“Amusing scenes occurred at college when one twin came to visit the other; the porter on one occasion refusing to let the visitor out of the college gates, for, though they stood side by side, he professed ignorance as to which he ought to allow to depart.”

Children are usually quick in distinguishing between their parent and his or her twin; but I have two cases to the contrary.  Thus, the daughter of a twin says:—­

“Such was the marvellous similarity of their features, voice, manner, etc., that I remember, as a child, being very much puzzled, and I think, had my aunt lived much with us, I should have ended by thinking I had two mothers.”

In the other case, a father who was a twin, remarks of himself and his brother:—­

“We were extremely alike, and are so at this moment, so much so that our children up to five and six years old did not know us apart.”

I have four or five instances of doubt during an engagement of marriage.  Thus:—­

“A married first, but both twins met the lady together for the first time, and fell in love with her there and then.  A managed to see her home and to gain her affection, though B went sometimes courting in his place, and neither the lady nor her parents could tell which was which.”

I have also a German letter, written in quaint terms, about twin brothers who married sisters, but could not easily be distinguished by them.[13] In the well-known novel by Mr. Wilkie Collins of Poor Miss Finch, the blind girl distinguishes the twin she loves by the touch of his hand, which gives her a thrill that the touch of the other brother does not.  Philosophers have not, I believe, as yet investigated the conditions of such thrills; but I have a case in which Miss Finch’s test would have failed.  Two persons, both friends of a certain twin lady, told me that she had frequently remarked to them that “kissing her twin sister was not like kissing her other sisters, but like kissing herself—­her own hand, for example.”

It would be an interesting experiment for twins who were closely alike to try how far dogs could distinguish them by scent.

[Footnote 13:  I take this opportunity of withdrawing an anecdote, happily of no great importance, published in Men of Science, p. 14, about a man personating his twin brother for a joke at supper, and not being discovered by his wife.  It was told me on good authority; but I have reason to doubt the fact, as the story is not known to the son of one of the twins.  However, the twins in question were extraordinarily alike, and I have many anecdotes about them sent me by the latter gentleman.]

I have a few anecdotes of strange mistakes made between twins in adult life.  Thus, an officer writes:—­

“On one occasion when I returned from foreign service my father turned to me and said, ‘I thought you were in London,’ thinking I was my brother—­yet he had not seen me for nearly four years—­our resemblance was so great.”