In a Different Key by John Donvan7/8/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Invariably, the moment they came into view, a warm sigh would float aloft, followed by coos, squeals, and scattered applause at the sight of history's first surviving identical quintuplets, who had been given only hours to live the night they were born, in May of the previous year.Įxotic by virtue of their genetic rarity, the Dionne quintuplets imprinted themselves indelibly on their generation. The audience was packed into a specially designed viewing arcade, tented and fitted with one-way screens so that the girls could never see who was making all the noise. Three times a day, on cue, the girls were carried out to a grass-covered "play area" just a few yards from where a crowd waited for them. There they would have indoor plumbing, electricity, and a "scientific" upbringing overseen by a full-time doctor and two full-time nurses. By order of the provincial government, they had recently been removed from the care of their farmer parents, to be raised instead in a hurriedly built "hospital" situated not far from the family farmhouse. That year, up to six thousand visitors each day took Route 11 into far northern Ontario for the sole purpose of gawking at the babies. In 1935, five Canadian baby girls, all sisters, edged out Niagara Falls on the list of Canada's most popular tourist draws. Read on for an excerpt from "In a Different Key: The Story of Autism." ![]()
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