INCOMBUSTIBLE MEN.
There are instances in which it may be fairly said that seeing is not
believing. In the case of a variety of persons who have exhibited
themselves, in different times and countries, as endowed with the natural
power of resistance to fire, the frightful feats displayed serve only to
convince the spectator, that the incombustibility of the exhibitants is
but a skilful effort of legerdemain.
It may be observed that the persons who pretend to this miraculous
faculty, seldom expose themselves to the hazard of the investigations of
the scientific world. For the exhibition of their exploits, they usually
prefer small towns to great cities. In former days, incombustible men
assumed, in Spain, the name of _saludores_; and most of those who have
since exhibited in public their insensibility to fire, are descendants or
imitators of these Spanish mountebanks. The _saludores_, however,
pretended to a power of curing all sorts of diseases by means of their
saliva; whereas, the incombustible individuals who have figured in France
and Germany, pretend only to handle fire with impunity, to swallow boiling
oil, walk upon glowing embers, or even among flames; all which exploits
they accomplish with perfect self-possession. So long as two hundred years
ago, however, the _saludores_ were recognised as impostors. Leonard Vain
relates a story of one of them, who, having pretended to the faculty of
sustaining the heat of a kindled oven, was forced by the populace into
one, without sufficient preparation; on opening which, at the close of an
hour, the man was found to be calcined. A somewhat severe mode of
punishing imposture!
This example, however, did not serve to extinguish the race; and in 1806,
a man who called himself the miraculous Spaniard, opened an exhibition in
Paris, where he renewed all the skilful marvels of his predecessors, by
walking barefooted on red hot iron, drawing heated bars across his arms,
face and tongue, dipping his hands in molten lead, and swallowing, as if
with zest, a glass of boiling oil. This exhibition, to which the idlers of
the French capital resorted, produced a careful examination into the
precedents of antiquity for similar instances of incombustibility.
Some cited the well-known lines of Virgil, with reference to the
exhibitions of the priests of Apollo, on Mount Soracte, where they walked
unhurt, in presence of the worshippers of their divinity, upon burning
embers. Others quoted the equally doubtful authority of Pliny; who relates
the same fact, adding that the privilege of incombustibility was
hereditary in a specific family; a fact the more remarkable, because all
the modern jugglers in this branch of the black art, pretend to descend
from St. Catherine.
Varro, less credulous than Pliny, expressly states that the priests of the
Temple of Soracte possessed the secret of a composition which rendered
them fire-proof.
Long after Varro, Strabo related that the votaries of the goddess Feronia
obtained, as the price of their devotions, the faculty of walking unhurt
over burning piles; and that the exhibition of this miraculous power
before her altars, attracted numerous spectators.
"The worship of the goddess Feronia," says Strabo, "is much in vogue; her
temple being remarkable as the site of a miracle. Those persons whose
prayers the goddess deigns to propitiate, are enabled to defy the most
ardent flames. This miracle is renewed at her annual festival."
It is also related that, not far from the city of Thyane, the birth-place
of Apollonius, there was a celebrated temple dedicated to Diana Persica;
the virgins devoted wherein to the worship of the goddess of Chastity,
possessed the power and privilege of treading unhurt upon burning embers.
A confirmation of these wonders is to be found in Aristotle and Apuleius.
When the visitors of the miraculous Spaniard had satisfied themselves,
that antiquity supplied a variety of examples in substantiation of the
power to which he pretended, modern history was searched for further
attestation; when it appeared that Ambrose Paré and Cardan, depose to
having seen mountebanks so inured to the effects of molten lead and
boiling oil, that they were able to wash their faces and hands, unhurt,
with those terrible materials. Delrio, Delancre, and Bodin, advance many
curious facts of a similar nature.
Had these incombustible individuals existed in the days when trial by
ordeal was still a form of law; or, rather, had the Art of Chemistry
attained at that period the power of hardening the human skin into
resistance of fire, the secret would have been invaluable.
In those barbarous ages, a culprit sentenced to the fiery ordeal of
walking upon heated ploughshares, or plunging his limbs into boiling oil,
was tacitly condemned to death. We may infer, however, that Kings, Queens,
and Dignitaries of the Church were of a less combustible nature than
humbler mortals; for when these were forced to submit to the terrible
ordeal of fire, it was observed that they escaped unsinged; while serfs
and beggars, burnt like tinder: an understanding with the cruel
executioners of these savage laws, being essential to establish the
innocence of an accused person.
It would appear as though a sinister influence had always attached itself
to the ill-fated See of Autun; for one of the first instances on record of
the ordeal of fire being applied to a member of the hierarchy, was that of
Simplicius, Bishop of Autun, who, after submitting to it in his life-time,
was canonized after death. Two later Bishops of Autun--the Abbé Roquette,
said to be the original of the Tartuffe of Molière, and the Prince de
Talleyrand, one of the most remarkable personages of modern times, have
certainly not experienced the same posthumous distinction.
Simplicius, being a married man, when called to the honours of the See of
Autun, repudiated his wife, to whom he was tenderly attached. He was,
nevertheless, accused of retaining her conjugally in his palace after his
promotion to the mitre; in disproof of which, he submitted, and caused his
beloved wife to submit to the fiery ordeal in presence of a vast
congregation; when, both having escaped unhurt, Simplicius was eventually
promoted to the honour of the Calendar.
St. Brie, the successor of St. Martin in the See of Tours, was also
accused of having become a father, to the discredit of his episcopal
functions; a charge he is said to have defeated by bestowing powers of
speech upon the infant, thereby enabling it to name its real father. In
addition to this exculpation, he submitted to the fiery ordeal; and having
gathered up his robe, and filled it with burning embers, proceeded in this
guise to the tomb of his predecessor, St. Martin, without experiencing the
slightest injury. It is not added in the legend, whether the garments of
the Bishop were also uninjured.
One of the most celebrated trials by fire on record, is that of
Thuitberge, wife of Lothaire, King of France. Having been accused of more
than becoming intimacy with the young Prince, her brother, and condemned
to the ordeal, she had the good fortune to find a champion willing to
undertake it in her behalf. These champions or proxies were tantamount to
the special pleaders of the present day, being mostly hired by fee or
reward for the purpose. The champion of Thuitberge managed to establish
her innocence, by plunging his arm without injury into a cauldron of
boiling water; after which, Lothaire was compelled to admit the injustice
of his accusation, and retain her as his wife. Even at that epoch,
however, mistrust had arisen on this score; and certain servitors of the
King openly insinuated the existence of chemical compositions, by the
application of which a man might fortify his flesh against the action of
boiling fluids. Appeal from the decision of an ordeal was, however,
decided to be impossible.
A celebrated Father of the Oratoire, the Père Lebrun, published a recipe
purporting to insure impunity against fire; consisting of equal parts of
alcohol, sulphur, ammonia, essence of rosemary, and onion juice. At the
moment Père Lebrun was devoting himself to experiments on the mysteries of
incombustibles, an English practician, named Richardson, was amazing the
world of science by the performance of prodigies. This person contrived to
walk upon burning embers, to place burning sulphur upon his hand, then
transferring it to his tongue, allow it to consume away without apparent
injury. He also allowed a piece of meat, or an oyster, to be cooked upon
his tongue; the fire for the purpose being kept up in a live coal by a
pair of bellows. He was also able to grasp a red hot bar of iron, and even
seize it between his teeth; to swallow molten glass and a mixture of
burning pitch and sulphur, so that the flames burst from his mouth as from
that of a furnace; just as common mountebanks emit fire from their mouths
by means of a coal wrapt in tow, which has been previously steeped in
spirits of wine.
These experiments attracted so much attention, that scientific men
considered them deserving notice; and in 1677, Dodart, of the French
Academy of Sciences, addressed a letter on the subject to the Journal de
Science, proving that such phenomena might be achieved by time, address,
and perseverance, without the intervention of chemical agency. The
ordinary hardening of the hands and feet by labour and exercise, certainly
induce a belief that perseverance in the same means might be made to
produce absolute callosity.
It is well known, that bakers are remarkable for the muscularity of their
arms and slightness of their legs; while dancers have usually slender arms
and muscular legs. The difference of exercise, necessitated by their
several professions, producing diverse development of limb. On the other
hand, there is no need to compare the sole of the foot of a lady who
seldom goes out, unless in a carriage, or treads on any other material
than luxurious carpets, with that of a peasant who goes bare-footed on the
flinty road, without inconvenience, to be assured that the same degree of
boiling water which could be sustained by the latter without
inconvenience, would blister the delicate epidermis of the former.
Dodart observes that, in the ordinary circumstances of life, some people
are able to swallow their food much hotter than others; and that, as
regards the experiments of Richardson, charcoal loses its heat the moment
it is extinguished, and is easily extinguished by means of the human
saliva. It is a common trick of jugglers to put lighted tapers into their
mouths; and in the attempts made by Richardson to cook a piece of meat
upon his tongue, the slice was made so to envelop the ember, as to secure
his mouth from contact with the fire; while the bellows used during the
process, on pretence of keeping up the flame, were on the contrary,
intended to cool the mouth. As to the mixtures of boiling wax, pitch and
sulphur, Dodart states their temperature to have been such, that he could
hold his finger in them two seconds without pain. It is well known that
the workmen in the foundries are so inured to heat, as to touch, without
injury, metals in a state of fusion; frequently plunging their hands into
molten lead, in order to recover articles of value. Moreover, as regards
any ignited substance placed in the mouth, it naturally becomes
extinguished the moment the lips are reclosed; the gas from the human
lungs tending especially to that purpose.
About the year 1774, there lived at the foundry of Laune, a man who could
walk unharmed over bars of red-hot iron, and hold burning coals in his
hands. The skin of this man was observed to emit a sort of unctuous
transpiration, which served as his preservative.
These facts suffice to prove that the miraculous Spaniard, who affected
preternatural incombustibility, had no need of magic for the working of
his wonders. For another case, equally remarkable, we are indebted to
Sementini, an eminent Professor of Chemistry at Naples.
A Sicilian, named Lionetti, came to that city for the purpose of
exhibiting feats of incombustibility; and soon excited public astonishment
by his power of drawing a red-hot plate of iron over his hair without
singeing it, on which he afterwards stamped with his naked feet. He also
drew rods of red-hot iron through his mouth, swallowed boiling oil, dipped
his fingers in molten lead, and dropped some on his tongue. He fearlessly
exposed his face to the flames of burning oil; poured sulphuric or
muriatic acid upon lighted embers, and imbibed the fumes; ending by
allowing a thick gold pin to be thrust deep into his flesh.
The Neapolitans were as much enchanted by the feats of Lionetti as the
Parisian with those of the incombustible Spaniard. But at Naples,
Sementini, who was on the watch, perceived that, at the moment the
fire-proof man applied the heated materials to his skin, there escaped a
whitish vapour. Instead of swallowing a glass of boiling oil, according to
his announcement, he introduced only a quarter of a spoonful into his
mouth, and a few drops of molten lead upon his tongue, which was covered
with a white fur, like the secretion perceptible in cases of fever. When
he took the hot iron between his teeth, symptoms of suppressed pain were
perceptible; and the edges of his teeth were evidently charred by previous
performances of a similar description. From these appearances, Sementini
inferred that Lionetti made use of certain preparations which secured him
against the influence of heat, by hardening the epidermis; and that his
skin having become callous from use, was in itself able to resist, to a
certain degree, the action of fire. These conclusions, which concur with
those made by Dodart, in the case of Richardson, were verified by personal
observation and careful experiment.
After many fruitless attempts to discover the chemical agents used by the
Incombustibles, the persevering Sementini found that by frequent frictions
of sulphuric acid, he was able to inure his flesh to the contact of
red-hot iron; and we are bound to admire the patience and courage of those
who, for the benefit of scientific discovery, attempt experiments of so
powerful and perilous a nature. To have exposed a fallacy in matters of
science, is equal to the discovery of a fact; and the extirpation of a
single error or false conclusion from the popular mind, is an act
deserving of gratitude.
Sementini found that by bathing the parts thus deprived of their usual
sensitiveness with a solution of alum, their former sensibility to heat
was restored; and one day, happening to smear with soap the parts he had
re-softened in this manner with alum, he found, to his great surprise,
that they became hardened anew against the action of heat. The
experimentalist instantly applied to his tongue a preparation of soap, and
found that it enabled him to defy the contact of iron heated to a white
heat. To neutralize the faculty thus acquired, he had only to sprinkle his
tongue with sugar; a new application of soap serving at any moment to
render it fire-proof.
By these experiments, in various countries, the pretension to a
supernatural power of incombustibility has been reduced to its true level.
The Priests of Soracte, the Virgins of Diana, the Champion of Queen
Thuitberge, and the Bishop of Autun, were doubtless adepts in the art of
the miraculous Spaniard; and according to the recipe of Sementini, a man
may be enabled to defy the element of fire as successfully as an expert
swimmer overmasters that of water, or an experienced aëronaut of air.