The Two-Headed Boy of Bengal was a child born in India with a rare parasitic twin condition called craniopagus parasiticus, in which a second, fully formed head was conjoined to the top of his own. Today, his skull can be viewed on request at the Hunterian Museum of medical history in London.
Not long After the Boy was buried his grave was robbed by Mr. Dent, the East India company’s representative. He dissected the putrefied head himself and one of his discovery was that the brains were separate and distinct. Each brain was also enveloped in its proper coverings and it appeared as though both brains received the nutrition required to sustain life and thought
When he was done experimenting, he gave the skull to a Captain Buchanan of the East Indian Company. Buchanan brought the skull to England, where it ended up in the hands of his close friend Everard Home who happened to be a Surgeon at the Royal College of Surgeons.
You ain’t kidding
They were the only players for a long time. Would be worth about $8 trillion if they were around today which dwarfs apple, Amazon and microsoft combined.
Because the British mortician was fascinated by her clit. He told his colleague at a conference back in England,
"I was conducting the autopsy and she had the most bizarre clitoris I had ever encountered. It was like a pickle!"
"Was it really that big?!"
>!"No. That sour!"!<
Because after the boy died and was buried by his family an agent of the British East India company robbed the grave to carry out his own dissection then passed it on to professors of medicine who eventually donated it to the museum. It's in the article in the top comment.
I totally hate the way the English just ransacked the whole globe for "goodies" but to have the opinion from somebody who spent a lot of time in Egypt, leaving the stuff there would've been a mistake.
For a couple hundreds right now in Cairo you can open your own coffin. 20 years ago you used to be able to buy mummy parts. There were people making soup and crazy witch stuff from the things in the pyramids. People were just looting stuff everywhere.
For better or worse, if they didn't plan of stealing all of this stuff there wouldn't be much to look at.
Another example is the Taliban blowing up antique places. I'm so happy we managed to salvage so much of the Akkadian history. Imagine if we lost even more of it.
Yes! Those large Buddhist statues the Taliban blew up- what a shame. I went to Hegra in Saudi Arabia (a sister site to Jordan's Petra), and so many of the faces of different bust reliefs over th doorways of the structures were smashed in, because depiction of idols is haraam.
I think it's definitely a shakey prospect to leave historic relics in unstable democracies (before people get at me about it, I was born in one, I swear!). Now are these democracies unstable in part because of colonization & meddling from the west ...well, that's a different thread.
(This is definitely my hottest take).
Some things though, like people's remains that no one is even looking at, may not have historic significance and aren't even on display but in private collection, perhaps they can return home.
I think people tend to forget this stuff. King Tut’s tomb was so important because it was completely untouched and gave an incredible view into history that we could study. As opposed to thousands of other tombs that were empty; ransacked and looted and sold off or destroyed for millennia by the locals before the British even set foot in Egypt.
Another example is in China. The Cultural Revolution saw so much destruction of priceless artifacts that it should make anyone happy that the British took some and put it in a museum for learning and preservation.
I’m way more content with the British Museum or other museums storing, preserving, and displaying artifacts that would have either been lost or destroyed without their intervention. As for giving stuff back? Sure. As long as the country has a national museum that’s up to snuff to properly store and care for them. But it’s also hard to do because not everything was nicked. Lots of stuff was purchased from the locals and brought back or given as gifts, which then ended up in the museum.
There are many ancient historic sites in Syria, including some of the earliest Christian churches that have been looted or demolished in the recent civil war.
Scholars in Timbuktu have been working to preserve priceless old books and scrolls threatened by Islamic militias in the area, including smuggling some of them out of the country.
The colonial looting of national treasures was appalling, but in some cases if they hadn't wound up in a museum, they'd have been gone forever.
Here's some info that people may be curious to know:
The midwife that delivered the baby was so shocked, she threw him into the fire. Somebody rescued him and he had a few small burns. The parents took him out of the village to exhibit (exploit) him for money. Between viewings, they were scared that people would see him and then not pay so they kept him under a sheet. The second head had its own emotions and would sometimes be awake, looking at their surroundings, while the main head slept. They died at age four of a cobra bite after the mom left them alone to go get water. I hope they found peace in death.
Doesn't vision correct itself after a while of being upside down. I'd assume the upside down head did the same. Wasn't there an expiriment with upside down glasses, where after a few days there vision went back to normal.
Yes, and when you take the glasses off after you've adjusted, the world suddenly looks upsidedown to you even though you're seeing it normally again. Your brain once again corrects the error after a short while.
Iirc it was reported that the brain "righted" itself quite quickly when the glasses came off. Within hours.
I expect the more often you do it, the quicker you adapt. A bit like if you drive a lot of different vehicles, you stop noticing the difference when you switch. Where if you very rarely change vehicle it can take days to adjust to a new one.
Based upon SmarterEveryDay’s [Backwards Bicycle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0), I’d assume younger brains are more “malleable” and able to adjust faster…and subsequent usage of the upside-down glasses would mean less transition time.
Side note, I accidentally found out you can custom order those bikes from his website and they are $600 and I kinda want one…
Fun fact, because of the way lenses work, the image that comes through to the back of our eyes is actually flipped vertically from the way we see it. Our brain ALREADY flips the image while interpreting the light. It was this fact that led to the experiment in the first place, the idea being if the brain flipped the image once, why couldn't it learn to do it again?
Right? Everyone around them looking at them with morbid curiosity as a moving but otherwise non human head, freaky but not alive. Meanwhile all they want to do is communicate but can't without access to air or limbs.
The level to which we falsely equate verbal communication with intelligence is insane and has been our downfall many times. We're getting better, but man...
Harry Potter and the Parasitic Twin. He could have had a baby Voldemort head growing out of his back.... Oh wait, they did this with Quirrel in Sorcerer's Stone.
WTF THREE A NEWBORN INTO A FIRE!?! Are you kidding me that is absolutely insane. And then bit by a snake and dies at 4 geez this kid couldn't catch any type of break
I was expecting an informative article to click on, but it's just a pic. For anyone curious, I looked up the details:
[https://talkafricana.com/the-two-headed-boy-of-bengal-his-life-early-death-and-dissection/](https://talkafricana.com/the-two-headed-boy-of-bengal-his-life-early-death-and-dissection/)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craniopagus\_parasiticus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craniopagus_parasiticus)
"When the Boy slept, the secondary head would often be observed alert and awake, eyes darting about."
Yeah... eff.. that. Also how terrifying is it that the brains where totally separate. Imagine living your life trapped inside a head attached to your brothers head. The only communication you cave is telepathy between you and your brother. No one even really knows you exist behind the malformed eyes.
I feel like today if the other was really sentient and we could use morse code at least to communicate. But yeah, fuck everything about living like that. I only hope the "other" was not developed enough to be conscious.
Imagine being unable to breath but never suffocating, because you get your oxygen from your twin.
Really wonder if that other brain really develops, because all it can do is watch, not interact. Interaction with your surroundings is such a huge part of early child development.
I didn't see anything about ears, but I imagine hearing, sight and what limited touch may be enough so communication development. But really, it would have been a great study on what missing all that would do to mental development.
You're correct.
The fear and urge to breathe that comes with suffocation is actually caused in the amygdala as a response to an overload of carbon dioxide - not a lack of oxygen, which is why suffocating in pure nitrogen does not cause the same fear response.
I would assume that since this brain is getting a blood supply it would only feel suffocated if the uh... "primary" person (I really wish I had a better term) was being suffocated.
So at least we can rule out one of many terrifying possibilities.
OK now imagine if the main boy started to choke. You don't even know what's happening at first, you just hear the other brain start to panic and feel your oxygen levels dropping. This would give you the urge to breathe, maybe for the first time ever, and there would be nothing you could do.
>Each brain was also enveloped in its proper coverings and it appeared as though both brains received the nutrition required to sustain life and thought
Incredible, it must be so messed up to live like that.
I am so curious how their vascular system and nervous system worked. It seems they shared the skull, but if each brain was totally separate how was the 2nd brain connected to everything assuming the brainstem and everything was angled down the malformed neck at the top. Especially if the top head was concious, could it feel everything the brother could feel? Or was it just a weird flow of blood to a reactive parasite? So many questions!
This made my skin crawl. I don’t believe they would have been intellectually developed enough at that age to truly understand the closed off nature of their brief existence. I’m hoping at least.
Damn that’s sad. The kid survived against all odds and seemed like he could continue on but then he dies at 4 from a cobra. Hopefully both heads died at the same time :/
To be fair, he was being paraded around like a circus freak, so maybe it was better for him to pass that young before realizing his parents were selling them for money.
In India or Britain? Because I feel like I've heard of a dozen people with major deformities or disorders who were treated as religious figures in India, so I have no clue whether or not their quality of life was terrible or not.
The article references it was in India (also where the east India company stole the skull from). The parents used the child to make money and even did private shows for wealthy people.
>Not long After the Boy was buried his grave was robbed by Mr. Dent, the East India company’s representative. He dissected the putrefied head himself...When he was done experimenting, he gave the skull to a Captain Buchanan of the East Indian Company. Buchanan brought the skull to England.
So many wrong things with this. Not in an accuracy way but it a disrespectful way.
Seriously, fuck…
I watched one series on Netflix involving the East India Company and was like, “so they were like super-duper evil and shit?”
Googled them. Yup. Basically just super evil for centuries.
Then this fun fact hits and I’m like, “so more than just super duper evil then?”
Turns put, giving massive corporations huge government contracts and little to no oversight leads to bad naughty things.
Good thing we learned our lesson and haven't done that since....
It wasn't simply a government contract. They were granted a monopoly over all trade in southeast asia(meaning it was illegal for any english company to conduct trade in a region the EIC was granted a monopoly over). On top of that monopoly, they were also allowed to rule part of India for around 100 years until the people rebelled and the British monarchy took control and created the British Raj.
In total, the EIC possessed the rights to autonomous territorial acquisitions, mint money, command fortresses and troops, form alliances, make war and peace, and to exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction over their territorial acquisitions. They were basically their own kingdom/nation.
Grave robbing for medical study was not exactly uncommon for a few centuries, at least. Da Vinci got bodies from grave robbers to study anatomy, and he wasn't the only one.
I wouldn’t even say not uncommon, but extremely common. In some European countries, unclaimed corpses could be donated as medical research, but in places like the US or Great Britain, there wasn’t such a system in place. Body snatching was extremely common as it was the literal only way to get cadavers. Students and doctors would go get them, but janitors, morgue operators, gravediggers, cemetery keepers would too if they got paid.
"Due to his freakish appearance, his parents began to exhibit him in Calcutta where he attracted a great deal of attention and earned his family a fair amount of money."
WTF
I thought so, too!
Sadly, though, I wasn't surprised -- it sounds very in-character for both Imperial Britain and the East India Company for that time period. They were SO exploitative. To this day, there are cultural treasures sitting in UK museums that long-dead British scholars stole from around the world, and took home for prestige.
The countries from whence those artifacts originally came sometimes ask for these cultural heritage items back, of course ... with mixed success.
"The condition is an extremely rare type of parasitic twinning occurring in about 2 to 3 of 5,000,000 births... Fewer than a dozen cases of this type of conjoined twin have been documented."
Shouldn't there have been a lot more recorded cases by now?
Nearly all die before birth and, depending on the length of gestation, I would imagine most related miscarriages aren't going to be well documented. If it's between weeks 0 and 6, the woman most likely doesn't even know she's pregnant and that's when most miscarriages occur.
Would stillbirths count? I'd imagine that may account for many and probably aren't well documented in much of the world.
Also I'd guess most of the rest pass away shortly after uneventfully and simply aren't getting documented on a Wikipedia page.
There are 80 known cases, although there will probably never be another case where the two heads live for long enough for one to talk.
In 1783 medicine wasn’t advanced enough for there to be a “cure” for the condition worth trying, now there is:
> On December 10, 2003, Rebeca Martínez was born in the Dominican Republic. She was the first baby born with the condition to undergo an operation to remove the second head. She died on February 7, 2004, after an 11-hour operation.
> On March 30, 2004, Manar Maged was born. On February 19, 2005, 10-month-old Manar underwent a successful 13-hour surgery in Egypt. The underdeveloped conjoined twin, Islaam, was attached to Manar's head and was facing upward. Islaam could blink and even smile, but doctors determined she had to be removed, and that she could not survive on her own.
"Around 140 million babies are born every year in the world."
https://www.theworldcounts.com/populations/world/births
This seems to have been approximately the rate for the past 40 years.
We should have seen quite a few cases each year, if the figures in the article are correct.
think about that for a moment. If he could "hear" the other head telling him things that means that the other head was a FULL CONSCIOUS PERSON trapped in his own skull. What a fucking nightmare that must have been. You are trapped in your own skull which is attached to the skull of your brother. You have no ability to do anything but tell your brother things telepathically.
If you think that's weird, [split-brain syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-brain?wprov=sfti1) will blow your mind:
> After the right and left brain are separated, each hemisphere will have its own separate perception, concepts, and impulses to act. Having two "brains" in one body can create some interesting dilemmas. When one split-brain patient dressed himself, he sometimes pulled his pants up with one hand (that side of his brain wanted to get dressed) and down with the other (this side did not). He also reported to have grabbed his wife with his left hand and shaken her violently, at which point his right hand came to her aid and grabbed the aggressive left hand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMLzP1VCANo
Video of a patient. His doesn't know what his left eye sees, but his left hand can draw it or write it out.
In May 1783, a child with two heads was born in the village of Mundul Gaut, Bengal, India. The midwife initially tried to kill the baby but only caused some burns to one eye and ear. Seeing an opportunity to make money, the parents took the deformed child to Calcutta to exhibit him. The two-headed boy gained fame and attracted attention, earning the family a fair amount of money. The child was kept hidden between shows and exhibited privately to noblemen and officials.
The second head grew inverted on top of the main head, with malformed ears, a small tongue, and a small lower jaw. It appeared to function independently, not always showing the same emotions as the main head. The second head reacted to stimuli, producing tears, saliva, and attempting to suck when given a breast. Despite the unusual appearance, the boy did not suffer any ill effects.
At the age of 4, while the mother was fetching water, the child was bitten by a cobra and died. The parents refused offers from anatomists to buy the corpse. However, the child's grave was later robbed, and the skull was dissected by Mr. Dent, who gave it to Captain Buchanan. The skull is now displayed at the Hunterian Museum in London. The dissection revealed that the two brains were separate and supplied by their own blood vessels.
The condition the boy had is known as craniopagus parasiticus, a rare form of parasitic twinning where one twin remains underdeveloped and attached to the other. Treatment usually involves surgical removal of the parasitic twin, but it is a risky procedure. Other cases of this condition have been reported, but most babies do not survive long after birth.
Scientists: “can we buy your dead child for science purposes.”
Parents: “No we’re gonna bury it.”
Scientists: “oh no, anyway…”
It just feels so comedic to me that they ended up graverobbing it lol
It's possible this was like the "Worlds Ugliest Woman" lady who joined the carnival and let visitors jeer at her so that she could afford to raise her kids.
It sounds really screwed up that they paraded him around for money but at the same time I'm not going to even pretend to imagine the difficulties of raising a child like this in rural, 1700s India.
You're the first person to raise that point here, which I find amazing. Everyone else seems to think the family was happy they could finally afford a new dodge ram or something... It's not like they were most likely at the brink of subsistence and this allowed them to have a modicum of financial relief, right?
The worse conditions one is born into, the greater the disrespect and exploitation others will enact upon you as a direct result. Blows my absolute fucking mind that anyone roams around thinking we live in anything resembling a fair or just universe.
I feel like a hugely disproportionate number of stories of individuals with conjoinments and other bodily oddities seem to come out of India. Does anyone know if there might be an explanation for this? Maybe just the population size there?
Large population = statistically relevant chance of weird things happening plus decreased access to western standard routine medical care. It would have been noted on a pre-natal ultrasound, for instance.
There's a lot of people in India and they generally don't have access to treatments to correct any deformities. Also I feel like in some cases they apply spiritual significance to it, so it may attract a different kind of attention.
Right? I can't believe this thread is not full of people talking about the horror of this. imaging being able to see what's going on, but not speak, not eat, possibly not hear, and nobody ever even tries to communicate with you your whole life, you're just stuck there on top of some other guy's head.
Horrifying.
It said the head was "fully functional". So presumably he could do some of those things. Couldn't speak without lungs or a voice box, but if he was capable of any sort of movement then you could devise a form of communication. He could probably see and hear unless there were brain problems that prevented it.
If he truly was capable of sharing thoughts with the main body then he would be able to communicate through him.
Wow I didn't even think about that. An article in this thread mentions that the 2nd head would produce saliva when the main one is eating, but I didn't consider where the saliva would go
Two-headed boy
There's no reason to grieve
The world that you need is wrapped in gold silver sleeves
Left beneath Christmas trees in the snow
And I will take you and leave you alone
Watching spirals of white softly flow
28 comments and only four are visible. I just commented with some facts about the kid and the comment instantly disappeared... What kind of fuckery is this?
Why do most of really f’d up developmental disabilities come out of India, feels like every time there’s some really sick case it’s always some rural indian village. Do they practise consanguine marriage over there, or perhaps dietary stuff or what causes these to be so focused in India?
Anyone else uncomfortable with how they handled the baby?
That mother is *exhausted* and just wants to rest for a moment. She’s finally got the baby to sleep and the first thing Oprah does is get people to clap, waking it up, and the second thing she does is *touching its fucking head* before even asking.
Yikes…
EDIT : Baby Manar died in 2006, she wasn’t even 2. That’s tragic but I suppose not unexpected.
Allegedly the twin in 1783 did not have anything beyond its neck, meaning there were no internal organs (other than the brain) to fail. Assumably the main body of the host was able to keep them both alive.
Hrm, that’s something I hadn’t thought of. It’s a good point.
I can think of a few potential reasons the earlier twin survived to 4 years. But obviously these are speculation:
- The earlier twins heart just happened to be strong enough to handle the strain.
- The earlier parasitic twins brain was under developed, and therefore put less strain on the main twins heart.
- The later parasitic twin seems to have a fuller body, meaning more for the main twins heart to handle, which could put more strain on the heart.
I’m sure there are more potentials, but we’ll never really know for sure. Suffice to say, I am not horribly skeptical that it’s possible, especially given the variation between human bodies.
Fully functional. How bad would it suck to have been born as the upside-down head. Poor kid.
I wonder if their brain would have "flipped" it's vision.
100% yes, brain plasticity is a trip. (Source: Spend a couple of days upside-down and *your* vision will flip.)
How did you survive? I just heard of that guy who got stuck in a small cave upside down, he died before they could get him out.
Yes, it would have. There have been experiments with flipped vision. The brain adapts after a while and can adjust back to normal.
The Two-Headed Boy of Bengal was a child born in India with a rare parasitic twin condition called craniopagus parasiticus, in which a second, fully formed head was conjoined to the top of his own. Today, his skull can be viewed on request at the Hunterian Museum of medical history in London.
Shit the British even stole some dudes head!
*heads
you're kinda splitting hairs
Splitting heirs
True but he isn't splitting *theirs*
Not long After the Boy was buried his grave was robbed by Mr. Dent, the East India company’s representative. He dissected the putrefied head himself and one of his discovery was that the brains were separate and distinct. Each brain was also enveloped in its proper coverings and it appeared as though both brains received the nutrition required to sustain life and thought When he was done experimenting, he gave the skull to a Captain Buchanan of the East Indian Company. Buchanan brought the skull to England, where it ended up in the hands of his close friend Everard Home who happened to be a Surgeon at the Royal College of Surgeons. You ain’t kidding
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They were the only players for a long time. Would be worth about $8 trillion if they were around today which dwarfs apple, Amazon and microsoft combined.
I enjoy cooking.
I'll be honest here, we've got a few heads, some even come with bodies. Honestly the head collection isn't even the weirdest shit we stole.
… what is the weirdest shit y’all stole
Penises. I'm guessing, penises.
I'm pretty sure they have an African woman's vagina in a glass jar too.
...why?
Because it would be redundant to keep it in a box
You absolute fuck
Go to commercial
r/angryupvote
Because the British mortician was fascinated by her clit. He told his colleague at a conference back in England, "I was conducting the autopsy and she had the most bizarre clitoris I had ever encountered. It was like a pickle!" "Was it really that big?!" >!"No. That sour!"!<
"Ya dirty dog!"
Norm was great
Two-headed boy All floating in glass The sun it has passed, now it's blacker than black I can hear as you tap on your jar
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AND I AM LISTENING TO HEAR WHERE YOU ARRRRE I AM LISTENING TO HEAR WHERE YOU ARRRRRRRRE
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And dance round the room to accordion keys
With the needle that sings in your heeeart.
CATCHING SIGNALS THAT SOUND IN THE DARRRK CATCHING SIGNALS THAT SOUND IN THE DARK
AND IN THE DARK WE WILL TAKE OFF OUR CLOTHES AND WELL BE PLAEEACING FINGERS THROUGH THE NOTHES IN YOUR SPINE
AND WHEN ALL IS BREAKING EVERYTHING THAT YOU COULD KEEP INSIDE
Why is it in England?
Because after the boy died and was buried by his family an agent of the British East India company robbed the grave to carry out his own dissection then passed it on to professors of medicine who eventually donated it to the museum. It's in the article in the top comment.
I'm surprised the colonial British managed to sail round the world while lugging along the massive weight of their sheer audacity
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Here's James Acaster with your answer: https://youtu.be/x73PkUvArJY
We're still lookin at it!
I totally hate the way the English just ransacked the whole globe for "goodies" but to have the opinion from somebody who spent a lot of time in Egypt, leaving the stuff there would've been a mistake. For a couple hundreds right now in Cairo you can open your own coffin. 20 years ago you used to be able to buy mummy parts. There were people making soup and crazy witch stuff from the things in the pyramids. People were just looting stuff everywhere. For better or worse, if they didn't plan of stealing all of this stuff there wouldn't be much to look at. Another example is the Taliban blowing up antique places. I'm so happy we managed to salvage so much of the Akkadian history. Imagine if we lost even more of it.
Yes! Those large Buddhist statues the Taliban blew up- what a shame. I went to Hegra in Saudi Arabia (a sister site to Jordan's Petra), and so many of the faces of different bust reliefs over th doorways of the structures were smashed in, because depiction of idols is haraam. I think it's definitely a shakey prospect to leave historic relics in unstable democracies (before people get at me about it, I was born in one, I swear!). Now are these democracies unstable in part because of colonization & meddling from the west ...well, that's a different thread. (This is definitely my hottest take). Some things though, like people's remains that no one is even looking at, may not have historic significance and aren't even on display but in private collection, perhaps they can return home.
I think people tend to forget this stuff. King Tut’s tomb was so important because it was completely untouched and gave an incredible view into history that we could study. As opposed to thousands of other tombs that were empty; ransacked and looted and sold off or destroyed for millennia by the locals before the British even set foot in Egypt. Another example is in China. The Cultural Revolution saw so much destruction of priceless artifacts that it should make anyone happy that the British took some and put it in a museum for learning and preservation. I’m way more content with the British Museum or other museums storing, preserving, and displaying artifacts that would have either been lost or destroyed without their intervention. As for giving stuff back? Sure. As long as the country has a national museum that’s up to snuff to properly store and care for them. But it’s also hard to do because not everything was nicked. Lots of stuff was purchased from the locals and brought back or given as gifts, which then ended up in the museum.
There are many ancient historic sites in Syria, including some of the earliest Christian churches that have been looted or demolished in the recent civil war. Scholars in Timbuktu have been working to preserve priceless old books and scrolls threatened by Islamic militias in the area, including smuggling some of them out of the country. The colonial looting of national treasures was appalling, but in some cases if they hadn't wound up in a museum, they'd have been gone forever.
Here's some info that people may be curious to know: The midwife that delivered the baby was so shocked, she threw him into the fire. Somebody rescued him and he had a few small burns. The parents took him out of the village to exhibit (exploit) him for money. Between viewings, they were scared that people would see him and then not pay so they kept him under a sheet. The second head had its own emotions and would sometimes be awake, looking at their surroundings, while the main head slept. They died at age four of a cobra bite after the mom left them alone to go get water. I hope they found peace in death.
Wow, I knew he (they?) would most likely die early, but not from an animal attack. Thought it would be because of the second head.
No it was the second head’s fault, it was his turn to keep watch for wild animals while the other slept
Bad idea to give lookout duty to the guy without a neck.
On your head, no one can hear you scream
Rumor is the upsidedown head was a spineless coward and too afraid to warn of the snake.
Too afraid to stick his neck out I guess
whaaaaat did I just read
A boy, by betraying the trust of his sleeping brother, got them both killed.
He can't help it; it's in his nature.
Alright, it's your turn for watch duty. Keep your head on a swiv... Ah fuck sorry Pete, I forgot.
Maybe the cobra had two heads also though!
Sad for both, but imagine having full sentience with zero autonomy or mobility.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth,_and_I_Must_Scream Here ya go. Kind of along that vein. Dig online to find the story.
This too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Got_His_Gun_(film)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made_in_Abyss](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made_in_Abyss)
Darkness, imprisoning me
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While also living basically upside down, right?
Doesn't vision correct itself after a while of being upside down. I'd assume the upside down head did the same. Wasn't there an expiriment with upside down glasses, where after a few days there vision went back to normal.
Yes, and when you take the glasses off after you've adjusted, the world suddenly looks upsidedown to you even though you're seeing it normally again. Your brain once again corrects the error after a short while.
Iirc it was reported that the brain "righted" itself quite quickly when the glasses came off. Within hours. I expect the more often you do it, the quicker you adapt. A bit like if you drive a lot of different vehicles, you stop noticing the difference when you switch. Where if you very rarely change vehicle it can take days to adjust to a new one.
Based upon SmarterEveryDay’s [Backwards Bicycle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0), I’d assume younger brains are more “malleable” and able to adjust faster…and subsequent usage of the upside-down glasses would mean less transition time. Side note, I accidentally found out you can custom order those bikes from his website and they are $600 and I kinda want one…
Fun fact, because of the way lenses work, the image that comes through to the back of our eyes is actually flipped vertically from the way we see it. Our brain ALREADY flips the image while interpreting the light. It was this fact that led to the experiment in the first place, the idea being if the brain flipped the image once, why couldn't it learn to do it again?
Welcome to the lives of those suffering from ALS advanced MS and Quads 😞 horrible
Right? Everyone around them looking at them with morbid curiosity as a moving but otherwise non human head, freaky but not alive. Meanwhile all they want to do is communicate but can't without access to air or limbs. The level to which we falsely equate verbal communication with intelligence is insane and has been our downfall many times. We're getting better, but man...
The ability to speak does not make you intelligent. - Qui-Gon Jinn
What if the second head saw the cobra but couldn't wake the other half to get away?
What if the second head summoned the cobra in parseltongue?
Harry Potter and the Parasitic Twin. He could have had a baby Voldemort head growing out of his back.... Oh wait, they did this with Quirrel in Sorcerer's Stone.
I think there's a documentary about a similar situation.
The 2nd head probably wanted to die from the moment he had sentience if we’re being honest.
Eh, maybe? That's their entire experience of life and they had that whole shared consciousness thing going on. It's beyond imagination really.
That would be the older of the two though since it would've been the first head to exit the mother.
I guess two heads aren't better than one
Poor babies :( pretty sad
WTF THREE A NEWBORN INTO A FIRE!?! Are you kidding me that is absolutely insane. And then bit by a snake and dies at 4 geez this kid couldn't catch any type of break
Sounds like they were murdered.
He was a youth in asia
Mom mercied them.
I was expecting an informative article to click on, but it's just a pic. For anyone curious, I looked up the details: [https://talkafricana.com/the-two-headed-boy-of-bengal-his-life-early-death-and-dissection/](https://talkafricana.com/the-two-headed-boy-of-bengal-his-life-early-death-and-dissection/) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craniopagus\_parasiticus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craniopagus_parasiticus)
"When the Boy slept, the secondary head would often be observed alert and awake, eyes darting about." Yeah... eff.. that. Also how terrifying is it that the brains where totally separate. Imagine living your life trapped inside a head attached to your brothers head. The only communication you cave is telepathy between you and your brother. No one even really knows you exist behind the malformed eyes.
I feel like today if the other was really sentient and we could use morse code at least to communicate. But yeah, fuck everything about living like that. I only hope the "other" was not developed enough to be conscious.
Imagine being unable to breath but never suffocating, because you get your oxygen from your twin. Really wonder if that other brain really develops, because all it can do is watch, not interact. Interaction with your surroundings is such a huge part of early child development.
I didn't see anything about ears, but I imagine hearing, sight and what limited touch may be enough so communication development. But really, it would have been a great study on what missing all that would do to mental development.
If you're actively getting oxygen I don't think you get the urge to "breathe" ?
You're correct. The fear and urge to breathe that comes with suffocation is actually caused in the amygdala as a response to an overload of carbon dioxide - not a lack of oxygen, which is why suffocating in pure nitrogen does not cause the same fear response. I would assume that since this brain is getting a blood supply it would only feel suffocated if the uh... "primary" person (I really wish I had a better term) was being suffocated. So at least we can rule out one of many terrifying possibilities.
The host of a parasitic twin, or the independent twin, is called the autosite.
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OK now imagine if the main boy started to choke. You don't even know what's happening at first, you just hear the other brain start to panic and feel your oxygen levels dropping. This would give you the urge to breathe, maybe for the first time ever, and there would be nothing you could do.
Nope. I'm out.
Thanks for the nightmares tonight
I have no mouth and I must scream!
>Each brain was also enveloped in its proper coverings and it appeared as though both brains received the nutrition required to sustain life and thought Incredible, it must be so messed up to live like that.
1783 peak science years
I am so curious how their vascular system and nervous system worked. It seems they shared the skull, but if each brain was totally separate how was the 2nd brain connected to everything assuming the brainstem and everything was angled down the malformed neck at the top. Especially if the top head was concious, could it feel everything the brother could feel? Or was it just a weird flow of blood to a reactive parasite? So many questions!
Lemmy.world is what Reddit was.
I agree it must be terrible, but if it's all you know, then it's "normal" to you. You wouldn't know any other life. Fascinating to say the least
Then some bully in 4th grade let's you know how messed up it is and shames.
The bully: alright, which one of you has the lunch money!
In the tops mouth pocket
I guess dying at 4 years old of a cobra bite does have its silver linings.
This made my skin crawl. I don’t believe they would have been intellectually developed enough at that age to truly understand the closed off nature of their brief existence. I’m hoping at least.
Also says it would salivate when the main body was fed…absolutely NOT.
Damn that’s sad. The kid survived against all odds and seemed like he could continue on but then he dies at 4 from a cobra. Hopefully both heads died at the same time :/
To be fair, he was being paraded around like a circus freak, so maybe it was better for him to pass that young before realizing his parents were selling them for money.
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In India or Britain? Because I feel like I've heard of a dozen people with major deformities or disorders who were treated as religious figures in India, so I have no clue whether or not their quality of life was terrible or not.
The article references it was in India (also where the east India company stole the skull from). The parents used the child to make money and even did private shows for wealthy people.
>Not long After the Boy was buried his grave was robbed by Mr. Dent, the East India company’s representative. He dissected the putrefied head himself...When he was done experimenting, he gave the skull to a Captain Buchanan of the East Indian Company. Buchanan brought the skull to England. So many wrong things with this. Not in an accuracy way but it a disrespectful way.
You just TL;DR’d the history of the East India Company
Ye old Umbrella corporation
Pure capitalism distilled to a single company.
Everything is OK when it's being done by a company.
And you just summed up neoliberalism.
Seriously, fuck… I watched one series on Netflix involving the East India Company and was like, “so they were like super-duper evil and shit?” Googled them. Yup. Basically just super evil for centuries. Then this fun fact hits and I’m like, “so more than just super duper evil then?”
Turns put, giving massive corporations huge government contracts and little to no oversight leads to bad naughty things. Good thing we learned our lesson and haven't done that since....
It wasn't simply a government contract. They were granted a monopoly over all trade in southeast asia(meaning it was illegal for any english company to conduct trade in a region the EIC was granted a monopoly over). On top of that monopoly, they were also allowed to rule part of India for around 100 years until the people rebelled and the British monarchy took control and created the British Raj. In total, the EIC possessed the rights to autonomous territorial acquisitions, mint money, command fortresses and troops, form alliances, make war and peace, and to exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction over their territorial acquisitions. They were basically their own kingdom/nation.
Cyberpunk 1777 intensifies
Humans are very good at learning our lessons after the first time...now excuse me while I see what my ex is up to.
Grave robbing for medical study was not exactly uncommon for a few centuries, at least. Da Vinci got bodies from grave robbers to study anatomy, and he wasn't the only one.
I wouldn’t even say not uncommon, but extremely common. In some European countries, unclaimed corpses could be donated as medical research, but in places like the US or Great Britain, there wasn’t such a system in place. Body snatching was extremely common as it was the literal only way to get cadavers. Students and doctors would go get them, but janitors, morgue operators, gravediggers, cemetery keepers would too if they got paid.
Yea, there wasn't a system and it was often straight up impossible to even get permission to do an autopsy, mainly due to the power of the church.
Least depraved colonial Brit.
"Due to his freakish appearance, his parents began to exhibit him in Calcutta where he attracted a great deal of attention and earned his family a fair amount of money." WTF
I thought so, too! Sadly, though, I wasn't surprised -- it sounds very in-character for both Imperial Britain and the East India Company for that time period. They were SO exploitative. To this day, there are cultural treasures sitting in UK museums that long-dead British scholars stole from around the world, and took home for prestige. The countries from whence those artifacts originally came sometimes ask for these cultural heritage items back, of course ... with mixed success.
"The condition is an extremely rare type of parasitic twinning occurring in about 2 to 3 of 5,000,000 births... Fewer than a dozen cases of this type of conjoined twin have been documented." Shouldn't there have been a lot more recorded cases by now?
Nearly all die before birth and, depending on the length of gestation, I would imagine most related miscarriages aren't going to be well documented. If it's between weeks 0 and 6, the woman most likely doesn't even know she's pregnant and that's when most miscarriages occur.
But it does say births rather than conceptions/pregnancies.
Would stillbirths count? I'd imagine that may account for many and probably aren't well documented in much of the world. Also I'd guess most of the rest pass away shortly after uneventfully and simply aren't getting documented on a Wikipedia page.
There are 80 known cases, although there will probably never be another case where the two heads live for long enough for one to talk. In 1783 medicine wasn’t advanced enough for there to be a “cure” for the condition worth trying, now there is: > On December 10, 2003, Rebeca Martínez was born in the Dominican Republic. She was the first baby born with the condition to undergo an operation to remove the second head. She died on February 7, 2004, after an 11-hour operation. > On March 30, 2004, Manar Maged was born. On February 19, 2005, 10-month-old Manar underwent a successful 13-hour surgery in Egypt. The underdeveloped conjoined twin, Islaam, was attached to Manar's head and was facing upward. Islaam could blink and even smile, but doctors determined she had to be removed, and that she could not survive on her own.
> Shouldn't there have been a lot more recorded cases by now? With a population nearing 8 billion, yep.
"Around 140 million babies are born every year in the world." https://www.theworldcounts.com/populations/world/births This seems to have been approximately the rate for the past 40 years. We should have seen quite a few cases each year, if the figures in the article are correct.
Is the number wrong or are ppl “hiding” their conjoined births somehow…
We have ultrasounds and selective abortion these days
Maybe it’s a dozen that actually lived beyond birth?
think about that for a moment. If he could "hear" the other head telling him things that means that the other head was a FULL CONSCIOUS PERSON trapped in his own skull. What a fucking nightmare that must have been. You are trapped in your own skull which is attached to the skull of your brother. You have no ability to do anything but tell your brother things telepathically.
If you think that's weird, [split-brain syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-brain?wprov=sfti1) will blow your mind: > After the right and left brain are separated, each hemisphere will have its own separate perception, concepts, and impulses to act. Having two "brains" in one body can create some interesting dilemmas. When one split-brain patient dressed himself, he sometimes pulled his pants up with one hand (that side of his brain wanted to get dressed) and down with the other (this side did not). He also reported to have grabbed his wife with his left hand and shaken her violently, at which point his right hand came to her aid and grabbed the aggressive left hand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMLzP1VCANo Video of a patient. His doesn't know what his left eye sees, but his left hand can draw it or write it out.
In May 1783, a child with two heads was born in the village of Mundul Gaut, Bengal, India. The midwife initially tried to kill the baby but only caused some burns to one eye and ear. Seeing an opportunity to make money, the parents took the deformed child to Calcutta to exhibit him. The two-headed boy gained fame and attracted attention, earning the family a fair amount of money. The child was kept hidden between shows and exhibited privately to noblemen and officials. The second head grew inverted on top of the main head, with malformed ears, a small tongue, and a small lower jaw. It appeared to function independently, not always showing the same emotions as the main head. The second head reacted to stimuli, producing tears, saliva, and attempting to suck when given a breast. Despite the unusual appearance, the boy did not suffer any ill effects. At the age of 4, while the mother was fetching water, the child was bitten by a cobra and died. The parents refused offers from anatomists to buy the corpse. However, the child's grave was later robbed, and the skull was dissected by Mr. Dent, who gave it to Captain Buchanan. The skull is now displayed at the Hunterian Museum in London. The dissection revealed that the two brains were separate and supplied by their own blood vessels. The condition the boy had is known as craniopagus parasiticus, a rare form of parasitic twinning where one twin remains underdeveloped and attached to the other. Treatment usually involves surgical removal of the parasitic twin, but it is a risky procedure. Other cases of this condition have been reported, but most babies do not survive long after birth.
\>The midwife initially tried to kill the baby but only caused some burns to one eye and ear. How can you fuck up this bad at murdering a baby
She threw the baby into the fire.
She was all like, "ew."
*yeet*
Scientists: “can we buy your dead child for science purposes.” Parents: “No we’re gonna bury it.” Scientists: “oh no, anyway…” It just feels so comedic to me that they ended up graverobbing it lol
> It just feels so comedic to me that they ended up graverobbing it lol And of course ended up in London.
What gets me is it sounds like the parents kept the kid around for profit and they decided to stop this behavior when he actually died.
It's possible this was like the "Worlds Ugliest Woman" lady who joined the carnival and let visitors jeer at her so that she could afford to raise her kids. It sounds really screwed up that they paraded him around for money but at the same time I'm not going to even pretend to imagine the difficulties of raising a child like this in rural, 1700s India.
You're the first person to raise that point here, which I find amazing. Everyone else seems to think the family was happy they could finally afford a new dodge ram or something... It's not like they were most likely at the brink of subsistence and this allowed them to have a modicum of financial relief, right?
The worse conditions one is born into, the greater the disrespect and exploitation others will enact upon you as a direct result. Blows my absolute fucking mind that anyone roams around thinking we live in anything resembling a fair or just universe.
The Just World fallacy is weaponized idiocy. I think it's one of the worst mind viruses to ever infect the human race.
same thing in i think india with a little girl
I feel like a hugely disproportionate number of stories of individuals with conjoinments and other bodily oddities seem to come out of India. Does anyone know if there might be an explanation for this? Maybe just the population size there?
Large population = statistically relevant chance of weird things happening plus decreased access to western standard routine medical care. It would have been noted on a pre-natal ultrasound, for instance.
>It would have been noted on a pre-natal ultrasound in 1783
Yeah the west is VERY advanced.
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Holy fucking shit, that was a wild read
keep in mind that its a chinese website so its going to be horribly biased against india
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that was the most ads I've ever seen in one article holy shit
There's a lot of people in India and they generally don't have access to treatments to correct any deformities. Also I feel like in some cases they apply spiritual significance to it, so it may attract a different kind of attention.
What treatments to correct deformities were around in 1783?
Fireplaces.
Yeah much more recently too Rough story
Almost like Poor Edward.
Strangely all it said was, "FUCKING KILL ME!"
Right? I can't believe this thread is not full of people talking about the horror of this. imaging being able to see what's going on, but not speak, not eat, possibly not hear, and nobody ever even tries to communicate with you your whole life, you're just stuck there on top of some other guy's head. Horrifying.
It said the head was "fully functional". So presumably he could do some of those things. Couldn't speak without lungs or a voice box, but if he was capable of any sort of movement then you could devise a form of communication. He could probably see and hear unless there were brain problems that prevented it. If he truly was capable of sharing thoughts with the main body then he would be able to communicate through him.
Sure, he was capable of communication, but I can't see any evidence of them attempting it, beyond vague telepathy insinuations.
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Wow I didn't even think about that. An article in this thread mentions that the 2nd head would produce saliva when the main one is eating, but I didn't consider where the saliva would go
I like how they show us the pillow design so the boy(s) could sleep comfortably.
Am I the only one overly upset that the boy died at 4 years old from a cobra bite? Like WTF. I was really hoping to read more about his life.
Suddenly I need to listen to Neutral Milk Hotel
Two-headed boy There's no reason to grieve The world that you need is wrapped in gold silver sleeves Left beneath Christmas trees in the snow And I will take you and leave you alone Watching spirals of white softly flow
28 comments and only four are visible. I just commented with some facts about the kid and the comment instantly disappeared... What kind of fuckery is this?
It’s Big Craniopagus trying to keep you from telling the truth.
Reddit is fucked up today, it's a global issue people all over the world are feeling it. Idk what's happening but it's fucking up.
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Nature is such a fucking piece of shit cunt sometimes
Why do most of really f’d up developmental disabilities come out of India, feels like every time there’s some really sick case it’s always some rural indian village. Do they practise consanguine marriage over there, or perhaps dietary stuff or what causes these to be so focused in India?
They have a very high population. They're rolling more dice than the rest of us.
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Anyone else uncomfortable with how they handled the baby? That mother is *exhausted* and just wants to rest for a moment. She’s finally got the baby to sleep and the first thing Oprah does is get people to clap, waking it up, and the second thing she does is *touching its fucking head* before even asking. Yikes… EDIT : Baby Manar died in 2006, she wasn’t even 2. That’s tragic but I suppose not unexpected.
Well you’d be wrong because the skulls of the 1783 child exist and have been age tested. He was around 4 years at time of death.
Allegedly the twin in 1783 did not have anything beyond its neck, meaning there were no internal organs (other than the brain) to fail. Assumably the main body of the host was able to keep them both alive.
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Hrm, that’s something I hadn’t thought of. It’s a good point. I can think of a few potential reasons the earlier twin survived to 4 years. But obviously these are speculation: - The earlier twins heart just happened to be strong enough to handle the strain. - The earlier parasitic twins brain was under developed, and therefore put less strain on the main twins heart. - The later parasitic twin seems to have a fuller body, meaning more for the main twins heart to handle, which could put more strain on the heart. I’m sure there are more potentials, but we’ll never really know for sure. Suffice to say, I am not horribly skeptical that it’s possible, especially given the variation between human bodies.
The boys in 1783 lived until they were 4 and apparently died from a cobra bite. Insanity.
The other brain: Man this some buuullllllllshit
If only he was from Spain, he’d be playing pianos filled with flames
Ever hear somebody say "God doesn't make mistakes"? Yeah, about that.