Wadd, the celebrated authority on corpulence, quotes Pennant in

mentioning a woman in Rosshire who lived one and three-quarters years

without meat or drink. Granger had under observation a woman by the

name of Ann Moore, fifty-eight years of age, who fasted for two years.

Fabricius Hildanus relates of Apollonia Schreiera that she lived three

years without meat or drink. He also tells of Eva Flegen, who began to

fast in 1596, and from that time on for sixteen years, lived without

meat or drink. According to the Rev. Thos. Steill, Janet Young fasted

sixteen years and partially prolonged her abstinence for fifty years.

The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, which contains a mention of

the foregoing case, also describes the case of Janet Macleod, who

fasted for four years, showing no signs of emaciation. Benjamin Rush

speaks of a case mentioned in a letter to St. George Tucker, from J.

A. Stuart, of a man who, after receiving no benefit from a year's

treatment for hemiplegia, resolved to starve himself to death. He

totally abstained from food for sixty days, living on water and chewing

apples, but spitting out the pulp; at the expiration of this time he

died. Eccles relates the history of a beautiful young woman of sixteen,

who upon the death of a most indulgent father refused food for

thirty-four days, and soon afterward for fifty-four days, losing all

her senses but that of touch.

There is an account of a French adventurer, the Chevalier de

Saint-Lubin, who had a loathing for food and abstained from every kind

of meat and drink for fifty-eight days. Saint-Sauver, at that time

Lieutenant of the Bastille, put a close watch on this man and certified

to the verity of the fast. The European Magazine in 1783 contained an

account of the Calabria earthquake, at which time a girl of eighteen

was buried under ruins for six days. The edge of a barrel fell on her

ankle and partly separated it, the dust and mortar effectually stopping

the hemorrhage. The foot dropped off and the wound healed without

medical assistance, the girl making a complete recovery. There is an

account taken from a document in the Vatican of a man living in 1306,

in the reign of Pope Clement V, who fasted for two years. McNaughton

mentions Rubin Kelsey, a medical student afflicted with melancholia,

who voluntarily fasted for fifty-three days, drinking copiously and

greedily of water. For the first six weeks he walked about, and was

strong to the day of his death.

Hammond has proved many of the reports of "fasting girls" to have been

untrustworthy. The case of Miss Faucher of Brooklyn, who was supposed

to have taken no food for fourteen years, was fraudulent. He says that

Ann Moore was fed by her daughter in several ways; when washing her

mother's face she used towels wet with gravy, milk, or strong

arrow-root meal. She also conveyed food to her mother by means of

kisses. One of the "fasting girls," Margaret Weiss, although only ten

years old, had such powers of deception that after being watched by the

priest of the parish, Dr. Bucoldianus, she was considered free from

juggling, and, to everybody's astonishment, she grew, walked, and

talked like other children of her age, still maintaining that she used

neither food nor drink. In several other cases reported all attempts to

discover imposture failed. As we approach more modern times the

detection is more frequent. Sarah Jacobs, the Welsh fasting girl who

attained such celebrity among the laity, was taken to Guy's Hospital on

December 9, 1869, and after being watched by eight experienced nurses

for eight days she died of starvation. A postmortem examination of Anna

Garbero of Racconis, in Piedmont, who died on May 19, 1828, after

having endured a supposed fast of two years, eight months, and eleven

days, revealed remarkable intestinal changes. The serous membranes were

all callous and thickened, and the canal of the sigmoid flexure was

totally obliterated. The mucous membranes were all soft and friable,

and presented the appearance of incipient gangrene.

Modern Cases.--Turning now to modern literature, we have cases of

marvelous abstinence well substantiated by authoritative evidence.

Dickson describes a man of sixty-two, suffering from monomania, who

refused food for four months, but made a successful recovery.

Richardson mentions a case, happening in 1848, of a man of thirty-three

who voluntarily fasted for fifty-five days. His reason for fasting,

which it was impossible to combat, was that he had no gastric juice and

that it was utterly useless for him to take any nutrition, as he had no

means of digesting it. He lived on water until the day of his death.

Richardson gives an interesting account of the changes noticed at the

necropsy. There is an account of a religious mendicant of the Jain

caste who as a means of penance fasted for ninety-one days. The

previous year he had fasted eighty-six days. He had spent his life in

strict asceticism, and during his fasting he was always engrossed in

prayer.

Collins describes a maiden lady of eighty, always a moderate eater, who

was attacked by bronchitis, during which she took food as usual. Two

days after her recovery, without any known cause, she refused all food

and continued to do so for thirty-three days, when she died. She was

delirious throughout this fast and slept daily seven or eight hours. As

a rule, she drank about a wineglassful of water each day and her urine

was scanty and almost of the consistency of her feces. There is a

remarkable case of a girl of seventeen who, suffering with typhoid

fever associated with engorgement of the abdomen and suppression of the

functions of assimilation, fasted for four months without visible

diminution in weight. Pierce reports the history of a woman of

twenty-six who fasted for three months and made an excellent recovery.

Grant describes the "Market Harborough fasting-girl," a maiden of

nineteen, who abstained from food from April, 1874, until December,

1877, although continually using morphia. Throughout her fast she had

periodic convulsions, and voided no urine or feces for twelve months

before her death. There was a middle-aged woman in England in 1860 who

for two years lived on opium, gin, and water. Her chief symptoms were

almost daily sickness and epileptic fits three times a week. She was

absolutely constipated, and at her death her abdomen was so distended

as to present the appearance of ascites. After death, the distention of

the abdomen was found to be due to a coating of fat, four inches thick,

in the parietes. There was no obstruction to the intestinal canal and

no fecal or other accumulation within it. Christina Marshall, a girl

of fourteen, went fifteen and one-half months without taking solid

nourishment. She slept very little, seldom spoke, but occasionally

asked the time of day. She took sweets and water, with beef tea at

intervals, and occasionally a small piece of orange. She died April 18,

1882, after having been confined to her bed for a long while.

King, a surgeon, U.S.A., gives an account of the deprivation of a squad

of cavalry numbering 40. While scouting for Indians on the plains they

went for eighty-six hours without water; when relieved their mouths and

throats were so dry that even brown sugar would not dissolve on their

tongues. Many were delirious, and all had drawn fresh blood from their

horses. Despite repeated vomiting, some drank their own urine. They

were nearly all suffering from overpowering dyspnea, two were dead, and

two were missing. The suffering was increased by the acrid atmosphere

of the dry plains; the slightest exercise in this climate provoked a

thirst. MacLoughlin, the surgeon in charge of the S.S. City of Chester,

speaks of a young stowaway found by the stevedores in an insensible

condition after a voyage of eleven days. The man was brought on deck

and revived sufficiently to be sent to St. Vincent's Hospital, N.Y.,

about one and one-half hours after discovery, in an extremely

emaciated, cold, and nearly pulseless condition. He gave his name as

John Donnelly, aged twenty, of Dumbarton, Scotland. On the whole voyage

he had nothing to eat or drink. He had found some salt, of which he ate

two handfuls, and he had in his pocket a small flask, empty. Into this

flask he voided his urine, and afterward drank it. Until the second day

he was intensely hungry, but after that time was consumed by a burning

thirst; he shouted four or five hours every day, hoping that he might

be heard. After this he became insensible and remembered nothing until

he awakened in the hospital where, under careful treatment, he finally

recovered.

Fodere mentions some workmen who were buried alive fourteen days in a

cold, damp cavern under a ruin, and yet all lived. There is a modern

instance of a person being buried thirty-two days beneath snow, without

food. The Lancet notes that a pig fell off Dover Cliff and was picked

up alive one hundred and sixty days after, having been partially

imbedded in debris. It was so surrounded by the chalk of the cliff that

little motion was possible, and warmth was secured by the enclosing

material. This animal had therefore lived on its own fat during the

entire period.

Among the modern exhibitionists may be mentioned Merlatti, the fasting

Italian, and Succi, both of whom fasted in Paris; Alexander Jacques,

who fasted fifty days; and the American, Dr. Tanner, who achieved great

notoriety by a fast of forty days, during which time he exhibited

progressive emaciation. Merlatti, who fasted in Paris in 1886, lost 22

pounds in a month; during his fast of fifty days he drank only pure

filtered water. Prior to the fast his farewell meal consisted of a

whole fat goose, including the bones, two pounds of roast beef,

vegetables for two, and a plate of walnuts, the latter eaten whole.

Alexander Jacques fasted fifty days and Succi fasted forty days.

Jacques lost 28 pounds and 4 ounces (from 142 pounds, 8 ounces to 114

pounds, 4 ounces), while Succi's loss was 34 pounds and 3 ounces.

Succi diminished in height from 65 3/4 to 64 1/2 inches, while Jacques

increased from 64 1/2 to 65 1/2 inches. Jacques smoked cigarettes

incessantly, using 700 in the fifty days, although, by professional

advice, he stopped the habit on the forty-second day. Three or four

times a day he took a powder made of herbs to which he naturally

attributed his power of prolonging life without food. Succi remained in

a room in which he kept the temperature at a very high point. In

speaking of Succi's latest feat a recent report says: "It has come to

light in his latest attempt to go for fifty days without food that he

privately regaled himself on soup, beefsteak, chocolate, and eggs. It

was also discovered that one of the 'committee,' who were supposed to

watch and see that the experiment was conducted in a bona fide manner,

'stood in' with the faster and helped him deceive the others. The

result of the Vienna experiment is bound to cast suspicion on all

previous fasting accomplishments of Signor Succi, if not upon those of

his predecessors."

Although all these modern fasters have been accused of being jugglers

and deceivers, throughout their fasts they showed constant decrease in

weight, and inspection by visitors was welcomed at all times. They

invariably invited medical attention, and some were under the closest

surveillance; although we may not implicitly believe that the fasts

were in every respect bona fide, yet we must acknowledge that these men

displayed great endurance in their apparent indifference for food, the

deprivation of which in a normal individual for one day only causes

intense suffering.

Anomalies of Temperature.--In reviewing the reports of the highest

recorded temperatures of the human body, it must be remembered that no

matter how good the evidence or how authentic the reference there is

always chance for malingering. It is possible to send the index of an

ordinary thermometer up to the top in ten or fifteen seconds by rubbing

it between the slightly moistened thumb and the finger, exerting

considerable pressure at the time. There are several other means of

artificially producing enormous temperatures with little risk of

detection, and as the sensitiveness of the thermometer becomes greater

the easier is the deception.

Mackenzie reports the temperature-range of a woman of forty-two who

suffered with erysipelatous inflammation of a stump of the leg.

Throughout a somewhat protracted illness, lasting from February 20 to

April 22, 1879, the temperature many times registered between 108

degrees and 111 degrees F. About a year later she was again troubled

with the stump, and this time the temperature reached as high as 114

degrees. Although under the circumstances, as any rational physician

would, Mackenzie suspected fraud, he could not detect any method of

deception. Finally the woman confessed that she had produced the

temperature artificially by means of hot-water bottles, poultices, etc.

MacNab records a case of rheumatic fever in which the temperature was

111.4 degrees F. as indicated by two thermometers, one in the axilla

and the other in the groin. This high degree of temperature was

maintained after death. Before the Clinical Society of London, Teale

reported a case in which, at different times, there were recorded

temperatures from 110 degrees to 120 degrees F. in the mouth, rectum,

and axilla. According to a comment in the Lancet, there was no way that

the patient could have artificially produced this temperature, and

during convalescence the thermometer used registered normal as well as

subnormal temperatures. Caesar speaks of a girl of fifteen with enteric

fever, whose temperature, on two occasions 110 degrees F., reached the

limit of the mercury in the thermometer.

There have been instances mentioned in which, in order to escape

duties, prisoners have artificially produced high temperatures, and the

same has occasionally been observed among conscripts in the army or

navy. There is an account of a habit of prisoners of introducing

tobacco into the rectum, thereby reducing the pulse to an alarming

degree and insuring their exemption from labor. In the Adelaide

Hospital in Dublin there was a case in which the temperature in the

vagina and groin registered from 120 degrees to 130 degrees, and one

day it reached 130.8 degrees F.; the patient recovered. Ormerod

mentions a nervous and hysteric woman of thirty-two, a sufferer with

acute rheumatism, whose temperature rose to 115.8 degrees F. She

insisted on leaving the hospital when her temperature was still 104

degrees.

Wunderlich mentions a case of tetanus in which the temperature rose to

46.40 degrees C. (115.5 degrees F.), and before death it was as high as

44.75 degrees C. Obernier mentions 108 degrees F. in typhoid fever.

Kartulus speaks of a child of five, with typhoid fever, who at

different times had temperatures of 107 degrees, 108 degrees, and 108.2

degrees F.; it finally recovered. He also quotes a case of pyemia in a

boy of seven, whose temperature rose to 107.6 degrees F. He also speaks

of Wunderlich's case of remittent fever, in which the temperature

reached 107.8 degrees F. Wilson Fox, in mentioning a case of rheumatic

fever, says the temperature reached 110 degrees F.

Philipson gives an account of a female servant of twenty-three who

suffered from a neurosis which influenced the vasomotor nervous system,

and caused hysteria associated with abnormal temperatures. On the

evening of July 9th her temperature was 112 degrees F.; on the 16th, it

was 111 degrees; on the 18th, 112 degrees; on the 24th, 117 degrees

(axilla); on the 28th, in the left axilla it was 117 degrees, in the

right axilla, 114 degrees, and in the mouth, 112 degrees; on the 29th,

it was 115 degrees in the right axilla, 110 degrees in the left axilla,

and 116 degrees in the mouth The patient was discharged the following

September. Steel of Manchester speaks of a hysteric female of twenty,

whose temperature was 116.4 degrees. Mahomed mentions a hysteric woman

of twenty-two at Guy's Hospital, London, with phthisis of the left

lung, associated with marked hectic fevers. Having registered the limit

of the ordinary thermometers, the physicians procured one with a scale

reaching to 130 degrees F. She objected to using the large

thermometers, saying they were "horse thermometers." On October 15,

1879, however, they succeeded in obtaining a temperature of 128 degrees

F. with the large thermometer. In March of the following year she died,

and the necropsy revealed nothing indicative of a cause for these

enormous temperatures. She was suspected of fraud, and was closely

watched in Guy's Hospital, but never, in the slightest way, was she

detected in using artificial means to elevate the temperature record.

In cases of insolation it is not at all unusual to see a patient whose

temperature cannot be registered by an ordinary thermometer. Any one

who has been resident at a hospital in which heat-cases are received in

the summer will substantiate this. At the Emergency Hospital in

Washington, during recent years, several cases have been brought in

which the temperatures were above the ordinary registering point of the

hospital thermometers, and one of the most extraordinary cases

recovered.

At a meeting of the Association of American Physicians in 1895, Jacobi

of New York reported a case of hyperthermy reaching 148 degrees F. This

instance occurred in a profoundly hysteric fireman, who suffered a

rather severe injury as the result of a fall between the revolving rods

of some machinery, and was rendered unconscious for four days.

Thereafter he complained of various pains, bloody expectoration, and

had convulsions at varying intervals, with loss of consciousness, rapid

respiration, unaccelerated pulse, and excessively high temperature, the

last on one occasion reaching the height of 148 degrees F. The

temperature was taken carefully in the presence of a number of persons,

and all possible precautions were observed to prevent deception. The

thermometer was variously placed in the mouth, anus, axilla, popliteal

space, groin, urethra, and different instruments were from time to time

employed. The behavior of the patient was much influenced by attention

and by suggestion. For a period of five days the temperature averaged

continuously between 120 degrees and 125 degrees F.

In the discussion of the foregoing case, Welch of Baltimore referred to

a case that had been reported in which it was said that the temperature

reached as high as 171 degrees F. These extraordinary elevations of

temperature, he said, appear physically impossible when they are long

continued, as they are fatal to the life of the animal cell.

In the same connection Shattuck of Boston added that he had observed a

temperature of 117 degrees F.; every precaution had been taken to

prevent fraud or deception. The patient was a hysteric young woman.

Jacobi closed the discussion by insisting that his observations had

been made with the greatest care and precautions and under many

different circumstances. He had at first viewed the case with

skepticism, but he could not doubt the results of his observation. He

added, that although we cannot explain anomalies of this kind, this

constitutes no reason why we should deny their occurrence.

Duffy records one of the lowest temperatures on record in a negress of

thirty-five who, after an abortion, showed only 84 degrees F. in the

mouth and axillae. She died the next day.

The amount of external heat that a human being can endure is sometimes

remarkable, and the range of temperature compatible with life is none

the less extraordinary. The Esquimaux and the inhabitants of the

extreme north at times endure a temperature of--60 degrees F., while

some of the people living in equatorial regions are apparently healthy

at a temperature as high as 130 degrees F., and work in the sun, where

the temperature is far higher. In the engine-rooms of some steamers

plying in tropical waters temperatures as high as 150 degrees F. have

been registered, yet the engineers and the stokers become habituated to

this heat and labor in it without apparent suffering. In Turkish baths,

by progressively exposing themselves to graduated temperatures, persons

have been able to endure a heat considerably above the boiling point,

though having to protect their persons from the furniture and floors

and walls of the rooms. The hot air in these rooms is intensely dry,

provoking profuse perspiration. Sir Joseph Banks remained some time in

a room the temperature of which was 211 degrees F., and his own

temperature never mounted above normal.

There have been exhibitionists who claimed particular ability to endure

intense heats without any visible disadvantage. These men are generally

styled "human salamanders," and must not be confounded with the

"fire-eaters," who, as a rule, are simply jugglers. Martinez, the

so-called "French Salamander," was born in Havana. As a baker he had

exposed himself from boyhood to very high temperatures, and he

subsequently gave public exhibitions of his extraordinary ability to

endure heat. He remained in an oven erected in the middle of the

Gardens of Tivoli for fourteen minutes when the temperature in the oven

was 338 degrees F. His pulse on entering was 76 and on coming out 130.

He often duplicated this feat before vast assemblages, though hardly

ever attaining the same degree of temperature, the thermometer

generally varying from 250 degrees F. upward. Chamouni was the

celebrated "Russian Salamander," assuming the title of "The

Incombustible." His great feat was to enter an oven with a raw leg of

mutton, not retiring until the meat was well baked. This person

eventually lost his life in the performance of this feat; his ashes

were conveyed to his native town, where a monument was erected over

them. Since the time of these two contemporaneous salamanders there

have been many others, but probably none have attained the same

notoriety.

In this connection Tillet speaks of some servant girls to a baker who

for fifteen minutes supported a temperature of 270 degrees F.; for ten

minutes, 279 degrees F.; and for several minutes, 364 degrees F., thus

surpassing Martinez. In the Glasgow Medical Journal, 1859, there is an

account of a baker's daughter who remained twelve minutes in an oven at

274 degrees F. Chantrey, the sculptor, and his workman are said to have

entered with impunity a furnace of over 320 degrees F.

In some of the savage ceremonies of fire worship the degree of heat

endured by the participants is really remarkable, and even if the rites

are performed by skilful juggling, nevertheless, the ability to endure

intense heat is worthy of comment. A recent report says:--

"The most remarkable ceremonial of fire worship that survives in this

country is practiced by the Navajos. They believe in purification by

fire, and to this end they literally wash themselves in it. The feats

they perform with it far exceed the most wonderful acts of fire-eating

and fire-handling accomplished by civilized jugglers. In preparation

for the festival a gigantic heap of dry wood is gathered from the

desert. At the appointed moment the great pile of inflammable brush is

lighted and in a few moments the whole of it is ablaze. Storms of

sparks fly 100 feet or more into the air, and ashes fall about like a

shower of snow. The ceremony always takes place at night and the effect

of it is both weird and impressive.

"Just when the fire is raging at its hottest a whistle is heard from

the outer darkness and a dozen warriors, lithe and lean, dressed simply

in narrow white breech-cloths and moccasins and daubed with white earth

so as to look like so many living statues, come bounding through the

entrance to the corral that incloses the flaming heap. Yelping like

wolves, they move slowly toward the fire, bearing aloft slender wands

tipped with balls of eagle-down. Rushing around the fire, always to the

left, they begin thrusting their wands toward the fire, trying to burn

off the down from the tips. Owing to the intensity of the heat this is

difficult to accomplish. One warrior dashes wildly toward the fire and

retreats; another lies as close to the ground as a frightened lizard,

endeavoring to wriggle himself up to the fire; others seek to catch on

their wands the sparks that fly in the air. At last one by one they all

succeed in burning the downy balls from the wands. The test of

endurance is very severe, the heat of the fire being so great.

"The remarkable feats, however, are performed in connection with

another dance that follows. This is heralded by a tremendous blowing of

horns. The noise grows louder and louder until suddenly ten or more men

run into the corral, each of them carrying two thick bundles of

shredded cedar bark.

"Four times they run around the fire waving the bundles, which are then

lighted. Now begins a wild race around the fire, the rapid running

causing the brands to throw out long streamers of flames over the hands

and arms of the dancers. The latter apply the brands to their own nude

bodies and to the bodies of their comrades in front. A warrior will

seize the flaming mass as if it were a sponge, and, keeping close to

the man he is pursuing, will rub his back with it as if bathing him.

The sufferer in turn catches up with the man in front of him and bathes

him in flame. From time to time the dancers sponge their own backs

with the flaming brands. When a brand is so far consumed that it can no

longer be held it is dropped and the dancers disappear from the corral.

The spectators pick up the flaming bunches thus dropped and bathe their

own hands in the fire.

"No satisfactory explanation seems to be obtainable as to the means by

which the dancers in this extraordinary performance are able to escape

injury. Apparently they do not suffer from any burns. Doubtless some

protection is afforded by the earth that is applied to their bodies."

Spontaneous combustion of the human body, although doubted by the

medical men of this day, has for many years been the subject of much

discussion; only a few years ago, among the writers on this subject,

there were as many credulous as there were skeptics. There is,

however, no reliable evidence to support the belief in the spontaneous

combustion of the body. A few apochryphal cases only have been

recorded. The opinion that the tissues of drunkards might be so

saturated with alcohol as to render the body combustible is disproved

by the simple experiment of placing flesh in spirits for a long time

and then trying to burn it. Liebig and others found that flesh soaked

in alcohol would burn only until the alcohol was consumed. That various

substances ignite spontaneously is explained by chemic phenomena, the

conditions of which do not exist in the human frame. Watkins in

speaking of the inflammability of the human body remarks that on one

occasion he tried to consume the body of a pirate given to him by a U.

S. Marshal. He built a rousing fire and piled wood on all night, and

had not got the body consumed by the forenoon of the following day.

Quite a feasible reason for supposed spontaneous human combustion is to

be found in several cases quoted by Taylor, in which persons falling

asleep, possibly near a fire, have been accidentally ignited, and

becoming first stupefied by the smoke, and then suffocated, have been

burned to charcoal without awaking. Drunkenness or great exhaustion may

also explain certain cases. In substantiation of the possibility of

Taylor's instances several prominent physiologists have remarked that

persons have endured severe burns during sleep and have never wakened.

There is an account of a man who lay down on the top of a lime kiln,

which was fired during his sleep, and one leg was burned entirely off

without awaking the man, a fact explained by the very slow and gradual

increase of temperature.

The theories advanced by the advocates of spontaneous human combustion

are very ingenious and deserve mention here. An old authority has said:

"Our blood is of such a nature, as also our lymph and bile: all of

which, when dried by art, flame like spirit of wine at the approach of

the least fire and burn away to ashes." Lord Bacon mentions spontaneous

combustion, and Marcellus Donatus says that in the time of Godefroy of

Bouillon there were people of a certain locality who supposed

themselves to have been burning of an invisible fire in their entrails,

and he adds that some cut off a hand or a foot when the burning began,

that it should go no further. What may have been the malady with which

these people suffered must be a matter of conjecture.

Overton, in a paper on this subject, remarks that in the "Memoirs of

the Royal Society of Paris," 1751, there is related an account of a

butcher who, opening a diseased beef, was burned by a flame which

issued from the maw of the animal; there was first an explosion which

rose to a height of five feet and continued to blaze several minutes

with a highly offensive odor. Morton saw a flame emanate from beneath

the skin of a hog at the instant of making an incision through it.

Ruysch, the famous Dutch physician, remarks that he introduced a hollow

bougie into a woman's stomach he had just opened, and he observed a

vapor issuing from the mouth of the tube, and this lit on contact with

the atmosphere. This is probably an exaggeration of the properties of

the hydrogen sulphid found in the stomach. There is an account of a man

of forty-three, a gross feeder, who was particularly fond of fats and a

victim of psoriasis palmaria, who on going to bed one night, after

extinguishing the light in the room, was surprised to find himself

enveloped in a phosphorescent halo; this continued for several days and

recurred after further indiscretions in diet. It is well known that

there are insects and other creatures of the lower animal kingdom which

possess the peculiar quality of phosphorescence.

There are numerous cases of spontaneous combustion of the human body

reported by the older writers. Bartholinus mentions an instance after

the person had drunk too much wine. Fouquet mentions a person ignited

by lightning. Schrader speaks of a person from whose mouth and fauces

after a debauch issued fire. Schurig tells of flames issuing from the

vulva, and Moscati records the same occurrence in parturition,

Sinibaldust, Borellus, and Bierling have also written on this subject,

and the Ephemerides contains a number of instances.

In 1763 Bianchini, Prebendary of Verona, published an account of the

death of Countess Cornelia Bandi of Cesena, who in her sixty-second

year was consumed by a fire kindled in her own body. In explanation

Bianchini said that the fire was caused in the entrails by the inflamed

effluvia of the blood, by the juices and fermentation in the stomach,

and, lastly, by fiery evaporations which exhaled from the spirits of

wine, brandy, etc. In the Gentleman's Magazine, 1763, there is recorded

an account of three noblemen who, in emulation, drank great quantities

of strong liquor, and two of them died scorched and suffocated by a

flame forcing itself from the stomach. There is an account of a poor

woman in Paris in the last century who drank plentifully of spirits,

for three years taking virtually nothing else. Her body became so

combustible that one night while lying on a straw couch she was

spontaneously burned to ashes and smoke. The evident cause of this

combustion is too plain to be commented on. In the Lancet, 1845, there

are two cases reported in which shortly before death luminous breath

has been seen to issue from the mouth.

There is an instance reported of a professor of mathematics of

thirty-five years of age and temperate, who, feeling a pain in his left

leg, discovered a pale flame about the size of a ten-cent piece issuing

therefrom. As recent as March, 1850, in a Court of Assizes in Darmstadt

during the trial of John Stauff, accused of the murder of the Countess

Goerlitz, the counsel for the defense advanced the theory of

spontaneous human combustion, and such eminent doctors as von Siebold,

Graff, von Liebig, and other prominent members of the Hessian medical

fraternity were called to comment on its possibility; principally on

their testimony a conviction and life-imprisonment was secured. In 1870

there was a woman of thirty-seven, addicted to alcoholic liquors, who

was found in her room with her viscera and part of her limbs consumed

by fire, but the hair and clothes intact. According to Walford, in the

Scientific American for 1870, there was a case reported by Flowers of

Louisiana of a man a hard drinker, who was sitting by a fire surrounded

by his Christmas guests, when suddenly flames of a bluish tint burst

from his mouth and nostrils and he was soon a corpse. Flowers states

that the body remained extremely warm for a much longer period than

usual.

Statistics.--From an examination of 28 cases of spontaneous combustion,

Jacobs makes the following summary:--

(1) It has always occurred in the human living body.

(2) The subjects were generally old persons.

(3) It was noticed more frequently in women than in men.

(4) All the persons were alone at the time of occurrence.

(5) They all led an idle life.

(6) They were all corpulent or intemperate.

(7) Most frequently at the time of occurrence there was a light and

some ignitible substance in the room.

(8) The combustion was rapid and was finished in from one to seven

hours.

(9) The room where the combustion took place was generally filled with

a thick vapor and the walls covered with a thick, carbonaceous

substance.

(10) The trunk was usually the part most frequently destroyed; some

part of the head and extremities remained.

(11) With but two exceptions, the combustion occurred in winter and in

the northern regions.

Magnetic, Phosphorescent, and Electric Anomalies.--There have been

certain persons who have appeared before the public under such names as

the "human magnet," the "electric lady," etc. There is no doubt that

some persons are supercharged with magnetism and electricity. For

instance, it is quite possible for many persons by drawing a rubber

comb through the hair to produce a crackling noise, and even produce

sparks in the dark. Some exhibitionists have been genuine curiosities

of this sort, while others by skilfully arranged electric apparatus are

enabled to perform their feats. A curious case was reported in this

country many years ago, which apparently emanates from an authoritative

source. On the 25th of January, 1837, a certain lady became suddenly

and unconsciously charged with electricity. Her newly acquired power

was first exhibited when passing her hand over the face of her brother;

to the astonishment of both, vivid electric sparks passed from the ends

of each finger. This power continued with augmented force from the 25th

of January to the last of February, but finally became extinct about

the middle of May of the same year.

Schneider mentions a strong, healthy, dark-haired Capuchin monk, the

removal of whose head-dress always induced a number of shining,

crackling sparks from his hair or scalp. Bartholinus observed a similar

peculiarity in Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. In another case luminous sparks

were given out whenever the patient passed urine. Marsh relates two

cases of phthisis in which the heads of the patients were surrounded by

phosphorescent lights. Kaster mentions an instance in which light was

seen in the perspiration and on the body linen after violent exertion.

After exertion Jurine, Guyton, and Driessen observed luminous urine

passed by healthy persons, and Nasse mentions the same phenomenon in a

phthisical patient. Percy and Stokes have observed phosphorescence in a

carcinomatous ulcer.

There is a description of a Zulu boy exhibited in Edinburgh in 1882

whose body was so charged with electricity that he could impart a shock

to any of his patrons. He was about six-and-a-half years of age,

bright, happy, and spoke English thoroughly well. From infancy he had

been distinguished for this faculty, variable with the state of the

atmosphere. As a rule, the act of shaking hands was generally attended

by a quivering sensation like that produced by an electric current, and

contact with his tongue gave a still sharper shock.

Sir Charles Bell has made extensive investigation of the subject of

human magnetism and is probably the best authority on the subject, but

many celebrated scientists have studied it thoroughly. In the Pittsburg

Medical Review there is a description of a girl of three and a half, a

blonde, and extremely womanly for her age, who possessed a wonderful

magnetic power. Metal spoons would adhere to her finger-tips, nose, or

chin. The child, however, could not pick up a steel needle, an article

generally very sensitive to the magnet; nor would a penny stick to any

portion of her body.

Only recently there was exhibited through this country a woman named

Annie May Abbott, who styled herself the "Georgia Electric Lady." This

person gave exhibitions of wonderful magnetic power, and invited the

inspection and discussion of medical men. Besides her chief

accomplishment she possessed wonderful strength and was a skilled

equilibrist. By placing her hands on the sides of a chair upon which a

heavy man was seated, she would raise it without apparent effort. She

defied the strongest person in the audience to take from her hand a

stick which she had once grasped. Recent reports say that Miss Abbott

is amusing herself now with the strong men of China and Japan. The

Japanese wrestlers, whose physical strength is celebrated the world

over, were unable to raise Miss Abbott from the floor, while with the

tips of her fingers she neutralized their most strenuous efforts to

lift even light objects, such as a cane, from a table. The

possibilities, in this advanced era of electric mechanism, make fraud

and deception so easy that it is extremely difficult to pronounce on

the genuineness of any of the modern exhibitions of human electricity.

The Effects of Cold.--Gmelin, the famous scientist and investigator of

this subject, says that man has lived where the temperature falls as

low as -157 degrees F. Habit is a marked factor in this endurance. In

Russia men and women work with their breasts and arms uncovered in a

temperature many degrees below zero and without attention to the fact.

In the most rigorous winter the inhabitants of the Alps work with bare

breasts and the children sport about in the snow. Wrapping himself in

his pelisse the Russian sleeps in the snow. This influence of habit is

seen in the inability of intruders in northern lands to endure the

cold, which has no effect on the indigenous people. On their way to

besiege a Norwegian stronghold in 1719, 7000 Swedes perished in the

snows and cold of their neighboring country. On the retreat from Prague

in 1742, the French army, under the rigorous sky of Bohemia, lost 4000

men in ten days. It is needless to speak of the thousands lost in

Napoleon's campaign in Russia in 1812.

Pinel has remarked that the insane are less liable to the effects of

cold than their normal fellows, and mentions the escape of a naked

maniac, who, without any visible after-effect, in January, even, when

the temperature was -4 degrees F., ran into the snow and gleefully

rubbed his body with ice. In the French journals in 1814 there is the

record of the rescue of a naked crazy woman who was found in the

Pyrenees, and who had apparently suffered none of the ordinary effects

of cold.

Psychologic Effects of Cold.--Lambert says that the mind acts more

quickly in cold weather, and that there has been a notion advanced that

the emotion of hatred is much stronger in cold weather, a theory

exemplified by the assassination of Paul of Russia, the execution of

Charles of England, and that of Louis of France. Emotions, such as

love, bravery, patriotism, etc., together with diverse forms of

excitement, seem to augment the ability of the human body to endure

cold.

Cold seems to have little effect on the generative function. In both

Sweden, Norway, and other Northern countries the families are as large,

if not larger, than in other countries. Cold undoubtedly imparts vigor,

and, according to DeThou, Henry III lost his effeminacy and love of

pleasure in winter and reacquired a spirit of progress and reformation.

Zimmerman has remarked that in a rigorous winter the lubberly Hollander

is like the gayest Frenchman. Cold increases appetite, and Plutarch

says Brutus experienced intense bulimia while in the mountains, barely

escaping perishing. With full rations the Greek soldiers under Xenophon

suffered intense hunger as they traversed the snow-clad mountains of

Armenia.

Beaupre remarks that those who have the misfortune to be buried under

the snow perish less quickly than those who are exposed to the open

air, his observations having been made during the retreat of the French

army from Moscow. In Russia it is curious to see fish frozen stiff,

which, after transportation for great distances, return to life when

plunged into cold water.

Sudden death from cold baths and cold drinks has been known for many

centuries. Mauriceau mentions death from cold baptism on the head, and

Graseccus, Scaliger, Rush, Schenck, and Velschius mention deaths from

cold drinks. Aventii, Fabricius Hildanus, the Ephemerides, and Curry

relate instances of a fatal issue following the ingestion of cold water

by an individual in a superheated condition. Cridland describes a case

of sudden insensibility following the drinking of a cold fluid. It is

said that Alexander the Great narrowly escaped death from a

constrictive spasm, due to the fact that while in a copious sweat he

plunged into the river Cydnus. Tissot gives an instance of a man dying

at a fountain after a long draught on a hot day. Hippocrates mentions

a similar fact, and there are many modern instances.

The ordinary effects of cold on the skin locally and the system

generally will not be mentioned here, except to add the remark of

Captain Wood that in Greenland, among his party, could be seen

ulcerations, blisters, and other painful lesions of the skin. In

Siberia the Russian soldiers cover their noses and ears with greased

paper to protect them against the cold. The Laplanders and Samoiedes,

to avoid the dermal lesions caused by cold (possibly augmented by the

friction of the wind and beating of snow), anoint their skins with

rancid fish oil, and are able to endure temperatures as low as -40

degrees F. In the retreat of the 10,000 Xenophon ordered all his

soldiers to grease the parts exposed to the air.

Effects of Working in Compressed Air.--According to a writer in

Cassier's Magazine, the highest working pressures recorded have been

close to 50 pounds per square inch, but with extreme care in the

selection of men, and corresponding care on the part of the men, it is

very probable that this limit may be considerably exceeded. Under

average conditions the top limit may be placed at about 45 pounds, the

time of working, according to conditions, varying from four to six

hours per shift. In the cases in which higher pressures might be used,

the shifts for the men should be restricted to two of two hours each,

separated by a considerable interval. As an example of heavy pressure

work under favorable conditions as to ventilation, without very bad

effects on the men, Messrs. Sooysmith & Company had an experience with

a work on which men were engaged in six-hour shifts, separated into two

parts by half-hour intervals for lunch. This work was excavation in

open, seamy rock, carried on for several weeks under about 45 pounds

pressure. The character of the material through which the caisson is

being sunk or upon which it may be resting at any time bears quite

largely upon the ability of the men to stand the pressure necessary to

hold back the water at that point. If the material be so porous as to

permit a considerable leakage of air through it, there will naturally

result a continuous change of air in the working chamber, and a

corresponding relief of the men from the deleterious effects which are

nearly always produced by over-used air.

From Strasburg in 1861 Bucuoy reports that during the building of a

bridge at Kehl laborers had to work in compressed air, and it was found

that the respirations lost their regularity; there were sometimes

intense pains in the ears, which after a while ceased. It required a

great effort to speak at 2 1/2 atmospheres, and it was impossible to

whistle. Perspiration was very profuse. Those who had to work a long

time lost their appetites, became emaciated, and congestion of the lung

and brain was observed. The movements of the limbs were easier than in

normal air, though afterward muscular and rheumatic pains were often

observed.

The peculiar and extraordinary development of the remaining special

senses when one of the number is lost has always been a matter of great

interest. Deaf people have always been remarkable for their acuteness

of vision, touch, and smell. Blind persons, again, almost invariably

have the sense of hearing, touch, and what might be called the senses

of location and temperature exquisitely developed. This substitution of

the senses is but; an example of the great law of compensation which we

find throughout nature.

Jonston quotes a case in the seventeenth century of a blind man who, it

is said, could tell black from white by touch alone; several other

instances are mentioned in a chapter entitled "De compensatione naturae

monstris facta." It must, however, be held impossible that blind people

can thus distinguish colors in any proper sense of the words. Different

colored yarns, for example, may have other differences of texture,

etc., that would be manifest to the sense of touch. We know of one case

in which the different colors were accurately distinguished by a blind

girl, but only when located in customary and definite positions. Le Cat

speaks of a blind organist, a native of Holland, who still played the

organ as well as ever. He could distinguish money by touch, and it is

also said that he made himself familiar with colors. He was fond of

playing cards, but became such a dangerous opponent, because in

shuffling he could tell what cards and hands had been dealt, that he

was never allowed to handle any but his own cards.

It is not only in those who are congenitally deficient in any of the

senses that the remarkable examples of compensation are seen, but

sometimes late in life these are developed. The celebrated sculptor,

Daniel de Volterre, became blind after he had obtained fame, and

notwithstanding the deprivation of his chief sense he could, by touch

alone, make a statue in clay after a model. Le Cat also mentions a

woman, perfectly deaf, who without any instruction had learned to

comprehend anything said to her by the movements of the lips alone. It

was not necessary to articulate any sound, but only to give the labial

movements. When tried in a foreign language she was at a loss to

understand a single word.

Since the establishment of the modern high standard of blind asylums

and deaf-and-dumb institutions, where so many ingenious methods have

been developed and are practiced in the education of their inmates,

feats which were formerly considered marvelous are within the reach of

all those under tuition To-day, those born deaf-mutes are taught to

speak and to understand by the movements of the lips alone, and the

blind read, become expert workmen, musicians, and even draughtsmen. D.

D. Wood of Philadelphia, although one of the finest organists in the

country, has been totally blind for years. It is said that he acquires

new compositions with almost as great facility as one not afflicted

with his infirmity. "Blind Tom," a semi-idiot and blind negro achieved

world-wide notoriety by his skill upon the piano.

In some extraordinary cases in which both sight and hearing, and

sometimes even taste and smell, are wanting, the individuals in a most

wonderful way have developed the sense of touch to such a degree that

it almost replaces the absent senses. The extent of this compensation

is most beautifully illustrated in the cases of Laura Bridgman and

Helen Keller. No better examples could be found of the compensatory

ability of differentiated organs to replace absent or disabled ones.

Laura Dewey Bridgman was born December 21, 1829, at Hanover, N.H. Her

parents were farmers and healthy people. They were of average height,

regular habits, slender build, and of rather nervous dispositions.

Laura inherited the physical characteristics of her mother. In her

infancy she was subject to convulsions, but at twenty months had

improved, and at this time had learned to speak several words. At the

age of two years, in common with two of the other children of the

family, she had an attack of severe scarlet fever. Her sisters died,

and she only recovered after both eyes and ears had suppurated; taste

and smell were also markedly impaired. Sight in the left eye was

entirely abolished, but she had some sensation for large, bright

objects in the right eye up to her eighth year; after that time she

became totally blind. After her recovery it was two years before she

could sit up all day, and not until she was five years old had she

entirely regained her strength. Hearing being lost, she naturally never

developed any speech; however, she was taught to sew, knit, braid, and

perform several other minor household duties. In 1837 Dr. S. W. Howe,

the Director of the Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, took Laura in

charge, and with her commenced the ordinary deaf-mute education. At

this time she was seven years and ten months old. Two years later she

had made such wonderful progress and shown such ability to learn that,

notwithstanding her infirmities, she surpassed any of the pupils of her

class. Her advancement was particularly noticed immediately after her

realization that an idea could be expressed by a succession of raised

letters. In fact, so rapid was her progress, that it was deemed

advisable by the authorities to hold her back. By her peculiar

sensibility to vibration she could distinguish the difference between a

whole and a half note in music, and she struck the notes on the piano

quite correctly. During the first years of her education she could not

smell at all, but later she could locate the kitchen by this sense.

Taste had developed to such an extent that at this time she could

distinguish the different degrees of acidity. The sense of touch,

however, was exceedingly delicate and acute. As to her moral habits,

cleanliness was the most marked. The slightest dirt or rent in her

clothes caused her much embarrassment and shame, and her sense of

order, neatness, and propriety was remarkable. She seemed quite at home

and enjoyed the society of her own sex, but was uncomfortable and

distant in the society of males. She quickly comprehended the

intellectual capacity of those with whom she was associated, and soon

showed an affiliation for the more intelligent of her friends. She was

quite jealous of any extra attention shown to her fellow scholars,

possibly arising from the fact that she had always been a favorite. She

cried only from grief, and partially ameliorated bodily pain by jumping

and by other excessive muscular movements. Like most mutes, she

articulated a number of noises,--50 or more, all monosyllabic; she

laughed heartily, and was quite noisy in her play. At this time it was

thought that she had been heard to utter the words doctor, pin, ship,

and others. She attached great importance to orientation, and seemed

quite ill at ease in finding her way about when not absolutely sure of

directions. She was always timid in the presence of animals, and by no

persuasion could she be induced to caress a domestic animal. In common

with most maidens, at sixteen she became more sedate, reserved and

thoughtful; at twenty she had finished her education. In 1878 she was

seen by G. Stanley Hall, who found that she located the approach and

departure of people through sensation in her feet, and seemed to have

substituted the cutaneous sense of vibration for that of hearing. At

this time she could distinguish the odors of various fragrant flowers

and had greater susceptibility to taste, particularly to sweet and

salty substances. She had written a journal for ten years, and had also

composed three autobiographic sketches, was the authoress of several

poems, and some remarkably clever letters. She died at the Perkins

Institute, May 24, 1889, after a life of sixty years, burdened with

infirmities such as few ever endure, and which, by her superior

development of the remnants of the original senses left her, she had

overcome in a degree nothing less than marvelous. According to a

well-known observer, in speaking of her mental development, although

she was eccentric she was not defective. She necessarily lacked

certain data of thought, but even this feet was not very marked, and

was almost counterbalanced by her exceptional power of using what

remained.

In the present day there is a girl as remarkable as Laura Bridgman, and

who bids fair to attain even greater fame by her superior development.

This girl, Helen Keller, is both deaf and blind; she has been seen in

all the principal cities of the United States, has been examined by

thousands of persons, and is famous for her victories over infirmities.

On account of her wonderful power of comprehension special efforts have

been made to educate Helen Keller, and for this reason her mind is far

more finely developed than in most girls of her age. It is true that

she has the advantage over Laura Bridgman in having the senses of taste

and smell, both of which she has developed to a most marvelous degree

of acuteness. It is said that by odor alone she is always conscious of

the presence of another person, no matter how noiseless his entrance

into the room in which she may be. She cannot be persuaded to take food

which she dislikes, and is never deceived in the taste. It is, however,

by the means of what might be called "touch-sight" that the most

miraculous of her feats are performed. By placing her hands on the face

of a visitor she is able to detect shades of emotion which the normal

human eye fails to distinguish, or, in the words of one of her lay

observers, "her sense of touch is developed to such an exquisite extent

as to form a better eye for her than are yours or mine for us; and what

is more, she forms judgments of character by this sight." According to

a recent report of a conversation with one of the principals of the

school in which her education is being completed, it is said that since

the girl has been under his care he has been teaching her to sing with

great success. Placing the fingers of her hands on the throat of a

singer, she is able to follow notes covering two octaves with her own

voice, and sings synchronously with her instructor. The only difference

between her voice and that of a normal person is in its resonant

qualities. So acute has this sense become, that by placing her hand

upon the frame of a piano she can distinguish two notes not more than

half a tone apart. Helen is expected to enter the preparatory school

for Radcliffe College in the fall of 1896.

At a meeting of the American Association to Promote the Teaching of

Speech to the Deaf, in Philadelphia, July, 1896, this child appeared,

and in a well-chosen and distinct speech told the interesting story of

her own progress. Miss Sarah Fuller, principal of the Horace Mann

School for the Deaf, Boston, is credited with the history of Helen

Keller, as follows:--

"Helen Keller's home is in Tuscumbia, Ala. At the age of nineteen

months she became deaf, dumb, and blind after convulsions lasting three

days. Up to the age of seven years she had received no instruction. Her

parents engaged Miss Sullivan of the Perkins Institute for the Blind,

South Boston, to go to Alabama as her teacher. She was familiar with

methods of teaching the blind, but knew nothing about instructing deaf

children. Miss Sullivan called upon Miss Fuller for some instruction on

the subject. Miss Fuller was at that time experimenting with two little

deaf girls to make them speak as hearing children do, and called Miss

Sullivan's attention to it. Miss Sullivan left for her charge, and from

time to time made reports to Dr. Anagnos the principal of the Perkins

School, which mentioned the remarkable mind which she found this little

Alabama child possessed. The following year Miss Sullivan brought the

child, then eight years old, to Boston, and Mrs. Keller came with her.

They visited Miss Fuller's school. Miss Sullivan had taught the child

the manual alphabet, and she had obtained much information by means of

it. Miss Fuller noticed how quickly she appreciated the ideas given to

her in that way.

"It is interesting to note that before any attempt had been made to

teach the child to speak or there had been any thought of it, her own

quickness of thought had suggested it to her as she talked by hand

alphabet to Miss Fuller. Her mother, however, did not approve Miss

Fuller's suggestion that an attempt should be made to teach her speech.

She remained at the Perkins School, under Miss Sullivan's charge,

another year, when the matter was brought up again, this time by little

Helen herself, who said she must speak. Miss Sullivan brought her to

Miss Fuller's school one day and she received her first lesson, of

about two hours' length.

"The child's hand was first passed over Miss Fuller's face, mouth, and

neck, then into her mouth, touching the tongue, teeth, lips, and hard

palate, to give her an idea of the organs of speech. Miss Fuller then

arranged her mouth, tongue, and teeth for the sound of i as in it. She

took the child's finger and placed it upon the windpipe so that she

might feel the vibration there, put her finger between her teeth to

show her how wide apart they were, and one finger in the mouth to feel

the tongue, and then sounded the vowel. The child grasped the idea at

once. Her fingers flew to her own mouth and throat, and she produced

the sound so nearly accurate that it sounded like an echo. Next the

sound of ah was made by dropping the jaw a little and letting the child

feel that the tongue was soft and lying in the bed of the jaw with the

teeth more widely separated. She in the same way arranged her own, but

was not so successful as at first, but soon produced the sound

perfectly."

"Eleven such lessons were given, at intervals of three or four days,

until she had acquired all the elements of speech, Miss Sullivan in the

meantime practicing with the child on the lessons received. The first

word spoken was arm, which was at once associated with her arm; this

gave her great delight. She soon learned to pronounce words by herself,

combining the elements she had learned, and used them to communicate

her simple wants. The first connected language she used was a

description she gave Miss Fuller of a visit she had made to Dr. Oliver

Wendell Holmes, in all over 200 words. They were, all but two or three,

pronounced correctly. She now, six years afterward, converses quite

fluently with people who know nothing of the manual alphabet by placing

a couple of fingers on the speaker's lips, her countenance showing

great intentness and brightening as she catches the meaning. Anybody

can understand her answers."

In a beautiful eulogy of Helen Keller in a recent number of Harper's

Magazine, Charles Dudley Warner expresses the opinion that she is the

purest-minded girl of her age in the world.

Edith Thomas, a little inmate of the Perkins Institute for the Blind,

at South Boston, is not only deaf and dumb but also blind. She was a

fellow-pupil with Helen Keller, and in a measure duplicated the rapid

progress of her former playmate. In commenting on progress in learning

to talk the Boston Herald says: "And as the teacher said the word

'Kitty' once or twice she placed the finger-tips of one hand upon the

teacher's lips and with the other hand clasped tightly the teacher's

throat; then, guided by the muscular action of the throat and the

position of the teeth, tongue, and lips, as interpreted by that

marvelous and delicate touch of hers, she said the word 'Kitty' over

and over again distinctly in a very pretty way. She can be called dumb

no longer, and before the summer vacation comes she will have mastered

quite a number of words, and such is her intelligence and patience, in

spite of the loss of three senses, she may yet speak quite readily.

"Her history is very interesting. She was born in Maplewood, and up to

the time of contracting diphtheria and scarlet fever, which occurred

when she was four years old, had been a very healthy child of more than

ordinary quickness and ability. She had attained a greater command of

language than most children of her age. What a contrast between these

'other days,' as she calls them, and the days which followed, when

hearing and sight were completely gone, and gradually the senses of

speech and smell went, too! After the varied instruction of the blind

school the little girl had advanced so far as to make the rest of her

study comparatively easy. The extent of her vocabulary is not

definitely known, but it numbers at least 700 words. Reading, which was

once an irksome task, has become a pleasure to her. Her ideas of

locality and the independence of movement are remarkable, and her

industry and patience are more noticeable from day to day. She has

great ability, and is in every respect a very wonderful child."

According to recent reports, in the vicinity of Rothesay, on the Clyde,

there resides a lady totally deaf and dumb, who, in point of

intelligence, scholarship, and skill in various ways, far excels many

who have all their faculties. Having been educated partly in Paris, she

is a good French scholar, and her general composition is really

wonderful. She has a shorthand system of her own, and when writing

letters, etc., she uses a peculiar machine, somewhat of the nature of a

typewriter.

Among the deaf persons who have acquired fame in literature and the

arts have been Dibil Alkoffay, an Arabian poet of the eighth century;

the tactician, Folard; the German poet, Engelshall; Le Sage; La

Condamine, who composed an epigram on his own infirmity; and Beethoven,

the famous musician. Fernandez, a Spanish painter of the sixteenth

century, was a deaf-mute.

All the world pities the blind, but despite their infirmities many have

achieved the highest glory in every profession. Since Homer there have

been numerous blind poets. Milton lost none of his poetic power after

he had become blind. The Argovienne, Louise Egloff, and Daniel Leopold,

who died in 1753, were blind from infancy. Blacklock, Avisse, Koslov,

and La Mott-Houdart are among other blind poets. Asconius Pedianus, a

grammarian of the first century; Didyme, the celebrated doctor of

Alexandria; the Florentine, Bandolini, so well versed in Latin poetry;

the celebrated Italian grammarian, Pontanus; the German, Griesinger,

who spoke seven languages; the philologist, Grassi, who died in 1831,

and many others have become blind at an age more or less advanced in

their working lives.

Probably the most remarkable of the blind scientists was the

Englishman, Saunderson, who in 1683, in his first year, was deprived of

sight after an attack of small-pox. In spite of his complete blindness

he assiduously studied the sciences, and graduated with honor at the

University of Cambridge in mathematics and optics. His sense of touch

was remarkable. He had a collection of old Roman medals, all of which,

without mistake, he could distinguish by their impressions. He also

seemed to have the ability to judge distance, and was said to have

known how far he had walked, and by the velocity he could even tell the

distance traversed in a vehicle. Among other blind mathematicians was

the Dutchman, Borghes (died in 1652); the French astronomer, the Count

de Pagan, who died in 1655; Galileo; the astronomer, Cassini, and

Berard, who became blind at twenty-three years, and was for a long time

Professor of Mathematics at the College of Briancon.

In the seventeenth century the sculptor, Jean Gonnelli, born in

Tuscany, became blind at twenty years; but in spite of his infirmity he

afterward executed what were regarded as his masterpieces. It is said

that he modeled a portrait of Pope Urban VIII, using as a guide his

hand, passed from time to time over the features. Lomazzo, the Italian

painter of the eighteenth century, is said to have continued his work

after becoming blind.

Several men distinguished for their bravery and ability in the art of

war have been blind. Jean de Troczow, most commonly known by the name

of Ziska, in 1420 lost his one remaining eye, and was afterward known

as the "old blind dog," but, nevertheless, led his troops to many

victories. Froissart beautifully describes the glorious death of the

blind King of Bohemia at the battle of Crecy in 1346. Louis III, King

of Provence; Boleslas III, Duke of Bohemia; Magnus IV, King of Norway,

and Bela II, King of Hungary, were blind. Nathaniel Price, a librarian

of Norwich in the last century, lost his sight in a voyage to America,

which, however, did not interfere in any degree with his duties, for

his books were in as good condition and their location as directly

under his knowledge, during his blindness as they were in his earlier

days. At the present day in New York there is a blind billiard expert

who occasionally gives exhibitions of his prowess.

Feats of Memory.--From time to time there have been individuals,

principally children, who gave wonderful exhibitions of memory, some

for dates, others for names, and some for rapid mental calculation.

Before the Anthropological Society in 1880 Broca exhibited a lad of

eleven, a Piedmontese, named Jacques Inaudi. This boy, with a trick

monkey, had been found earning his livelihood by begging and by solving

mentally in a few minutes the most difficult problems in arithmetic. A

gentleman residing in Marseilles had seen him while soliciting alms

perform most astonishing feats of memory, and brought him to Paris. In

the presence of the Society Broca gave him verbally a task in

multiplication, composed of some trillions to be multiplied by

billions. In the presence of all the members he accomplished his task

in less than ten minutes, and without the aid of pencil and paper,

solving the whole problem mentally. Although not looking intelligent,

and not being able to read or write, he perhaps could surpass any one

in the world in his particular feat. It was stated that he proceeded

from left to right in his calculations, instead of from right to left

in the usual manner. In his personal appearance the only thing

indicative of his wonderful abilities was his high forehead.

An infant prodigy named Oscar Moore was exhibited to the physicians of

Chicago at the Central Music Hall in 1888, and excited considerable

comment at the time. The child was born of mulatto parents at Waco,

Texas, on August 19, 1885, and when only thirteen months old manifested

remarkable mental ability and precocity. S. V. Clevenger, a physician

of Chicago, has described the child as follows:--

"Oscar was born blind and, as frequently occurs in such cases, the

touch-sense compensatingly developed extraordinarily. It was observed

that after touching a person once or twice with his stubby baby

fingers, he could thereafter unfailingly recognize and call by name the

one whose hand he again felt. The optic sense is the only one

defective, for tests reveal that his hearing, taste, and smell are

acute, and the tactile development surpasses in refinement. But his

memory is the most remarkable peculiarity, for when his sister conned

her lessons at home, baby Oscar, less than two years old, would recite

all he heard her read. Unlike some idiot savants, in which category he

is not to be included, who repeat parrot-like what they have once

heard, baby Oscar seems to digest what he hears, and requires at least

more than one repetition of what he is trying to remember, after which

he possesses the information imparted and is able to yield it at once

when questioned. It is not necessary for him to commence at the

beginning, as the possessors of some notable memories were compelled to

do, but he skips about to any required part of his repertoire.

"He sings a number of songs and counts in different languages, but it

is not supposable that he understands every word he utters. If,

however, his understanding develops as it promises to do, he will

become a decided polyglot. He has mastered an appalling array of

statistics, such as the areas in square miles of hundreds of countries,

the population of the world's principal cities, the birthdays of all

the Presidents, the names of all the cities of the United States of

over 10,000 inhabitants, and a lot of mathematical data. He is greatly

attracted by music, and this leads to the expectation that when more

mature he may rival Blind Tom.

"In disposition he is very amiable, but rather grave beyond his years.

He shows great affection for his father, and is as playful and as happy

as the ordinary child. He sleeps soundly, has a good childish appetite,

and appears to be in perfect health. His motions are quick but not

nervous, and are as well coordinated as in a child of ten. In fact, he

impresses one as having the intelligence of a much older child than

three years (now five years), but his height, dentition, and general

appearance indicate the truthfulness of the age assigned. An evidence

of his symmetrical mental development appears in his extreme

inquisitiveness. He wants to understand the meaning of what he is

taught, and some kind of an explanation must be given him for what he

learns. Were his memory alone abnormally great and other faculties

defective, this would hardly be the case; but if so, it cannot at

present be determined.

"His complexion is yellow, with African features, flat nose, thick lips

but not prognathous, superciliary ridges undeveloped, causing the

forehead to protrude a little. His head measures 19 inches in

circumference, on a line with the upper ear-tips, the forehead being

much narrower than the occipitoparietal portion, which is noticeably

very wide. The occiput protrudes backward, causing a forward sweep of

the back of the neck. From the nose-root to the nucha over the head he

measures 13 1/2 inches, and between upper ear-tips across and over the

head 11 inches, which is so close to the eight-and ten-inch standard

that he may be called mesocephalic. The bulging in the vicinity of the

parietal region accords remarkably with speculations upon the location

of the auditory memory in that region, such as those in the American

Naturalist, July, 1888, and the fact that injury of that part of the

brain may cause loss of memory of the meaning of words. It may be that

the premature death of the mother's children has some significance in

connection with Oscar's phenomenal development. There is certainly a

hypernutrition of the parietal brain with atrophy of the optic tract,

both of which conditions could arise from abnormal vascular causes, or

the extra growth of the auditory memory region may have deprived of

nutrition, by pressure, the adjacent optic centers in the occipital

brain. The otherwise normal motion of the eyes indicates the nystagmus

to be functional.

"Sudden exaltation of the memory is often the consequence of grave

brain disease, and in children this symptom is most frequent.

Pritchard, Rush, and other writers upon mental disorders record

interesting instances of remarkable memory-increase before death,

mainly in adults, and during fever and insanity. In simple mania the

memory is often very acute. Romberg tells of a young girl who lost her

sight after an attack of small-pox, but acquired an extraordinary

memory. He calls attention to the fact that the scrofulous and rachitic

diatheses in childhood are sometimes accompanied by this disorder.

Winslow notes that in the incipient state of the brain disease of early

life connected with fevers, disturbed conditions of the cerebral

circulation and vessels, and in affections of advanced life, there is

often witnessed a remarkable exaltation of the memory, which may herald

death by apoplexy.

"Not only has the institution of intelligence in idiots dated from

falls upon the head, but extra mentality has been conferred by such an

event Pritchard tells of three idiot brothers, one of whom, after a

severe head injury, brightened up and became a barrister, while his

brothers remained idiotic. 'Father Mabillon,' says Winslow, 'is said to

have been an idiot until twenty-six years of age, when he fractured his

skull against a stone staircase. He was trepanned. After recovering,

his intellect fully developed itself in a mind endowed with a lively

imagination, an amazing memory, and a zeal for study rarely equaled.'

Such instances can be accounted for by the brain having previously been

poorly nourished by a defective blood supply, which defect was remedied

by the increased circulation afforded by the head-injury.

"It is a commonly known fact that activity of the brain is attended

with a greater head-circulation than when the mind is dull, within

certain limits. Anomalous development of the brain through

blood-vessels, affording an extra nutritive supply to the mental

apparatus, can readily be conceived as occurring before birth, just as

aberrant nutrition elsewhere produces giants from parents of ordinary

size.

"There is but one sense-defect in the child Oscar, his

eyesight-absence, and that is atoned for by his hearing and

touch-acuteness, as it generally is in the blind. Spitzka and others

demonstrate that in such cases other parts of the brain enlarge to

compensate for the atrophic portion which is connected with the

functionless nerves. This, considered with his apparently perfect,

mental and physical health, leaves no reason to suppose that Oscar's

extravagant memory depends upon disease any more than we can suspect

all giants of being sickly, though the anomaly is doubtless due to

pathologic conditions. Of course, there is no predicting what may

develop later in his life, but in any event science will be benefited.

"It is a popular idea that great vigor of memory is often associated

with low-grade intelligence, and cases such as Blind Tom and other

'idiot savants,' who could repeat the contents of a newspaper after a

single reading, justify the supposition. Fearon, on 'Mental Vigor,'

tells of a man who could remember the day that every person had been

buried in the parish for thirty-five years, and could repeat with

unvarying accuracy the name and age of the deceased and the mourners at

the funeral. But he was a complete fool. Out of the line of burials he

had not one idea, could not give an intelligible reply to a single

question, nor be trusted even to feed himself. While memory-development

is thus apparent in some otherwise defective intellects, it has

probably as often or oftener been observed to occur in connection with

full or great intelligence. Edmund Burke, Clarendon, John Locke,

Archbishop Tillotson, and Dr. Johnson were all distinguished for having

great strength of memory. Sir W. Hamilton observed that Grotius,

Pascal, Leibnitz, and Euler were not less celebrated for their

intelligence than for their memory. Ben Jonson could repeat all that

he had written and whole books he had read. Themistocles could call by

name the 20,000 citizens of Athens. Cyrus is said to have known the

name of every soldier in his army. Hortensius, a great Roman orator,

and Seneca had also great memories. Niebuhr, the Danish historian, was

remarkable for his acuteness of memory. Sir James Mackintosh, Dugald

Stewart, and Dr. Gregory had similar reputations.

"Nor does great mental endowment entail physical enfeeblement; for,

with temperance, literary men have reached extreme old age, as in the

cases of Klopstock, Goethe, Chaucer, and the average age attained by

all the signers of the American Declaration of Independence was

sixty-four years, many of them being highly gifted men intellectually.

Thus, in the case of the phenomenal Oscar it cannot be predicted that

he will not develop, as he now promises to do, equal and extraordinary

powers of mind, even though it would be rare in one of his racial

descent, and in the face of the fact that precocity gives no assurance

of adult brightness, for it can be urged that John Stuart Mill read

Greek when four years of age.

"The child is strumous, however, and may die young. His exhibitors, who

are coining him into money, should seek the best medical care for him

and avoid surcharging his memory with rubbish. Proper cultivation of

his special senses, especially the tactile, by competent teachers, will

give Oscar the best chance of developing intellectually and acquiring

an education in the proper sense of the word."

By long custom many men of letters have developed wonderful feats of

memory; and among illiterate persons, by means of points of

association, the power of memory has been little short of marvelous. At

a large hotel in Saratoga there was at one time a negro whose duty was

to take charge of the hats and coats of the guests as they entered the

dining-room and return to each his hat after the meal. It was said

that, without checks or the assistance of the owners, he invariably

returned the right articles to the right persons on request, and no

matter how large the crowd, his limit of memory never seemed to be

reached. Many persons have seen expert players at draughts and chess

who, blindfolded, could carry on numerous games with many competitors

and win most of the matches. To realize what a wonderful feat of memory

this performance is, one need only see the absolute exhaustion of one

of these men after a match. In whist, some experts have been able to

detail the succession of the play of the cards so many hands back that

their competitors had long since forgotten it.

There is reported to be in Johnson County, Missouri, a mathematical

wonder by the name of Rube Fields. At the present day he is between

forty and fifty years of age, and his external appearance indicates

poverty as well as indifference. His temperament is most sluggish; he

rarely speaks unless spoken to, and his replies are erratic.

The boyhood of this strange character was that of an overgrown country

lout with boorish manners and silly mind. He did not and would not go

to school, and he asserts now that if he had done so he "would have

become as big a fool as other people." A shiftless fellow, left to his

own devices, he performed some wonderful feats, and among the many

stories connected with this period of his life is one which describes

how he actually ate up a good-sized patch of sugar cane, simply because

he found it good to his taste.

Yet from this clouded, illiterate mind a wonderful mathematical gift

shines. Just when he began to assert his powers is not known; but his

feats have been remembered for twenty years by his neighbors. A report

says:--

"Give Rube Fields the distance by rail between any two points, and the

dimensions of a car-wheel, and almost as soon as the statement has left

your lips he will tell you the number of revolutions the wheel will

make in traveling over the track. Call four or five or any number of

columns of figures down a page, and when you have reached the bottom he

will announce the sum. Given the number of yards or pounds of articles

and the price, and at once he will return the total cost--and this he

will do all day long, without apparent effort or fatigue.

"A gentleman relates an instance of Fields' knowledge of figures.

After having called several columns of figures for addition, he went

back to the first column, saying that it was wrong, and repeating it,

purposely miscalling the next to the last figure. At once Fields threw

up his hand, exclaiming: 'You didn't call it that way before.'

"Fields' answers come quick and sharp, seemingly by intuition.

Calculations which would require hours to perform are made in less time

than it takes to state the question. The size of the computations seems

to offer no bar to their rapid solution, and answers in which long

lines of figures are reeled off come with perfect ease. In watching the

effort put forth in reaching an answer, there would seem to be some

process going on in the mind, and an incoherent mumbling is often

indulged in, but it is highly probable that Fields does not himself

know how he derives his answers. Certain it is that he is unable to

explain the process, nor has any one ever been able to draw from him

anything concerning it. Almost the only thing he knows about the power

is that he possesses it, and, while he is not altogether averse to

receiving money for his work, he has steadily refused to allow himself

to be exhibited." In reviewing the peculiar endowment of Fields, the

Chicago Record says:--

"How this feat is performed is as much a mystery as the process by

which he solves a problem in arithmetic. He answers no questions. Rapid

mathematicians, men of study, who by intense application and short

methods have become expert, have sought to probe these two mysteries,

but without results. Indeed, the man's intelligence is of so low an

order as to prevent him from aiding those who seek to know. With age,

too, he grows more surly. Of what vast value this 'gift' might be to

the world of science, if coupled with average intelligence, is readily

imagined. That it will ever be understood is unlikely. As it is, the

power staggers belief and makes modern psychology, with its study of

brain-cells, stand aghast. As to poor Fields himself, he excites only

sympathy. Homeless, unkempt, and uncouth, traveling aimlessly on a

journey which he does not understand, he hugs to his heart a marvelous

power, which he declares to be a gift from God. To his weak mind it

lifts him above his fellow-men, and yet it is as useless to the world

as a diamond in a dead man's hand."

Wolf-Children.--It is interesting to know to what degree a human being

will resemble a beast when deprived of the association with man. We

seem to get some insight to this question in the investigation of so

called cases of "wolf-children."

Saxo Grammaticus speaks of a bear that kidnapped a child and kept it a

long time in his den. The tale of the Roman she-wolf is well known, and

may have been something more than a myth, as there have been several

apparently authentic cases reported in which a child has been rescued

from its associations with a wolf who had stolen it some time

previously. Most of the stories of wolf-children come from India.

According to Oswald in Ball's "Jungle Life in India," there is the

following curious account of two children in the Orphanage of Sekandra,

near Agra, who had been discovered among wolves: "A trooper sent by a

native Governor of Chandaur to demand payment of some revenue was

passing along the bank of the river about noon when he saw a large

female wolf leave her den, followed by three whelps and a little boy.

The boy went on all-fours, and when the trooper tried to catch him he

ran as fast as the whelps, and kept up with the old one. They all

entered the den, but were dug out by the people and the boy was

secured. He struggled hard to rush into every hole or gully they came

near. When he saw a grown-up person he became alarmed, but tried to fly

at children and bite them. He rejected cooked meat with disgust, but

delighted in raw flesh and bones, putting them under his paws like a

dog." The other case occurred at Chupra, in the Presidency of Bengal.

In March, 1843, a Hindoo mother went out to help her husband in the

field, and while she was cutting rice her little boy was carried off by

a wolf. About a year afterward a wolf, followed by several cubs and a

strange, ape-like creature, was seen about ten miles from Chupra. After

a lively chase the nondescript was caught and recognized (by the mark

of a burn on his knee) as the Hindoo boy that had disappeared in the

rice-field. This boy would not eat anything but raw flesh, and could

never be taught to speak, but expressed his emotions in an inarticulate

mutter. His elbows and the pans of his knees had become horny from

going on all-fours with his foster mother. In the winter of 1850 this

boy made several attempts to regain his freedom, and in the following

spring he escaped for good and disappeared in the jungle-forest of

Bhangapore.

The Zoologist for March, 1888, reproduced a remarkable pamphlet printed

at Plymouth in 1852, which had been epitomized in the Lancet. This

interesting paper gives an account of wolves nurturing small children

in their dens. Six cases are given of boys who have been rescued from

the maternal care of wolves. In one instance the lad was traced from

the moment of his being carried off by a lurking wolf while his parents

were working in the field, to the time when, after having been

recovered by his mother six years later, he escaped from her into the

jungle. In all these cases certain marked features reappear. In the

first, the boy was very inoffensive, except when teased, and then he

growled surlily. He would eat anything thrown to him, but preferred

meat, which he devoured with canine voracity. He drank a pitcher of

buttermilk at one gulp, and could not be induced to wear clothing even

in the coldest weather. He showed the greatest fondness for bones, and

gnawed them contentedly, after the manner of his adopted parents. This

child had coarse features, a repulsive countenance, was filthy in his

habits, and could not articulate a word.

In another case the child was kidnapped at three and recovered at nine.

He muttered, but could not articulate. As in the other case, he could

not be enticed to wear clothes. From constantly being on all-fours the

front of this child's knees and his elbows had become hardened. In the

third case the father identified a son who had been carried away at the

age of six, and was found four years afterward. The intellectual

deterioration was not so marked. The boy understood signs, and his

hearing was exceedingly acute; when directed by movements of the hands

to assist the cultivators in turning out cattle, he readily

comprehended what was asked of him; yet this lad, whose vulpine career

was so short, could neither talk nor utter any decidedly articulate

sound.

The author of the pamphlet expressed some surprise that there was no

case on record in which a grown man had been found in such association.

This curious collection of cases of wolf-children is attributed to

Colonel Sleeman, a well-known officer, who is known to have been

greatly interested in the subject, and who for a long time resided in

the forests of India. A copy, now a rarity, is in the South Kensington

Museum.

An interesting case of a wolf-child was reported many years ago in

Chambers' Journal. In the Etwah district, near the banks of the river

Jumna, a boy was captured from the wolves. After a time this child was

restored to his parents, who, however, "found him very difficult to

manage, for he was most fractious and troublesome--in fact, just a

caged wild beast. Often during the night for hours together he would

give vent to most unearthly yells and moans, destroying the rest and

irritating the tempers of his neighbors and generally making night

hideous. On one occasion his people chained him by the waist to a tree

on the outskirts of the village. Then a rather curious incident

occurred. It was a bright moonlight night, and two wolf cubs

(undoubtedly those in whose companionship he had been captured),

attracted by his cries while on the prowl, came to him, and were

distinctly seen to gambol around him with as much familiarity and

affection as if they considered him quite one of themselves. They only

left him on the approach of morning, when movement and stir again arose

in the village. This boy did not survive long. He never spoke, nor did

a single ray of human intelligence ever shed its refining light over

his debased features."

Recently a writer in the Badmington Magazine, in speaking of the

authenticity of wolf-children, says:--

"A jemidar told me that when he was a lad he remembered going, with

others, to see a wolf-child which had been netted. Some time after

this, while staying at an up-country place called Shaporeooundie, in

East Bengal, it was my fortune to meet an Anglo-Indian gentleman who

had been in the Indian civil service for upward of thirty years, and

had traveled about during most of that time; from him I learned all I

wanted to know of wolf-children, for he not only knew of several cases,

but had actually seen and examined, near Agra, a child which had been

recovered from the wolves. The story of Romulus and Remus, which all

schoolboys and the vast majority of grown people regard as a myth,

appears in a different light when one studies the question of

wolf-children, and ascertains how it comes to pass that boys are found

living on the very best terms with such treacherous and rapacious

animals as wolves, sleeping with them in their dens, sharing the raw

flesh of deer and kids which the she-wolf provides, and, in fact,

leading in all essentials the actual life of a wolf.

"A young she-wolf has a litter of cubs, and after a time her instinct

tells her that they will require fresh food. She steals out at night in

quest of prey. Soon she espies a weak place in the fence (generally

constructed of thatching grass and bamboos) which encloses the

compound, or 'unguah,' of a poor villager. She enters, doubtless, in

the hope of securing a kid; and while prowling about inside looks into

a hut where a woman and infant are soundly sleeping. In a moment she

has pounced on the child, and is out of reach before its cries can

attract the villagers. Arriving safely at her den under the rocks, she

drops the little one among her cubs. At this critical time the fate of

the child hangs in the balance. Either it will be immediately torn to

pieces and devoured, or in a most wonderful way remain in the cave

unharmed. In the event of escape, the fact may be accounted for in

several ways. Perhaps the cubs are already gorged when the child is

thrown before them, or are being supplied with solid food before their

carnivorous instinct is awakened, so they amuse themselves by simply

licking the sleek, oily body (Hindoo mothers daily rub their boy babies

with some native vegetable oil) of the infant, and thus it lies in the

nest, by degrees getting the odor of the wolf cubs, after which the

mother wolf will not molest it. In a little time the infant begins to

feel the pangs of hunger, and hearing the cubs sucking, soon follows

their example. Now the adoption is complete, all fear of harm to the

child from wolves has gone, and the foster-mother will guard and

protect it as though it were of her own flesh and blood.

"The mode of progression of these children is on all fours--not, as a

rule, on the hands and feet, but on the knees and elbows. The reason

the knees are used is to be accounted for by the fact that, owing to

the great length of the human leg and thigh in proportion to the length

of the arm, the knee would naturally be brought to the ground, and the

instep and top of the toes would be used instead of the sole and heel

of the almost inflexible foot. Why the elbow should be employed instead

of the hand is less easy to understand, but probably it is better

suited to give support to the head and fore-part of the body.

"Some of these poor waifs have been recovered after spending ten or

more years in the fellowship of wolves, and, though wild and savage at

first, have in time become tractable in some degree. They are rarely

seen to stand upright, unless to look around, and they gnaw bones in

the manner of a dog, holding one end between the forearms and hands,

while snarling and snapping at everybody who approaches too near. The

wolf-child has little except his outward form to show that it is a

human being with a soul. It is a fearful and terrible thing, and hard

to understand, that the mere fact of a child's complete isolation from

its own kind should bring it to such a state of absolute degradation.

Of course, they speak no language, though some, in time, have learned

to make known their wants by signs. When first taken they fear the

approach of adults, and, if possible, will slink out of sight; but

should a child of their own size, or smaller, come near, they will

growl, and even snap and bite at it. On the other hand, the close

proximity of "pariah" dogs or jackals is unresented, in some cases

welcomed; for I have heard of them sharing their food with these

animals, and even petting and fondling them. They have in time been

brought to a cooked-meat diet, but would always prefer raw flesh. Some

have been kept alive after being reclaimed for as long as two years,

but for some reason or other they all sicken and die, generally long

before that time. One would think, however, that, having undoubtedly

robust constitutions, they might be saved if treated in a scientific

manner and properly managed."

Rudyard Kipling, possibly inspired by accounts of these wolf-children

in India, has ingeniously constructed an interesting series of fabulous

stories of a child who was brought up by the beasts of the jungles and

taught their habits and their mode of communication. The ingenious way

in which the author has woven the facts together and interspersed them

with his intimate knowledge of animal-life commends his "Jungle-Book"

as a legitimate source of recreation to the scientific observer.

Among observers mentioned in the "Index Catalogue" who have studied

this subject are Giglioli, Mitra, and Ornstein.

The artificial manufacture of "wild men" or "wild boys" in the Chinese

Empire is shown by recent reports. Macgowan says the traders kidnap a

boy and skin him alive bit by bit, transplanting on the denuded

surfaces the hide of a bear or dog. This process is most tedious and is

by no means complete when the hide is completely transplanted, as the

subject must be rendered mute by destruction of the vocal cords, made

to use all fours in walking, and submitted to such degradation as to

completely blight all reason. It is said that the process is so severe

that only one in five survive. A "wild boy" exhibited in Kiangse had

the entire skin of a dog substituted and walked on all fours. It was

found that he had been kidnapped. His proprietor was decapitated on the

spot. Macgowan says that parasitic monsters are manufactured in China

by a similar process of transplantation. He adds that the deprivation

of light for several years renders the child a great curiosity, if in

conjunction its growth is dwarfed by means of food and drugs, and its

vocal apparatus destroyed. A certain priest subjected a kidnapped boy

to this treatment and exhibited him as a sacred deity. Macgowan

mentions that the child looked like wax, as though continually fed on

lardaceous substances. He squatted with his palms together and was a

driveling idiot. The monk was discovered and escaped, but his temple

was razed.

Equilibrists.--Many individuals have cultivated their senses so acutely

that by the eye and particularly by touch they are able to perform

almost incredible feats of maintaining equilibrium under the most

difficult circumstances Professional rope-walkers have been known in

all times. The Greeks had a particular passion for equilibrists, and

called them "neurobates," "oribates," and "staenobates." Blondin would

have been one of the latter. Antique medals showing equilibrists making

the ascent of an inclined cord have been found. The Romans had walkers

both of the slack-rope and tight-rope Many of the Fathers of the Church

have pronounced against the dangers of these exercises. Among others,

St. John Chrysostom speaks of men who execute movements on inclined

ropes at unheard-of heights. In the ruins of Herculaneum there is still

visible a picture representing an equilibrist executing several

different exercises, especially one in which he dances on a rope to the

tune of a double flute, played by himself. The Romans particularly

liked to witness ascensions on inclined ropes, and sometimes these were

attached to the summits of high hills, and while mounting them the

acrobats performed different pantomimes. It is said that under Charles

VI a Genoese acrobat, on the occasion of the arrival of the Queen of

France, carried in each hand an illuminated torch while descending a

rope stretched from the summit of the towers of Notre Dame to a house

on the Pont au Change. According to Guyot-Daubes, a similar performance

was seen in London in 1547. In this instance the rope was attached to

the highest pinnacle of St. Paul's Cathedral. Under Louis XII an

acrobat named Georges Menustre, during a passage of the King through

Macon, executed several performances on a rope stretched from the grand

tower of the Chateau and the clock of the Jacobins, at a height of 156

feet. A similar performance was given at Milan before the French

Ambassadors, and at Venice under the Doges and the Senate on each St.

Mark's Day, rope-walkers performed at high altitudes. In 1649 a man

attempted to traverse the Seine on a rope placed between the Tour de

Nesles and the Tour du Grand-Prevost. The performance, however, was

interrupted by the fall of the mountebank into the Seine. At subsequent

fairs in France other acrobats have appeared. At the commencement of

this century there was a person named Madame Saqui who astonished the

public with her nimbleness and extraordinary skill in rope walking. Her

specialty was military maneuvers. On a cord 20 meters from the ground

she executed all sorts of military pantomimes without assistance,

shooting off pistols, rockets, and various colored fires. Napoleon

awarded her the title of the first acrobat of France. She gave a

performance as late as 1861 at the Hippodrome of Paris.

In 1814 there was a woman called "La Malaga," who, in the presence of

the allied sovereigns at Versailles, made an ascension on a rope 200

feet above the Swiss Lake.

In the present generation probably the most famous of all the

equilibrists was Blondin. This person, whose real name was Emile

Gravelet, acquired a universal reputation; about 1860 he traversed the

Niagara Falls on a cable at an elevation of nearly 200 feet. Blondin

introduced many novelties in his performances. Sometimes he would

carry a man over on his shoulders; again he would eat a meal while on

his wire; cook and eat an omelet, using a table and ordinary cooking

utensils, all of which he kept balanced. In France Blondin was almost

the patron saint of the rope-walkers; and at the present day the

performers imitate his feats, but never with the same grace and

perfection.

In 1882 an acrobat bearing the natural name of Arsens Blondin traversed

one river after another in France on a wire stretched at high

altitudes. With the aid of a balancing-rod he walked the rope

blindfolded; with baskets on his feet; sometimes he wheeled persons

over in a wheelbarrow. He was a man of about thirty, short, but

wonderfully muscled and extremely supple.

It is said that a negro equilibrist named Malcom several times

traversed the Meuse at Sedan on a wire at about a height of 100 feet.

Once while attempting this feat, with his hands and feet shackled with

iron chains, allowing little movement, the support on one side fell,

after the cable had parted, and landed on the spectators, killing a

young girl and wounding many others. Malcom was precipitated into the

river, but with wonderful presence of mind and remarkable strength he

broke his bands and swam to the shore, none the worse for his high

fall; he immediately helped in attention to his wounded spectators. A

close inspection of all the exhibitionists of this class will show that

they are of superior physique and calm courage. They only acquire their

ability after long gymnastic exercise, as well as actual practice on

the rope. Most of these persons used means of balancing themselves,

generally a long and heavy pole; but some used nothing but their

outstretched arms. In 1895, at the Royal Aquarium in London, there was

an individual who slowly mounted a long wire reaching to the top of

this huge structure, and, after having made the ascent, without the aid

of any means of balancing but his arms, slid the whole length of the

wire, landing with enormous velocity into an outstretched net.

The equilibrists mentioned thus far have invariably used a tightly

stretched rope or wire; but there are a number of persons who perform

feats, of course not of such magnitude, on a slack wire, in which they

have to defy not only the force of gravity, but the to-and-fro motion

of the cable as well. It is particularly with the Oriental performers

that we see this exhibition. Some use open parasols, which, with their

Chinese or Japanese costumes, render the performance more picturesque;

while others seem to do equally well without such adjuncts. There have

been performers of this class who play with sharp daggers while

maintaining themselves on thin and swinging wires.

Another class of equilibrists are those who maintain the upright

position resting on their heads with their feet in the air. At the

Hippodrome in Paris some years since there was a man who remained in

this position seven minutes and ate a meal during the interval. There

were two clowns at the Cirque Franconi who duplicated this feat, and

the program called their dinner "Un dejouner en tete-a-tete." Some

other persons perform wonderful feats of a similar nature on an

oscillating trapeze, and many similar performances have been witnessed

by the spectators of our large circuses.

The "human pyramids" are interesting, combining, as they do, wonderful

power of maintaining equilibrium with agility and strength. The

rapidity with which they are formed and are tumbled to pieces is

marvelous they sometimes include as many as 16 persons men, women, and

children.

The exhibitions given by the class of persons commonly designated as

"jugglers" exemplify the perfect control that by continual practice one

may obtain over his various senses and muscles. The most wonderful

feats of dexterity are thus reduced into mere automatic movements.

Either standing, sitting, mounted on a horse, or even on a wire, they

are able to keep three four, five, and even six balls in continual

motion in the air. They use articles of the greatest difference in

specific gravity in the same manner. A juggler called "Kara," appearing

in London and Paris in the summer of 1895, juggled with an open

umbrella, an eye-glass, and a traveling satchel, and received each

after its course in the air with unerring precision. Another man called

"Paul Cinquevalli," well known in this country, does not hesitate to

juggle with lighted lamps or pointed knives. The tricks of the clowns

with their traditional pointed felt hats are well known. Recently

there appeared in Philadelphia a man who received six such hats on his

head, one on top of the other, thrown by his partner from the rear of

the first balcony of the theater. Others will place a number of rings

on their fingers, and with a swift and dexterous movement toss them all

in the air, catching them again all on one finger. Without resorting to

the fabulous method of Columbus, they balance eggs on a table, and in

extraordinary ways defy all the powers of gravity.

In India and China we see the most marvelous of the knife-jugglers.

With unerring skill they keep in motion many pointed knives, always

receiving them at their fall by the handles. They throw their

implements with such precision that one often sees men, who, placing

their partner against a soft board, will stand at some distance and so

pen him in with daggers that he cannot move until some are withdrawn,

marking a silhouette of his form on the board,--yet never once does one

as much as graze the skin. With these same people the foot-jugglers are

most common. These persons, both made and female, will with their feet

juggle substances and articles that it requires several assistants to

raise.