Identical twins who grew up separately provide a rare opportunity to study how environment versus heredity influences human development.

Four weeks later, at the now‐defunct Knoop Children’s Home in Troy, Ohio, the brothers became separated when one of them was adopted by Ernest Springer, a utility‐company lineman, and his wife, Sarah, who brought him to their home in Piqua.

The Springers would likely have adopted both boys. But, for reasons still unclear, they were told the other twin had died during birth. In fact, however, the second boy was adopted two weeks later by Jess Lewis, a Lima public‐school boilerman, and his wife, Lucille.

When the Lewises completed their adoption papers, one Miami County probate‐court official gasped: “That’s what [the Springers] named their son, too!”

Jim Springer was in his teens when he was told that his twin brother had died at birth. Jim Lewis, however, learned at age 6 that he was a twin and that his brother had been adopted by another family. His mother, Lucille Lewis, who has since remarried and now goes by the name of Lucille Cheny, began to encourage him even then to look for his lost brother, but procrastinated. Finally, last January, he went to court and started the proceedings. On February 9, the reunion took place.

When identical twins James Arthur Springer and James Edward Lewis were reunited after spending all but the first four weeks of their 39 years apart, they discovered that, despite the long separation, their lives had been astonishingly similar. Aside from sharing a given name, each married and then divorced a woman named Linda. Their second wives were both named Betty. Springer named his first son James Allan. Lewis named his first son James Allan. Each man grew up with an adopted brother named Larry. During childhood, each owned a dog named Toy. Both twins had law‐enforcement training and had worked part time as deputy sheriffs in their Ohio towns 70-miles apart. They shared many common interests, such as mechanical drawing, block lettering and carpentry. Both said their favourite school subject was Maths, their least favourite was spelling. They vacationed at the same time, three‐block‐long beach near St. Petersburg, Fla., both getting there and back in a Chevrolet. Their smoking and drinking patterns were nearly identical.

The twins were tickled. “This is really blowing our minds,” said Springer. “ Just unbelievable. It’s weird. It’s downright spooky.” “We even use the same slang,” Lewis added. “A lot of times, I’ll start to say something, and he’ll finish it!” (Researchers said when asked about this phenomenon that identical twins are known to have remarkably similar brain waves, which may contribute to the perception that such twins “think alike”). Doctors and scientists were equally surprised by the findings. “If someone else brought this material to me and said: ‘This is what I’ve got,’ I’d say I didn’t believe it,” said psychologist Thomas J. Bouchard Jr., Director of the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart Project, a team that gathered to look into Springer, Lewis and other twins separated in childhood. “The probability of two people independently being given the same name is not that rare. But when you start to compound the coincidences, they become highly unlikely very quickly. In fact, I’m flabbergasted by some of the similarities.”