• List of Figures Prologue in St Petersburg
• 1 The Anatomy Lesson Apothecary's Apprentice Anatomical Knowledge Heroes Examination Family Louis de Bils Discoveries Idle Boasting Vivisection Descartes Research Preservation Secret Formulas Doctorate Confrontation with De Bils
• 2 Established and Envied Appointment in Amsterdam Medical Bastions An Established Anatomist Hardened Wax Research Professorship Anatomy Lesson Intellectuals in Power Midwifery Opposition Gluttonous Tipplers
• 3 Under Fire Accusations Intimidation Opposing Ruysch A Nobody New Knowledge, Old Certainties The Insolvent Estate Radical Supporters
• 4 Ruysch at Work The Surgeons' Guild The Battle for Bodies The Amsterdam Hortus Botanicus The House on the Bloemgracht A Private Museum Idle Inventions Surgery The Workplace
• 5 Rivals Perfection Rivalry King Stupidity Discrediting Rivals Malice Aforethought Peter the Great in Amsterdam From Brain to Scrotum Stone-cutting Ruysch, Rau and Bidloo
• 6 The Collection Capriccio Anatomico Specimens Animals Wonders The Republic of Letters Lessons Deceit Visitors Physico-theology
• 7 The Return of Peter the Great Collection for Sale A Return Visit Secret The Collection Moves East
• 8 Reproduction Rachel A Dutiful Father Hendrik Ruysch's Lessons in Obstetrics The Placenta The Shaft The Development of the Embryo The Mystery of Reproduction
• 9 Latter Days Approaching Death Late Work Discussion with Boerhaave Plant Anatomy Final Work Father and Son
• 10 Ruysch's Legacy Possible Successors Broken Hip The Estate Tradition versus Enlightenment: Titsingh and Ulhoorn Biography The Secret The Preparations in the Kunstkamera Bibliography Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

From around 1650 until well into the nineteenth century, Frederik Ruysch enjoyed international fame as an anatomist. He owed his renown to a preparation method that greatly aided early-modern scientists in their exploration of the human body and transformed dissection from a messy business into a widely admired art. Ruysch's anatomical collection was one of Amsterdam's tourist attractions, for his embalmed bodies were astonishingly lifelike in appearance. The visitors who gazed with amazement at his preparations included the Russian tsar Peter the Great, who was so moved by the sight of an embalmed boy that he kneeled down to kiss him. The tsar later bought Ruysch's entire collection and had all the specimens shipped to St Petersburg, where they still attract visitors from all over the world.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• List of Illustrations; Preface; Introduction: Peculiar Intimacies; The History of the Carolina Twins. Told in "Their Own Peculiar Way" by "One of Them"; Biographical Sketch of Millie Christine, the Carolina Twin; "The Carolina Twins"; Intimate Loves and Lives of the Hilton Sisters, World Famous Siamese Twins; Souvenir and Life Story of San Antonio's Siamese Twins, Daisy and Violet Hilton; Chained for Life.

Conjoined twins have long been a subject of fantasy, fascination, and freak shows. In this first collection of its kind, Millie-Christine McKoy, African American twins born in 1851, and Daisy and Violet Hilton, English twins born in 1908, speak for themselves through memoirs that help us understand what it is like to live physically joined to someone else. ""Conjoined Twins in Black and White"" provides contemporary readers with the twins' autobiographies, the first two 'show histories' to be republished since their original appearance, a previously unpublished novella, and a nineteenth-century medical examination, each of which attempts to define these women and reveal the issues of race, gender, and the body prompted by the twins themselves. The McKoys, born slaves, were kidnapped and taken to Britain, where they worked as entertainers until they were reunited with their mother in an emotional chance encounter. The Hiltons, cast away by their horrified mother at birth, worked the carnival circuit as vaudeville performers until the WWII economy forced them to the burlesque stage. The hardships, along with the triumphs, experienced by these very different sister sets lend insight into our fascination with conjoined twins.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• List of Illustrations; Preface; Introduction: Peculiar Intimacies; The History of the Carolina Twins. Told in "Their Own Peculiar Way" by "One of Them"; Biographical Sketch of Millie Christine, the Carolina Twin; "The Carolina Twins"; Intimate Loves and Lives of the Hilton Sisters, World Famous Siamese Twins; Souvenir and Life Story of San Antonio's Siamese Twins, Daisy and Violet Hilton; Chained for Life.

Conjoined twins have long been a subject of fantasy, fascination, and freak shows. In this first collection of its kind, Millie-Christine McKoy, African American twins born in 1851, and Daisy and Violet Hilton, English twins born in 1908, speak for themselves through memoirs that help us understand what it is like to live physically joined to someone else. ""Conjoined Twins in Black and White"" provides contemporary readers with the twins' autobiographies, the first two 'show histories' to be republished since their original appearance, a previously unpublished novella, and a nineteenth-century medical examination, each of which attempts to define these women and reveal the issues of race, gender, and the body prompted by the twins themselves. The McKoys, born slaves, were kidnapped and taken to Britain, where they worked as entertainers until they were reunited with their mother in an emotional chance encounter. The Hiltons, cast away by their horrified mother at birth, worked the carnival circuit as vaudeville performers until the WWII economy forced them to the burlesque stage. The hardships, along with the triumphs, experienced by these very different sister sets lend insight into our fascination with conjoined twins.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)