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THE "TWIN BROTHERS" elicited considerable attention in England and on the continent around 1716. One of the twins was a perfect man in every respect, from head to foot, and well proportioned. However, a little above his hip on the right side, there issued forth the body of a man but only from the waist upward. He was perfectly shaped with hands, arms, and a head very much like his brother's. He ate and drank with a good appetite, enjoyed good eyesight, and spoke as distinctly as his brother. He felt no motion in his own body from the waist down, so evidently had no feeling in that area of his brother's body.

The "Twin Brothers" appeared in London in 1716, and at that time were around 23 years old. The whole man, if we may call him that, supported the brother joined to him by his right hand. The twin brothers resembled in many respects James Poro and Lazarus Coloredo, who appeared in Copenhagen and Switzerland, presumably in 1714. James Poro was in London, too, but the excrescence from his side resembled a human only in a few particulars.

THAT TAWDRY institution-the circus side show-has come upon hard times. Not long ago it displayed, to quote the flowing rhetoric of the showman, "an amazing array of anatomical abnormalities." You could stare at the tallest, the smallest, the fattest, and the thinnest human beings on earth. Or you could gawk at "nature's mistakes," including the Siamese Twins, the Moon-face Baby, the Alligator Girl, the Seal Boy, and the Armless and Legless Wonder. But these "strange people" (circus folk never called them freaks) are seen less frequently nowadays.

Let's see what one authority has to say about the blight that has overtaken the side show. He is Nate Eagle, a 40-year veteran of this peculiar business, who now presides over the remains of what was once the mightiest of all side shows -- that of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows.

Eagle has a ready answer for the dwindling supply of human abnormalities. Many misshapen or deformed persons, he explains, now have their defects repaired or obliterated by surgery. Others have their physical peculiarities corrected by hormones. One midget, thanks to treatment with the growth-promoting factor of the pituitary gland, attained a respectable stature.

"At least he grew enough," Eagle said, "that he was too big to exhibit as the smallest man in the world." Advances in the science of nutrition have likewise had an adverse effect on side show attractions such as "the living skeleton" and blubbery-fat men and women. The skin-and-bones individual, Eagle explained, can now be helped to gain weight. And many grossly obese people have become mere shadows of their former corpulent selves with the help of appetite-curbing drugs and drastic reducing programs carried out under hospital supervision.

Even self-made side show features may be on the way out. Eagle cited the tattooed people. "You know, health authorities have traced several outbreaks of hepatitis to contaminated needles. Some cities have closed the tattoo parlors. And that's a bad omen for the future of epidermal art."

Surgery, however, has cut most deeply into the side show's cast of characters, including such traditional ones as the Siamese Twins. Eagle recalled the most famous of these conjoined individuals, Chang and Eng. During the 1800's, they were a stellar and lucrative attraction of P. T. Barnum's Museum and other shows. Chang and Eng, until their deaths at age 63 -- one closely following the other -- were permanently united at the waist by a band of thick tissue. Their personalities were no less interesting than their physical bond. They quarrelled frequently and for long periods would not speak to each other. Chang liked liquor; Eng loathed it. When not touring, they operated a farm in North Carolina, maintaining separate homes for their wives, who were sisters, and whom they visited on alternate days. They are said to have fathered 20 children. The twins adopted the American name of Bunker and were respected citizens of their community.

Eagle doubts that any true Siamese twins (the act can be faked easily) are on exhibition in this country today. Several births have been reported over the years, but the twins have either died in early infancy or they have been separated by surgery.

"Sure, I'd like to find another act that would catch the public's fancy like Chang and Eng. But isn't it a fine thing that surgical skill can undo nature's errors?" Eagle asked.

Side shows, of course, have long been accused of displaying creatures so tragically afflicted that they should never had been exposed to public view. This is particularly true of "Moonfaced Babies," as they were luridly advertised. These babies were victims of a condition known as hydrocephalus, commonly called "water on the brain." When Eagle was asked about these unfortunate children, he was quick to say that he had never exploited one.

The hydrocephalic baby usually had an extraordinarily large head caused by an accumulation of spinal fluid within the cranial cavity. The excess fluid squeezes the brain, distorts the skull, and leads to blindness and mental retardation.