Miracle Mongers and Their Methods: A Complete Exposé of the Modus Operandi of Fire Eaters, Heat Resisters, Poison Eaters, Venomous Reptile Defiers, Sword Swallowers, Human Ostriches, Strong Men, Etc.Houdini, Harry
History
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods: A Complete Exposé of the Modus Operandi of Fire Eaters, Heat Resisters, Poison Eaters, Venomous Reptile Defiers, Sword Swallowers, Human Ostriches, Strong Men, Etc.
Houdini, Harry
Magic tricks -- History; Magicians -- Biography
A correspondent in France writes as follows: "Paris has, for some
days, rung with relations of the wonderful exploits of a Spaniard in
that city, who is endowed with qualities by which he resists the action
of very high degrees of heat, as well as the influence of strong
chemical reagents. Many histories of the trials to which he has been
submitted before a Commission of the Institute and Medical School, have
appeared in the public papers; but the public waits with impatience for
the report to be made in the name of the Commission by Professor Pinel.
The subject of these trials is a young man, a native of Toledo, in
Spain, 23 years of age, and free of any apparent peculiarities which
can announce anything remarkable in the organization of his skin; after
examination, one would be rather disposed to conclude a peculiar
softness than that any hardness or thickness of the cuticle existed,
either naturally or from mechanical causes. Nor was there any
circumstance to indicate that the person had been previously rubbed
with any matter capable of resisting the operation of the agents with
which he was brought in contact.
This man bathed for the space of five minutes, and without any injury
to his sensibility or the surface of the skin, his legs in oil, heated
at 97 degrees of Reaumur (250 degrees of Fahrenheit) and with the same
oil, at the same degree of heat, he washed his face and superior
extremities. He held, for the same space of time, and with as little
inconvenience, his legs in a solution of muriate of soda, heated to 102
of the same scale, (261 1/2 degrees Fahr.) He stood on and rubbed the
soles of his feet with a bar of hot iron heated to a white heat; in
this state he held the iron in his hands and rubbed the surface of his
tongue.
He gargled his mouth with concentrated sulphuric and nitric acids,
without the smallest injury or discoloration; the nitric acid changed
the cuticle to a yellow color; with the acids in this state he rubbed
his hands and arms. All these experiments were continued long enough
to prove their inefficiency to produce any impression. It is said, on
unquestionable authority, that he remained a considerable time in an
oven heated to 65 degrees or 70 degrees, (178-189 degrees Fahr.) and
from which he was with difficulty induced to retire, so comfortable did
he feel at that high temperature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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