for help when her father fell face-first into an oyster bed.

12/22/09 Galloping Gertie A bridge in Volgograd, Russia, is swaying just like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge did before its collapse.

10/22/09 Birds in fable and fact Austrian scientists find that ravens console each other.

10/5/09 Snails Eating leopard slugs on a dare nearly cost an Australian man his life.

8/17/09 Leonardo's lion Scholars believe they have found the key to the workings of da Vinci's mechanical lion in the plans for another invention.

7/24/09 Creative cremains A woman turns human ashes into art glass objects. A Wisconsin man lost the ashes of his father and grandfather when the car in which they were stored was towed.

6/26/09 Frogs, deformed and fanciful Hordes of frogs on roads in both Apopka, Florida, and Thessaloniki, Greece. An international team of scientists has discovered a frog in Indonesia that has an inflatable nose.

6/18/09 Birthing and hoarding bunnies Hundreds of reptiles, including anacondas up to 30' long, have been found in a Milwaukee home and storage facility.

5/15/09 Giraffe evolution A South African woman has been killed by the kick of a giraffe.

5/11/09 Green eggs and ham A man is accused of stealing rare falcon eggs from a nest in Wales. Police in Fairbanks, Alaska, are puzzled by the arrangement of 26 decapitated chickens in a pattern. A peacock has moved inside the house of a British couple.

4/24/09 Bears in the news An Asian bear in a Japanese zoo has been filmed doing kung fu moves. A bear in Bellevue, Washington, is being lured out of hiding with Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

3/30/09 Poisonous plants A figure in a Botticelli painting is found to be holding hallucinogenic datura. A Tacoma woman's death may have been caused by mistakenly adding hemlock to a salad. Bees may be addicted to flower nectar containing nicotine and caffeine.

3/24/09 Elephant and dragon A man in Indonesia successfully fended off an attacking Komodo dragon. German scientists have found 3 new varieties of monitor lizard in the Philippines. A woman in Thailand has committed suicide by throwing herself to captive crocodiles.

3/1/09 Crop circles The 1st crop circle of 2010. And another has appeared in Wiltshire, U.K.

2/26/09 Underwater creatures A fish with hands. The argonaut octopus that creates a thin shell around itself to serve as a ballast tank.

2/17/09 Killer chimpanzees Charla Nash is being evaluated for a face and hand transplant.

2/2/09 Premature obituaries Mark Twain's autobiography - which he insisted be suppressed for 100 years after his death - is now being published.

1/19/09 Ancient animals Tortoise thefts are on the rise in the U.K. Two North Carolina men were arrested for decapitating a turtle. A rare non-native snapping turtle has been found in a Chinese lake.

1/8/09 Hedgehogs The strong scent of hedgehogs will make it easier for dogs to track them in the Scottish Isles, where they are threatening the bird species.

11/29/08 Conjoined twins The world's oldest conjoined twins, Ronnie and Donnie Galyon, will be receiving the new house they need. This article in the New York Times contains an image of the circus poster used to promote Millie-Christine.

11/20/08 Ice swimmers Lewis Gordon Pugh has just braved the icy waters beneath Mount Everest.

11/18/08 Albinos Albino otters born at a U.K. aquarium.

Follow-ups

A more modest list of follow-ups...

Conjoined twins 11/5/09 Reader Sandra Konigmacher suggested this link, which offers antique anatomical prints like this 1775 print by Johann Gottlieb Walker.

Collyer brothers 9/9/09 I neglected to mention in my post that E.L. Doctorow has just published a novel loosely based on the Collyer brothers called Homer and Langley.

Mona Lisa(s) 8/12/09 Famous masterpieces - including the "Mona Lisa" - reproduced using coffee.

Eunuchs 8/7/09 India's intersex and eunuch community has been granted the right to indicate a 3rd gender - neither male nor female - on the country's voting ballots.

Steampunk design 7/21/09 Photographs of some cool steampunk guitars and - if you're into that sort of thing - guns.

Elusive animals 6/4/09 A researcher has proven for the first time that a South American songbird chirps not with its beak, but its feathers. In addition, several new marine species have been discovered during a biodiversity study off the coast of New Zealand, including the squat lobster that eats only wood (treetrunks and shipwrecks) that has sunk to the ocean floor.

Centenarians and then some 3/26/09 A happy story sbout twins celebrating their 100th birthday and a sad story about a homeless 97-year-old.

Shark attack capital 3/12/09 A pregnant shark at a New Zealand aquarium was bitten by another shark, unexpectedly releasing four baby sharks as visitors watched.

Spider prey 3/7/09 A British man has been arrested trying to smuggle 1,000 live spiders out of Brazil in 2 suitcases.

Footprints 2/28/09 Scientists have found the first dinosaur tracks to be recognized in New Zealand.

Killer chimpanzees 2/17/09 Charla Nash, victim of the chimp attack in Connecticut in February revealed her badly mauled face on "Oprah" this week (caution, photo on p. 3).

Megafishes 2/15/09 An Englishman fishing in Spain landed the 3rd largest catfish ever caught in the world - and then released it back into the wild.

Hedgehogs 1/8/09 A bald hedgehog, abandoned by its mother, is being cared for at a wildlife rescue center in hopes that his spikes will regrow.

Conjoined twins

Sculpture by Deborah Costandine. Photo by Jim Ziv.

Last week I heard from a woman who is in graduate school training to become an art therapist. She made the sculpture of cephalopagus conjoined twins above, which was purchased in 2007 by Northwestern University. For a look at the skeletal structure of a similar pair of twins, visit the Mütter Museum's virtual display of cephalothoracopagus twins. Human conjoined twins who share a head do not survive, as opposed to craniopagus twins - joined at the head - who can and do live well into adulthood, whether or not they are separated. Rarer are symmetrical dicephalus twins, who each have a head on a shared body. Separation for them would cause more disability than it would resolve and - if the twins have a single heart - is not even an option.

Ben Carson

"Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story" premiered tonight on TNT and will no doubt air again. Dr. Carson is a world-renowned neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. He has separated - and consulted on the separation of - several pairs of conjoined twins. He figures in two entries in my Conjoined Twins book, which I have abbreviated below:

Banda, Luka and Joseph. Conjoined twins born in Zambia in 1997, the Banda babies were joined on the top of their heads and facing opposite directions. Their skull was described as one continuous tube, but the brains themselves were not joined. The twins were separated in South Africa by a team of twenty doctors and nurses led by pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson. In preparation for the 28-hour surgery, Dr. Carson practiced on a virtual reality device that created a three-dimensional replica of their brains from MRIs, including every detail of their complex shared blood supply. The operation involved separating numerous blood vessels, nudging the brains apart, covering the exposed skulls with tough cow membrane, and suturing the scalp closed.

After 19 hours of surgery, Dr. Carson had the boys’ heads separated 3/4 of the way, but was afraid they would bleed to death. He suggested leaving the twins partially linked for weeks or months to allow their brains to develop alternate pathways for blood, but the plan was scuttled because the hospital lacked the facilities to keep the boys alive in a partially divided state. Dr. Carson remembers, “After twenty-eight hours and after a point where we almost gave up again because the vascular anatomy was so complex, they woke up. Now one of them right in the operating room popped his little eyes open and reached up for the tube and tried to extubate himself. The other one was doing the same thing by the time we got to the intensive care unit. Within two days they were extubated, within three days they were eating, and within two weeks they were crawling around, neurologically intact, and it was just unbelievable.” The Banda twins would wear helmets for the next year to protect their heads from injury. Unlike the Binder twins, the Bandas did not suffer from any neurological deficits after the separation.

Binder, Patrick and Benjamin. Conjoined twin boys born by Cesarean section in Ulm, Germany, in 1987, the Binder twins were joined at the back of the head and shared the superior sagittal vein, the major vein that drains blood from the brain, in addition to skull and skin tissue. If surgery were not performed, the twins would be bedridden the rest of their lives. Consulted about the case, Johns Hopkins assembled a team of 70 and prepared for 5 months, including conducting 3 dress rehearsals. They equipped the operating room with a hinged table and two of everything else. After inflatable silicone balloons were inserted under the scalps of the boys to stretch the skin, they were transported to Baltimore for separation by pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson. In his book Gifted Hands, he describes, “At the end of the five-month period, everything was so organized that at times it felt as if we were planning a military operation. We even worked out where each team member would stand on the operating room floor. A 10-page, play-by-play book detailed each step of the operation. We endlessly discussed the five 3-hour dress rehearsals we’d had, using life-sized dolls attached at the head by Velcro.”

The operation took 22 hours. After opening the dura and separating the brains, the team encountered bleeding that was difficult to control because of the size and shape of the shared vein. The babies were attached to heart-lung bypass machines and their temperatures reduced to 68 degrees, bringing them into hypothermic arrest for what Newsweek called their "untethering." Carson and team fashioned a new sagittal vein for one of the twins from pericardial tissue, within the 1-hour time frame allowed for the bypass. Bleeding ensued and was made worse because their blood had been thinned for the bypass. The babies required 60 units of blood before the hemorrhaging eventually stopped.

The boys were put into a barbiturate coma to slow down the swelling. They were attached to life-support machines for two weeks so that their blood flow and respiration could be reduced and monitored during healing. After the operation, the media were told that the boys had a 50: 50 chance of survival. They underwent 22 additional surgeries, including an operation to insert a titanium mesh covering mixed with a paste of crushed bone where each boy had shared a skull to improve the closure of the scalps. Almost all post-operative emergencies were brought under control quickly except a respiratory arrest suffered by Patrick, who aspirated some food. He was deprived of oxygen for an unknown length of time, but made a good recovery. Nevertheless, the twins had severe neurological deficits after the separation that left them institutionalized.

Conjoined twins

Two years ago, the BBC reported the discovery of the first dicephalus (two-headed) lizard in the fossil record (pictured). The anomaly is not infrequent among modern reptiles. It is less common among mammals (see these videos of a two-faced kitten and a two-faced adult cat). Dicephalus humans are extremely rare and only four sets have lived to adulthood. The modern counterparts to Giovanni and Giacomo Tocci are Abigail and Brittany Hensel, who have now reached the age of 16. While the Toccis were never able to coordinate enough to walk, the Hensels have walked, tied their shoes, ridden a bike, and swum from an early age--and now have their driver's licenses!

Millie-Christine McCoy

We have elected Barack Obama, the first African-American president, who reminded us in his acceptance speech that America is a place where all things are possible! An earlier American story is that of Millie-Christine (1851-1912), conjoined twins born into slavery in North Carolina. They were sold several times and exhibited on stage in England and the U.S., but then were acquired by showman Joseph Pearson Smith, who reunited them with their mother and taught them how to read, write, sing, dance, and play the piano. They became accomplished stage performers, learned five languages, and toured the world for thirty years--eventually meeting Queen Victoria!

My museum

I spent the summer doing an extreme home makeover of my "museum" (a.k.a. my apartment) and now it is a jewel, although you wouldn't know it from the photos I was able to take. My mom Donna Gritman is my collections manager and I need her to return as official photographer. When she and my sister visited in June, we weeded out my books and clothes, organized my papers, installed and rearranged furniture, and inventoried the collections. After they left, I had the place repainted, the pictures rehung, and my treasures reshelved.

The most notable of the treasures in my personal cabinet of curiosities include a baboon skull ▪ emu and ostrich eggs ▪ woolly mammoth hair and tooth ▪ petrified wood ▪ a child’s casket ▪ cabinet card of Tocci Brothers, conjoined twins ▪ gravestone with accompanying death certificate ▪ postmortem photos ▪ Victorian mourning jewelry ▪ funeral home memorabilia ▪ Mexican Day of the Dead handicrafts. I consider myself the curator, but can no longer handle the objects with the care needed, so I enlisted the help of assistant curators Megan Distin McCabe, Karen Roberts McNamara, and Deb. Weiner.

I was told one time that being in my place was like being in a wing of the Metropolitan Museum. And at the party to mark my transfer from Georgetown University Press to the Graduate School, my colleague Gail Grella said the usual kind words about me, but added a comment I'll never forget: "Chris has the best show-and-tell of anyone I know!"